Toby

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**Toby** is a brown square tram engine who works on Thomas' Branch Line with his coach Henrietta, and is number 7. Toby is wise and always willing to share his experience and knowledge with the other engines. He is careful with every job he undertakes, causing him to rarely have any accidents.

In *The Railway Series*, Toby and Henrietta are accompanied by a coach named Victoria and a luggage van named Elsie.

Toby's main duties are taking workmen to and from the quarry as well as taking stone and slate from there to the harbour alongside Percy. He also does mixed traffic duties, both on the branch line and main line.

## History

### The Railway Series

Toby was built by James Holden at the Great Eastern Railway's Stratford Works in Stratford, London, England circa 1914. He originally lived at a harbour in East Anglia with his brothers. Sometime between 1945 and 1946 Toby was chosen to be an attraction at a seaside village's festival and was repainted and polished for the event. However, after helping their branch line's engine and seeing how smart he looked, the branch line was afraid that he would show them up and did not let him join in the festival. After that he worked on an unnamed tramway in East Anglia. In 1951, Toby came to work at the quarry on Thomas' Branch Line after his tramway closed, as it was found to be illegal for Thomas to go on the Quarry Tramroad without side plates or cowcatchers. At first, Toby was teased by James for his shabby paint. However, James stopped teasing him after he crashed into some tar tankers.

Toby also got into a bit of trouble with a diesel shunter named Mavis, as she was unwilling to shunt trucks where they needed to be placed. After an accident, the two engines made up their quarrel and became good friends.

When Mavis was sent to the works after her accident with a lorry, Toby did her work at the quarry, leaving Percy to do Toby's work as well as his own. Toby once came off the rails at a crossing when the earth was swollen over the rails and ended up on the road. Luckily, with the fireman guiding the driver, they managed to reverse Toby back on the rails. the Fat Controller, however, heard about it, but rather than being cross, he only joked with him and told him that he should leave the roads to what they were made for.

By 2007, Toby was having trouble taking the workmen to the quarry as Henrietta did not have enough room in her to carry them all at once. Bertie usually helped, but one day, he was ill and Henrietta was so full that some workmen even had to ride on her balcony. As he went past a part of his line that went through a town, he stopped quickly when a car came out of a side street and nearly collided with him. To make matters worse, a policeman witnessed the workmen riding on Henrietta's balcony. After he made a report, an inspector spoke to the quarry manager, telling him that passengers were not allowed to ride on coach balconies. Luckily, Thomas managed to help Toby when he found an old and worn out coach named Victoria, who was used as a summer house for many years when she was taken out of service. Victoria was eventually restored and now works with Toby and Henrietta along their line.

### Thomas & Friends

When the Horrid Lorries arrived on the Island, Toby found his work at the quarry being taken over by Lorry 2 and his work at the mill being taken over by Lorry 3. When the two lorries became damaged and sent back to the docks, Toby threw Lorry 2's remarks about usefulness back at him.

After many weeks of rain, Toby inspected a dam for potential damage due to rising floodwaters along his branch line. While crossing the dam, Toby found that it was breaking and tried to return to safety, but the dam collapsed just as Toby was crossing a wooden bridge, which broke off and carried Toby toward a waterfall. Harold managed to drop one end of a rope to Toby and the other end to Percy, who pulled Toby to safety. Afterwards, a party was held for Toby and the Fat Controller praised Toby's bravery.

While taking his grandchildren to the seaside, the Fat Controller decided to go with Toby for an exploration in search of a castle, which they found as well as a mine. Toby was scared of the mine's spooky atmosphere believing it was haunted and stayed on guard at night during its restoration. Thomas told Toby about the Old Warrior Ghost, who was really a narrow gauge engine named Bertram. After this, the two engines became good friends and now take visitors to and from the castle and mine. Toby once took the Fat Controller's family on vacation again, this time to a small river inlet.

Toby has had several winter escapades; thick fog once concealed Thomas' crash site from Toby's view and the foghorn had been damaged from the landslide Thomas had crashed into. Luckily for them, Cyril the Fogman managed to place a detonator on the rails to warn Toby just in time. During the holidays, Toby was unable to clear the snowdrifts by himself, so he needed Thomas' help to deliver a Christmas tree to the festivities on his branch line. During one harsh winter, Toby had to rescue Farmer McColl's lambs that were trapped on a hillside.

Toby sometimes thinks he is too old and that he is not a proper engine, like when Gordon called him a "slowcoach" when climbing up Gordon's Hill or when he thought he would be put on display in a museum.

Toby was given a temporary three-chime whistle while his bell was being cleaned at the Steamworks. It helped with warning Thomas and Gordon that the tracks were blocked. He once was scared of Knapford Junction.

Toby once ran out of coal while delivering scrap to Wellsworth Scrap Yard and after a few unsuccessful attempts at stopping passing engines to ask for some of their coal, Reg decided to lift Toby into the air so that the next engine would see him. However, Thomas passed by and thought Reg was about to scrap Toby. After the story spread across the island, Emily took Henrietta to the scrapyard so that Toby could explain the truth.

It was not long after Philip's arrival that Toby met him for the first time and was rather taken aback by the boxcab's talkative nature. Philip tried to talk Toby into racing with him, but the tram engine was reluctant, leading to Philip believing he Toby did not like him. However, after Toby told him that he simply prefers peace and quiet, the two became good friends after all. In the autumn, Toby became on edge when Percy told him and Thomas about a sound he heard under the watermill bridge and sent the trio into a panic when he reminded them that in a story, the little goat survived by going across the bridge first and telling the troll to eat his bigger brother. The three soon discovered that the sound was only coming from a cow.

After Toby took Henrietta to the Steamworks to get her seats refurbished, he was given a replacement carriage named Hannah. However, Toby did not like Hannah as she ordered him to go faster than what was safe and nearly made him derail. He soon became fed up and abandoned her on a siding, only for her to be picked up by James. However, Hannah broke away and crashed, so Toby took her to the Steamworks to be mended, where he learned that Hannah and Henrietta were really sisters. Toby reunited with Henrietta and began working with her once again.

Temporarily, he took over Stephen's job while he was at the Steamworks, but was ridiculed by his passengers. He later changed their minds when he stopped the theft of King Godred's crown.

One morning on the way to the quarry, the Rickety Old Bridge finally collapsed after Toby and Henrietta crossed it. When they tried to return home that evening, they learned of this, and Ruth was called in to find a solution. She ended up designing a mechanism that could carry a single engine and coach from one end of the chasm to the other, dubbing it the "Walking Bridge."

## Personality

Toby is old, but wise, hardworking and knowledgeable enough about running branch lines to justify running Thomas' line with Daisy after Percy's accident with the trucks until Thomas came back. He is also savvy enough to control the trucks. However, his advanced age and design means that he is weaker than the other engines. While Toby is always ready to work hard without any fuss, he can be a bit temperamental sometimes, especially when young and inexperienced engines who are full of themselves make things difficult for him, particularly Mavis and Daisy. However, work at the quarry line often soothes off his moods without any cause of grief to anyone, except of course his old faithful coach, Henrietta.

From the eighth series onwards, Toby occasionally suffered insecurity and questioning the capabilities of his own work and having senses of uncertainties. But Toby can usually be more cheerful and friendly, as well as having subtle shades of nervousness on top of being placid and easy-going, enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside along Thomas' branch line. He even enjoys listening to the birds in the birdhouse next to his shed and is friends with the pigs at Farmer Trotter's Pig Farm. Although usually nervous and timid at times, and occasionally complaining in bad working conditions, Toby usually maintains a healthy sense of humor, and is not above laughing at juvenile level antics (notably, when making fun of Sir Topham Hatt's white safari hat).

Toby's wise and knowledgeable side was still sometimes shown such as when he told Emily that she needs to be clever in order to be a queen and laughs at her, and when he told her how to get help after him, Percy, and Mavis got into an accident. Toby was also shown to be wise when he helped Den out when it came to dealing with troublesome trucks and when it came to being brave and stopping the thieves from stealing the crown.

## Livery

In *The Railway Series*, Toby was painted brown with black cowcatchers and side plates and his company's initials (LNER) painted on his side plates in yellow before working on his tramway, where he was repainted grey-brown with grey cowcatchers and side plates. After helping James from an accident, he was repainted chocolate-brown with olive frames, beige trims and blue side plates.

In the television series, Toby has always been brown with grey side plates and cowcatchers. His number (7) is painted on his sides in yellow with red lining. Throughout the first to fifth series, Toby's wheels were painted red. Starting from the sixth series, they were painted black.

In some illustrations of *The Railway Series*, Toby has a golden builder's plate on the side of his cab.

In various books released by Publications International, the top side of his side plates are painted red, going along with his buffer beams. In *The Railway Series*, Toby has silver buffers, while in the television series they are black.

## Appearances

* Season 1 - Ask Cranky Day
* Season 2 - Saving Bulstrode, Famous Little Engine (*cameo*), and New Glasses for Whiff (*cameo*)
* Specials - Attack of the Philips

## Trivia

* Toby is one of the few engines to have a place/location named after them. The others being Henry, Gordon, Neville, Culdee, Rheneas, Diesel 10 and Whiff.
* In the fifth series episode, "*Baa!*", Toby revealed that his favourite station is Maithwaite.
* Toby was confused for being electric by Bridget Hatt in the first series episode, "*Toby and the Stout Gentleman*" and for being a diesel boxcab by Philip in the twentieth series episode, "*Toby's New Friend*."
* Rob Rackstraw gives Toby a West Country accent in the UK dub.
* Even though he has six wheels, some merchandise of him has four.
* Toby's Wooden Railway models do not have funnels, panels, bells and red buffer beams, but his final Wood model does (excluding his funnel on his prototype and his roof is facing the wrong way).
* In the arcade game "*Magical Truck Adventure*" by SEGA, two J70 tram engines were seen at the first level and another was seen in an ending cutscene, each with a number 7, bearing a strong resemblance to Toby.
* Toby is one of only ten characters to appear in every series of the television series and one of only eight to speak in each one. However, he has not appeared in every special.
* He was the only member of the Steam Team who never got a berth at Tidmouth Sheds.
* Toby was the namesake of the Talyllyn Railway's inspection trolley, which later inspired Ivo's Flying Bedstead.
* Toby was supposed to appear in the seventh series episode, "*Emily's New Coaches*", but was dropped and replaced with Oliver for unknown reasons.