James

James

* Current
* Debut

Background information

**First episode**
"Stepney's Problem"

Character information

**Full name**
* James the Red Engine
* James the Really Splendid Engine
* James the Funny Engine

**Age**
Unknown (*Engine*)

**Home**
Island of SodorEngland (*formerly*)

**Friends**
* Edward
* Toby
* Duck
* Rosie
* Henry
* Gordon
* Thomas
* Percy
* Emily
* Nia
* Rebecca

**Quote**
"You've made the most troublesome trucks on the line behave. After that performance, you deserve to keep your red coat."

**James** is a red mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the North Western Railway and is the railway's number 5 engine.
He primarily works on the Main Line, pulling both passenger and goods trains.

Personality
James is very proud of his splendid red paintwork. He dislikes pulling trucks (though not to the extent that Gordon does) and is so narcissistic that he thinks himself superior to the others and can be shallow, boastful, overconfident, arrogant, cocky, prideful, naughty and vain, particularly to those who appear old-fashioned, weak, slow or dirty. This has caused him to have somewhat of a rivalry with Edward, Percy, Toby and Duck, as well as Thomas, Gordon, Henry and even Philip lately on occasion. His vanity reached the point that he tried to block Edward from a photographer's view when Edward was having his picture taken and when he tried to get his work done quick so he can take the present train. In most cases, it takes scolding from others to make his penny drop, and even then it is too late to prevent trouble. He has acted like this even before he was repainted red. However, on a number of occasions, he has found himself in need of help from those whom he has insulted and is, in the end, apologetic.
James was the last of the steam engines to retain a prejudice against diesels, insulting them the same way other visiting diesels would insult the steam engines on Sodor, with BoCo and Bear barely being spared from his opinionated view. However, after stalling on a cold day, he was rescued by the Works Diesel and had to admit that nothing was wrong with diesels. This appears to be one of the few lessons that have stuck. Despite this, James can remain highly opinionated on someone's character, refusing to believe Sonny had given up life as a criminal, only to find out the hard way that when Sonny bumped him at the docks to save him from being splattered and dented by watermelons. In similar situations, James often feels remorse and guilt for his actions, often leading to his apologies coming out meekly.
James can also be somewhat and has been portrayed as a prankster at times, often tricking or scaring the other engines for fun or to get out of jobs he dislikes doing. However, following a particularly mean-spirited prank he played on Percy in the time he scared with a monster made of scrap, this gimmick seems to have died down. As of the meeting videos, he has been labelled as the "Joker" of the Steam Team by Thomas.
Despite all of that, James has shown a caring side to him. He has a heart of gold and wants to help anyone in a time of need. He is normally hard-working and, like everyone else, wants to be responsible, reliable and really useful on the Fat Controller's railway. Although his vanity usually hides it, James is capable of realizing when he crosses the line, and quietly mourns for himself and others once it occurs after an accident of his causing.
Of the three big engines, James is the most likely to criticize when he does not like something, though beyond this, his role in the trio between Gordon, Henry and himself is unknown.

Technical Details
Basis
James is based on a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) Class 28, a class of 0-6-0 mixed-traffic tender locomotive designed by George Hughes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and built by Horwich Works between 1909 and 1912. Many were rebuilds of Aspinall's Class 27, with the addition of a Belpaire firebox, a Schmidt/ "Top & Bottom"/"twin-plug" superheater and the extension of the footplate and front sandboxes. One Class 27, 52322, survives and is operational at the Ribble Steam Railway.
James is an experimental member of the Class 28s; he is fitted with a front pony truck (thus making him a 2-6-0 instead of an 0-6-0) and has a Fowler tender. His front sandboxes also appear to be mounted underneath his footplate rather than joined to his leading splashers.

James' basis
Livery
James is painted in scarlet red with black lining and yellow cab window frames. He has gold boiler bands and a brass dome. His number (5) is painted on his tender in yellow with a black outline. He has a white running board with red bufferbeams and valences.
James has also been seen in several other liveries aside from his red one:
* In *The Adventure Begins*, James is shown to be painted black with red lining and boiler bands when he is new to Sodor. He also had red lining on the back of his tender, which was removed after his repaint. This livery also appears in *Meet James* - albeit with gold boiler bands instead of red - as part of a reference to the episode.
* In *The Green Controller*, James was mistakenly painted in yellow and black stripes on Percy's orders. He was quickly repainted back into his original livery when the problem was noticed.
* In *Tickled Pink*, James was painted in a pink undercoat before his standard red coat could be applied. Although he was said to be in an undercoat, James still retained his lining, number and black wheels and smokebox. This livery also appears in *Meet James* as part of a reference to the episode.
* In *The Great Race*, James was painted in golden floral patterns for the Great Railway Show. He was painted back into his original livery when he returned to Sodor.
* In *An Engine of Many Colours*, after hearing Kevin mention the Steamworks did not have any red paint, James dreamed he was painted in many different liveries including blue, green and silver and many more on a turntable near the last dream's final scenes. By the end of the episode, he was repainted in his standard red livery.

Appearances
Television Series* **Season 1** - Stepney's Problem, A Scottish Tale, Toby and the New Engine, Wilbert to the Rescue, Wilbert and Tiger Moth, Frank and the Trucks (cameo), Gordon Plays a Trick and Murdoch and the Express (cameo)
* **Season 2** - James' Tender Trouble, A Flying Surprise (cameo), Jealous James, Old Slow Coach (cameo), The Flying Scotsman Returns (does not speak), Save Sir Topham Hatt, Thomas Helps a Friend, The Daring Duel and The Flying Scotsman Departs
* **Season 3** - Hideous Henry, George the Steamroller (cameo), Rusty Rocks the Railway, New Engine Fever (does not speak), Toby's New Cowcatchers, Mike's Ice Cream Party, Clumsy Culdee, S.C. Ruffey and the Foolish Freight Cars (cameo), Trouble on the Track, Donald Visits the Scrapyard and Frank and Fred the Orange Coal Car (does not speak)
* **Season 4** - All For One and One For James, Catherine's Story (cameo), Rosie's Wild Ride and Naughty Engines
* **Season 5** - The Express Turkey, Lorry's Challenge, Boastful Billy, A Windy Day For BoCo, Edward the Unreliable Engine (does not speak), Daisy's Big Disaster, New Heights for Harold (cameo) and Snow Can't Stop Us
* **Season 6** - Gordon's Flying Kipper, Boulder's Express Route, An Old Friend Returns, Little Engines, Big Help (does not speak), Trucks Galore! (cameo), Rollover Rusty (brief cameo), Listen to Gordon and An Opportunity of a Lifetime (cameo)
* **Season 7** - Neville the Newcomer and Molly's Folly
* **Season 8** - Bulstrode and the Fisherman, Mercy for Percy, Tick-Tock-Jock, The New Controller and Fire at the Sheds
* **Season 9** - Hankenstein, Tender Bender, Harvey's Second Chance and Paxton's Gains and Pains
* **Season 10** - Bee Yourself, James, Coal Crisis (cameo), Norman Invasion and Groundhog Gordon
* **Season 11** - Fergus' Day Off (cameo), Around the Railyard in 64 Seconds (cameo), Big City Rumor, Station Situation, Spencer Goes Too Far, Holly Jolly Molly, Old Square Wheels, Wooden Brakes (mentioned) and BoCo and the Cocoa (mentioned)
* **Season 12** - Greetings, Montague!, Scottish Blues (cameo), The Importance of Being Billy (cameo), Truckus Ruckus, Gordon's Last Hurrah, Henry's Handcar Havoc, If The Dome Fits, Bulgy Takes the High Road, The Mystery Train, Sidney the Renegade and Vicarstown Takedown
* **Season 13** - Duck and the Quack Attack, Victor's Loco Motives, Oliver's Fossil Fright (cameo), Who Stole The Coal?, Hector and Logan's Hot Pursuit (cameo) and How Gator Stole Christmas (cameo)
* **Season 14** - Millie's Castle Hassle (cameo), Double-Decker-Wrecker (cameo), Hiro and the Heat Wave, James in a Jam, S.C.Ruffey's Sweet Tooth (mentioned) and Hatt Trick (does not speak)
* **Season 15** - Roundhouse Roulette, The Maron Station Makeover, Nightmare on Sodor (fantasy), Polar Express Coming Through! and The Island of Misfit Engines
* **Season 16** - Henry's Hill (cameo), Marion Had a Little Lamb (cameo), Painting the Rosie's Red, Bowler Strikes Again, Paxman Pulls Through, Ace in the Hole (cameo) and Finding Lorry
* **Season 17** - Unidentified Flying Scotsman, Tender Love and Care, Bold Slow Coach, Big Trouble on the Little Western, Oliver Confusion (cameo), Diesel Gets the Bronze, James and the Giant Screech, Thomas' Crown Affair (cameo), Rocked by a Hurricane (cameo), and Para-Norman Activity
* **Season 18** - Santa Claws and Steam Team Dream (fantasy)

Specials* The Strange Case of Splatter and Dodge
* Sodor's Last Stand
* Claw of the Law
* Oliver's Eleven
* Saving Pirate Ryan

Trivia* James is one of the two engines to be called a red nosed engine. The other being Thomas.
* Michael Angelis gives James a Liverpudlian accent in the UK version of the live-action model era, but when the show switched from live-action to CGI animation, he gains a Cockney Londoner accent given by Keith Wickham and Rob Rackstraw. In the US dub, he consistently has an American accent, with the exceptions of Ringo Starr's US narrations for the first two seasons, the US narration of Gordon and Spencer done by Michael Angelis where he has his iconic Liverpudlian accent, and in both dubs of The Great Discovery where Pierce Brosnan gave both him and Gordon much more upper class voices.
* James's catchphrase "Here's James!" seems to be a reference to Jack Torrance's catchphrase "Here's Johnny!" which is heard in the famous 1980 horror film *The Shining*.
* James' whistle is a synth version of Edward's whistle. A synth is a combination of two sounds to make a harmony. James' whistle is made up of Edwards whistle 1 pitch lower combined with a 7 pitch lower version.
* In the first series, James was formally introduced in *Thomas and the Breakdown Train*, which was said to have been his first day on the railway. However, he had appeared in every prior episode as a background character. This may have been done to populate the sets, similar to how the Märklin Engine was used in later episodes.
* A large scale working replica of James was built by BBC Visual Effects for a tour in 2003, along with Thomas, Percy, Harold and Jack. The battery-powered locomotive is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of Records as the largest model railway engine ever built, at 2.64 x 1.5 x 6.52 metres.
* James has been shown to be quite popular among several people who worked on the series:
	+ Andrew Brenner has said in an interview that James is one of his favourite characters, along with Toby, Bill and Ben.
	+ Mara Wilson stated on Twitter that James was her favourite character.
	+ Sam Barlow has said in an interview that James is one of his favourite characters, along with Gordon, Victor and Kevin.
* In *Toby's New Whistle*, James revealed that he once had a three-chime steam whistle.
* Out of every character in the television series, James has had the most different liveries.
* From 2017-onwards, James is the only male member of the Steam Team - both original and new - to have the same voice actor in both English language dubs.
* In some international dubs, James' name was changed:
	+ In the French dub of the model series, James was known as *Jacques*.
	+ On early Spanish translations of the Random House books, James was known as *Jaime*.
* James' Wooden Railway, Wood, Plarail, Motor Road and Rail, Tomy and TrackMaster toys omit his pilot wheels, making him an 0-6-0 instead of a 2-6-0, much like the real members of his class.
* James is the only 2-6-0 (mogul) locomotive in the television series to be named and seen.
* Three of James' Wooden Railway toys (the original, lights and sounds and Team Colours variants) were among the toys that were part of the Lead Paint Crisis in 2005.