Nia

**Nia** is an orange tank engine from Kenya who befriended and was joined by Thomas during his journey around the world. She is now a permanent resident on the North Western Railway and works on Edward’s Branch Line. She often helps out at the Sodor Animal Park, delivering supplies and calming elephants with her singing,

## Biography

Nia is positive, kind-hearted and caring. Her eagerness to help can sometimes irritate her friends, but her truthfulness and kind heart always win them over. She is a good problem solver, especially when it comes to animals, like when she sang to a scared elephant to help Bill and Ben. Nia can be very sensitive about being abandoned or ignored, and this can quite often make her give someone the cold shoulder if they maintain this type of behaviour, especially if someone is acting very rude. This doesn't stop her from befriending others though, and aside from playful retributions she will happily forgive any offenders if she feels they are truly sorry.

Nia used to work on the Kenya Uganda Railway, she was a shunter for the railway and also hauled branch line trains too. After being treated horribly by a mean controller, she retired in 1974. Around that time, Thomas was on a worldwide tour with Ian, Andy and Larry. After negotiations, Nia was bought by Sir Topham Bertram Hatt and was re-gauged to fit on the standard gauge tracks. She was then painted in orange with NWR initials on her side-tanks and currently wears the number 70. Nia was sad and scared of her original home, but after being brought to Sodor overtime, she fitted in right at home with the other engines.

Nia now works at the Brendam branch with Edward, BoCo and Bill and Ben hauling goods trains. Sometimes, she would be pulling visitor trains from the Sodor Animal Park or pulling local trains from station to station during the busy months.

## Basis

Nia is based on a Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUR) ED1 class, a class of 2-6-2 tank locomotive built by Vulcan Foundry for the Kenya-Uganda Railway between 1926 and 1930. Nia had been modified in order to work on Sodor when she arrived. Like her original basis, she was metre gauge, but was later rebuilt into standard gauge and she was also given buffers and screw link couplings, instead of her original Janney coupling, in order to work with the other engines and pull British rolling stock.

## Livery

When she used to work on the Kenya-Uganda Railway, Nia was painted black. Her railway’s initials (KUR) were painted on her boiler and her number (327) was painted on her cab in grey.

When she joined the North Western Railway, Nia was repainted orange with yellow lining on her boiler, tanks, coal bunker and cylinders. Her footplate is painted white with a red buffer beam and black buffers. The railway’s initials (NWR) are painted on the sides of her tanks in white, her number (50) is painted on her cab also in white and she has a red nameplate with gold lining and lettering on both sides of her coal bunker.

## Appearances

### Season 16

* Rebecca the Substitute *(indirectly mentioned)*
* Nia’s Arrival
* Nia and the Trouble With the Twins
* Nia’s First Christmas
* The Missing Elephant

## Gallery

Nia’s current NWR livery (1974-present)Nia’s current NWR logo (1974-present)Nia’s current number 50 (1974-present)Nia’s current nameplate (1974-present)Nia’s former KUR design (1926-1974)Nia’s old Kenya-Uganda Railway logo (1926-1974)Nia’s old KUR number 327 (1926-1974)