Hiro

Hiro is an old and wise Japanese tender engine, who is famously known as the "Master of the Railway".

## Bio

Hiro once lived on an unnamed railway in Japan. He was the strongest engine on his railway and was famously known as the "Master of the Railway".

Hiro was then bought to Sodor likely sometimes in 1941, after Eagle's death and Barrow-in-Furness being destroyed by the bombing caused by Nazi Germany during the Barrow Blitz of World War II. However, he began to show his age and break down and the workmen did not have the necessary parts to repair him. To escape being scrapped, he was put on a siding to wait for the parts to come from his homeland. However, the parts never came and Hiro was all but forgotten.

In the summer of 2009, Thomas eventually found him and fearing Hiro would be scrapped if he was not Really Useful, promised to bring him back to his former glory while keeping him a secret from the Fat Controller. Thomas also had the rest of the Steam Team help in the restoration and Hiro quickly gained their friendship. After breaking down again while trying to avoid Spencer, Hiro was hidden away in another siding, where the engines visited him and kept him company.

When Sir Topham Hatt found out about the situation, Hiro was brought to the Sodor Steamworks, where Victor oversaw his restoration. Once Hiro was restored, he helped Spencer after his accident and worked with him and Thomas to finish the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's summer house. Despite everything, Hiro had grown homesick, so the Fat Controller arranged for him to be sent back to his homeland.

Hiro eventually came back to Sodor in the following years when the engines needed help with the summer holiday traffic. Upon his arrival, Hiro went to the Steamworks to be examined and then went to Knapford station for his welcome party, which was almost delayed as Thomas was trying to find a welcome present for Hiro instead of telling the other engines about the party. But, Hiro told Thomas that having his friends at the party was the best welcome present. Shortly after his return, Hiro told Thomas to take the load of bees through the woods, which Thomas ignored. However, Thomas took Hiro's advice after taking Hiro's flower truck to get the bees back to their hives. Later on, Hiro saw the Fat Controller and assumed he was too busy to give orders to his engines. So, he tried to help the Fat Controller by giving out the orders - but he only succeeded in becoming "Master of the Muddle". However, he made up for his mistakes by telling the engines to go to Knapford and await orders from the Fat Controller.

Follwing the years, when Jobi Wood was being delivered to the Docks for the construction of the Sodor Search and Rescue Centre, Hiro told Thomas about where it came from. He later pushed Henry to the Steamworks to have his side-rods repaired and when Hiro became homesick, Thomas took him to Misty Island, which reminded Hiro of his home.

## Persona:

Hiro is an old steam engine who has been on Sodor for a very long time and was originally known as the "Master of the Railway". He is grand, masterful, mature, wise, very dignified, enormously kind and is able to find good in any engine he meets. He has an appreciation for serenity and order and often thinks fondly of his homeland, far away, where he was once one of the strongest engines. Hiro fell victim to neglect when waiting upon parts to arrive for him from his home country, when he began to break down and became lost. He was eventually rediscovered by Thomas, who, despite some problems in worrying about sharing the discovery of Hiro with the Fat Controller, helped Hiro to be fully restored to his former glory.

Hiro continues to be gentle, wise and graceful, as well as a useful engine on the railway and a good friend to the other engines, especially Thomas. He does not appear to hold a grudge; in his first appearance, he helped Spencer after an accident, despite Spencer previously trying to send Hiro to the smelter's yard. Hiro is also very close to his friends on Sodor, knowing that even in a different location they will always be his friends.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Hiro is based on a Japanese National Railways (JNR) Class D51 2-8-2 "Mikado" built by Kawasaki and popularly known as "Degoichi" in Japan. Hiro is standard gauge, while most D51s were built for 3'6" gauge (cape gauge 1,067mm), though the two examples of his class exported to South Korea (KNR Class Mika7) were built to standard gauge.

The D51s were primarily used as goods locomotives and were an adaptation of the earlier Class D50. 1,115 class D51 locomotives were built between 1936-1951, becoming Japan's most mass-produced steam locomotive. In addition to those in Japan, members of this class have been built for export to South Korea, Taiwan and the USSR, totalling 1,184 locomotives. Over 170 of these engines are preserved throughout Japan, two of which are in working order, while four are preserved in Taiwan (Taiwan Railways DT650) and eleven in Russia (Soviet Railways D51). Unlike the D51s in Japan, Taiwan and Russia, the D51s in South Korea have no smoke deflectors.

Though Hiro's number is a reference to his basis' name, there was a D51 with the number 51. However, unlike Hiro, the real engine was an earlier build of the D51 class, with its dome flush with its funnel. It was preserved at Torokko Saga Station in Kyoto, Japan until February 2020, when it was scrapped due to issues that arose from it being stored outside.

Hiro has only been partially modified to work on Sodor. Aside from being scaled up to standard gauge, he has been given buffers on his front and his tender, however oddly enough still has a buckeye coupler on his front bufferbeam, while his rear coupling is a hook and chain coupling. This would make Hiro pulling rolling stock or another engine backwards or being pulled away by another engine from his front physically impossible, unless a special adapter used to connect the buckeye coupler as fitted onto his chain coupler or a pin was put on top of his knuckle coupler so he could couple from the front