Edward

**Edward** is a blue mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the North Western Railway and is the railway's number 2 engine. He runs his own branch line with BoCo, which travels from Wellsworth to Brendam, and is the oldest standard gauge engine on Sodor.

## Edward The Blue Engine

### Aliases

* Eddie (By Himself)
* Steady Eddie (By Himself, Henry and Toby)

## Personal Status

### Likes

* The Steam Team
* Gordon
* Henry
* Teaching Other Engines How Things Should Be Done
* The Countryside

### Dislikes

* Immediate Judgement Of Others
* Being Belittled

## Appearances And Media

### English Voice Actor

* Leland Nitzel
* TBA (Standing For Sodor)

### Music Theme

* Edward's Theme (Season 2)
* Edward's Theme (Season 8)
* Togetherness (Shared With Henry)

## Biography

Edward was one of the first engines on the North Western Railway, and has worked on the railway the longest. When Edward first came to Sodor, he would give a young Sir Topham Hatt a ride in an old coach on his birthday. This tradition would continue every year.

By the beginning of the series, Edward was confined to Tidmouth Sheds, to the delight of the other engines, who claimed that he was too old and weak to work. Edward was eventually let out again and proved that what he lacked in strength, he made up for in work by pushing a stubborn Gordon and his heavy goods train up Gordon's Hill.

When Thomas was fed up with fetching coaches for the big engines, Edward offered Thomas to take his trucks. However, Thomas, having no experience with trucks, was pushed down the hill and diverted into a siding. Later, Edward helped James double-head a passenger train when the splendid red engine was acting out.

For some time afterwards, Edward was getting so old that his parts caused him to clank as he went along, which led to the bigger engines teasing him about his age. Gordon and Henry teased him about when a group of cows caused half of his cattle trucks to break away and derail, but later got their comeuppance when they encountered a cow named Bluebell on a bridge. Later on, Edward saved an old traction engine named Trevor from scrap when he encouraged the Vicar of Wellsworth to buy him.

That same year, James would still talk down to Edward's age and how slow he is. But after he was left running down the Main Line without a driver thanks to two naughty boys who played with his controls, Edward proved himself to be a hero when he brought the inspector and James' fireman to slow him down. James could not thank Edward enough for his heroic actions and the Fat Controller sent Edward to the works to have his worn parts mended as a reward. When Edward came back, everyone was very pleased to see him again.

In 1948, Edward received his own branch line and had two twin tank engines named Bill and Ben help take trucks from the Sodor China Clay Company to Brendam Docks along his line. When the twins were playing tricks on a new diesel named BoCo, Edward put a stop to it and showed BoCo how to handle them. Soon, Edward and Gordon were both talking about branch lines, most to the disapproval of Gordon. That night there was a mishap at Tidmouth, which in favour, Edward's train went first which sent him down the mainline (this was caused when the signalman at Wellsworth was not informed of the delay) and Gordon went down to Brendam.

Some few evenings later, when Edward was taking a passenger train filled with enthusiasts home to Tidmouth, his crank-pin snapped, damaging the wheel splasher and running plate on his left side, forcing the driver and fireman to take off his side rods. However, Edward was able to pull the heavy train back to Tidmouth, very late, but with triumph. BoCo looked after Edward's branch line while Edward was sent to the works again for repairs.

When Trevor was to be the main star attraction for the Vicar's garden party, Edward wanted to help but did not know how. His chance came when the Vicar forgot to promote the party by putting up the posters, so he suggested having them put up on his cab and coaches as part of the party's advertisement. His plan worked and so many people came to the party that they raised a lot of money for the children. The Vicar later thanked Edward and his crew for their idea.

Edward has a penchant for telling spooky stories on Halloween that the other engines enjoy. In the fifth series episode Haunted Henry, Edward told Henry that whenever an owl hoots, mist rolls in and when the mist is about, there is a ghost about too. In the sixth series episode Scaredy Engines, he told them a story of a ghost engine that returns to the smelters in search of his lost whistle every Halloween.

In addition to running his branch line, Edward often acts as a banker for other engines up Gordon's Hill to help them when their trains are too heavy. In spite of Edward's great history with the railway and his good relationship with the other engines, his old age makes some engines think that he is unreliable. Gordon would sometimes still tease and talk down about him, even going as far as suggesting that he should "retire". When Percy told his driver about this, who told Sir Topham Hatt, he arranged for Edward to show Stepney how to run the loop line, while Duck did his work. Unfortunately, Duck got stuck on Gordon's Hill when the Troublesome Trucks held him back. When Gordon came behind him, he could not push Duck up the hill. Edward was sent to help the double train up and when they arrived at Knapford Station, the Fat Controller rebuked Gordon for his horrible comments about Edward. Gordon apologised to Edward the following day and from then on, he never suggested him "retiring".

Since then, Edward's skill as a banker is always valued among Gordon and the others, as seen in Edward the Great and You Can Do it, Toby!; in Chickens to School, Edward exclaimed, "I'm always helping Gordon up the hill!" However, his speed left a lot to be desired. In As Good as Gordon, Emily had to wait for Edward at the crossing. Impatient, Emily snidely told him to hurry up, calling him "Slowcoach". When Spencer visited the Island of Sodor and beat Gordon's record, he insulted the Sudrian engines, who became fed up with Spencer's boastfulness. They wanted to race Spencer to The Duke and Duchess of Boxford's Summer House, but the Fat Controller chose Edward to go there instead. Gordon thought that Edward should not do an express engine's job and James thought that Edward would let the whole railway down. Regardless, Edward tried his best and had several moments of triumph during the race. Gordon saw how hard Edward was trying and took back his earlier words, encouraging Edward instead and called him "a credit to the railway!" Edward eventually won due to Spencer falling asleep and felt like the pride of the Sodor railway—and he was right.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Like in *The Railway Series*, Edward is based on a heavily modified Sharp, Stewart and Company "Larger Seagull" K2 class.

These locomotives were built in two batches: the first of six in 1896, with two extra members of the class being built later in 1900. All eight of the locomotives survived into the 1923 grouping and lasted through to the late 1920s and early 1930s, performing secondary duties around Barrow-in-Furness. In real life, all of the K2s were scrapped, with none surviving into preservation.

Visible modifications made to Edward include:

* Making his wheel splashers flush with the cab, thus also removing the coupling rod splashers
* New cab side windows as opposed to cutaways in his cab side sheets
* Square cab lookouts as opposed to the original round ones.
* A higher pitched boiler and longer smokebox.
* The replacement of his original Furness Railway tender with a Fowler tender.

### Livery

Edward is painted in NWR cerulean with red lining on his cab, splashers, tender and boiler and yellow lining around his windows. His number (2) is painted on his tender in yellow with a red outline. He has a white running board with red bufferbeams and valences.

## Gallery

See Edward's Gallery Page for more information.

## Trivia

* Edward was the first character created for The Railway Series.
* Edward was originally portrayed by a Bachmann Model in Seasons 1 & 2. Near the end of Season 2, Edward's model was replaced with a Hornby model. His Bachmann model was later sold on eBay to BrendenRies10.