James

Big Red Monster (by the Troublesome Trucks)

Rusty Red Scrap Iron (by Diesel and Trucks)

The Bees Knees

Squeaky Wheels (by Trucks)

Cowardly Cranky Worn-Out Hunk of Metal (by Diesel 10 along with Thomas)

James the Brains (by Junior)

Dirty Object (by Toby)

Little Red Piggy In The Middle (by 'Arry and Bert)

Bossy Boiler (by Thomas, Henry and Percy)

Bossy Buffers (by Percy)

Old Engine (by Spencer along with Edward)

Rail Rocket ("super engine" alter ego)

Mr. James (by Toad)

Busted Boiler (by Thomas)

Young Steam Engine (by The Fat Controller)

The Fastest Red Engine (by himself)

Kerry Shale (US: 2009 - 2017)

Rob Rackstraw (UK; 2017-2020 - US; 2015-2020)

**James** is a mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the North Western Railway, usually working along the Main Line. He can be vain and sometimes boastful, but means well and is a hard worker.

## Appearance

James is a tender engine about the same size as Edward. He has a tall funnel, a shiny brass dome, and a whistle on his cab roof.

He also has six driving wheels that aren't as big as Gordon's, but not as small as Thomas'.

When he first arrived on Sodor, James was painted in NWR scarlet with black lining and gold boiler bands. His dome is brass and his number 5 is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with black lining. In the *Railway Series*, James had blue lining instead of black lining after *Main Line Engines*. Between *James the Red Engine and Oliver the Western Engine* his cab rooftop colour was inconsistently illustrated as either black or red; however, since Clive Spong became illustrator, James has been consistently illustrated with a red cab rooftop. In some illustrations of the *Railway Series*, James has a golden builder's plate on the side of his cab.

James has also been seen in several other liveries aside from his red one:

* In the *Railway Series*, James would have originally been painted in L&YR passenger black, but any white has never been depicted making his appearance similar to their goods livery instead. In the television series, James was originally depicted as having always been red, even when he was a new engine, the only exception being his appearance in his black livery in *The Adventure Begins*. He also had a red lining on the back of his tender, which was removed after his repaint. This livery also appears in *Meet James* as part of a reference to the special. Unlike the television series, James has an L&YR tender in the Railway Series when he carried this livery, whereas in the television series, he had a Fowler tender throughout his appearances.
* 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 the twenty-second series episode, *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.

## 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 self-centred that he thinks himself superior to the others and can be shallow, boastful, overconfident, arrogant, 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. 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, it was 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 has also been portrayed as a prankster, 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 actually is capable of realising when he crosses the line.

## Trivia

* James is named after James Furze, a friend of Edmund Ward's son.
* 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 was originally illustrated in *The Three Railway Engines* as the red engine who tried to push Henry out of the tunnel. However, children began sending letters to the Reverend W. Awdry asking why James was painted red prior to the events of *Thomas the Tank Engine*. In response, Awdry decided to make the Red Engine a completely different character altogether.
* In *Sodor: Reading Between the Lines*, James is said to have been sold to the NWR in 1923; this creates anachronisms with events laid out in *The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways*.
* 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.
* In the Magic Railroad film, his voice was done by Susan Roman who also voiced Eddie, Sarah Lynn, and Firefighter Cheryl in Fisher-Price's Little People
* 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.
	+ Ian Sweeney has stated that James was his favorite character ever since his childhood.
* In *Toby's New Whistle*, James revealed that he once had a three-chime steam whistle.
* James was the only character to have the most painted liverys.
* Since the twenty-first series, James along with Belle are the only characters to have the same voice actors in both English dubs, albeit with different accents. He is also the only male member of the Steam Team to have the same voice actor in both English dubs.
* In the French dub of the Model Series, James was known as *Jacques*.
* 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 Steam Team member with a one-syllable name. He also has the shortest name out of all the Steam Team members in pronunciation terms.
* 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.
* One of James' models is on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum and is currently wearing his alternate happy face. It had previously been on display at Nitrogen Studios without a face. Another is now owned by ThomasTankMerch with two of his faces (smiling and clenched). Another one was on display with the other Steam Team, the Fat Controller, his crew, his car and Tidmouth Sheds on display at Drayton Manor and wore his happy face. Another was on display at the British Museum wearing his grinning face during the 70th anniversary along with his scale model used for the Wharf. His Wharf scale model was wearing his smiling face.
* James' Gauge 1 model had a total of nineteen facial expressions during the model series era.
	+ His Wharf Scale model had six facial expressions during the tenth series to The Great Discovery.
* Three voice actors were recorded for James In South Korea.

## Quotes

* **Here's James!**
* **I'm a splendid red engine. Ready for anything. You never see my paint dirty.**
* **Pulling the mail train is a job for a small engine, like Percy, not a splendid tender engine like me!**
* **I'm the fastest red engine on Sodor!**