Ashima

**Ashima** is a large pink tank engine, who worked on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and then Indian Railways. She was one out of many engines to participate in the Great Railway Show and competed in the Shunting Challenge. She has become very close friends with Thomas after the events.

## History

### Thomas & Friends

Ashima was invited to participate in the Great Railway Show for the Shunting Challenge. She and the other eleven contestants for the show came to Sodor by mistake when the ferry they were on accidentally stopped at Sodor instead of England, and she was accidentally left behind when the ferry left with all the other engines except her. Ashima - lost and not knowing the way to the Mainland - tried to ask Thomas for his help, but Thomas (who was angry at her after thinking she intentionally pushed him into the sea) refused to assist her. Ashima soon managed to befriend Thomas and convinced him that he did not need to change for the competition, while also suggesting that he participate in the Shunting Challenge. Unfortunately, Thomas was involved in an accident which put him out of the competition. Ashima was taken to the Mainland with the other Sudrian engines who were competing in the Great Railway Show.

After arriving and watching the Best Decorated Engine parade, Ashima was questioned by Emily on why she did not compete, revealing to the Sudrian engines she would be competing in the Shunting Challenge. She did so alongside Ivan, Raul, Gina and Thomas, who had managed to arrive to the Great Railway Show after all and took Percy's place. During the race, she helped Thomas hold Vinnie back when he was bullying Philip, and also pulled Thomas back when a pylon nearly fell on him. During the end of the competition, Ashima ended up winning after Thomas sacrificed his own chance to win when he spotted a derailed flatbed on her track. However, the judges made the both of them the winners of the competition. Ashima returned to Sodor with the Sudrian engines, where she then returned back to India.

Some time later, Thomas visited Ashima in her homeland of India, where he spent some time working on the Indian Railway. While there, he was formally introduced to Rajiv (whom he had not had a chance to meet back at The Great Railway Show) and learnt from Ashima about how elephants used to help out in the yards when the engines were busy. He later found her waiting for a cow that was fast asleep on the tracks in front of her to wake up and move, not wanting to disturb it due to how cows are sacred in India. She later arrived to find that Thomas had suffered a minor derailment as Rajiv had shown up with the Indian Breakdown Cranes, but Thomas explained that a female elephant helped him back on the tracks. Ashima recognised the elephant as Trusty Trunky, whom had helped her previously, and shared a laugh with Thomas and Rajiv after Trusty Trunky hosed the mud off Thomas, splashing Rajiv a bit in the process.

Ashima was later at the station as it was being used to film a Bollywood movie, and learnt that her Controller Charubala and the film's director had asked Thomas to take the lead actor to the site of the next scenes to be filmed. Before that, Thomas inquired as to what a Bollywood movie was, and Ashima explained how it is India's version of the movies filmed in Hollywood in the United States. She was also in awe when Rajiv revealed he was performing in the movie as well. Thomas later daydreamed of himself saving Ashima from plunging off a broken bridge, with Ashima calling him a hero for it.

When Thomas learned that tigers lived in India and were a part of Noor Jehan's Jungle Tours, Ashima assured him that the tigers were not dangerous as they were known to run away from people and were very rarely seen. Thomas later learned from Shankar that this was due to protecting them from poachers.

One morning, Thomas woke up at the Indian Railway Sheds in a very good mood. Ashima returned his greeting with just as much happiness, before both took notice of Noor Jehan having trouble with her brakes and felt sorry for her. Rajiv then showed up to boast about his crown being polished before Shankar tried to tell him off for focusing on his crown instead of his work. Rajiv just ignored him before they all took off to do their jobs for the day. Some time later, Ashima and Thomas were at Varkala Railway Station when Rajiv arrived in a frantic state as his crown had disappeared. Fearing he could no longer be really useful without it, he went on strike until his crown was found. With Rajiv refusing to do his jobs, Ashima had to join Thomas and Shankar with doing their own jobs alongside Rajiv's while asking around for if anyone had seen Rajiv's crown. Ashima meanwhile was unaware when it ended up on her train at one point, getting hung on the rear buffer of her brake van just as she feared the crown was lost forever. By that evening, Ashima was tired out from a hard day's work doing both her jobs and Rajiv's, and decided to go to sleep with Shankar and Thomas. After assuring Rajiv that he is still really useful without his crown, she dozed off but was soon startled awake when Noor Jehan came screeching into the sheds due to her faulty brakes. Seeing Shankar in danger, Rajiv pushed him out of harm's way just in time. Ashima commended Rajiv for his heroism, pointing out he did it without his crown, thus showing her earlier point that he could still be Really Useful without it. The next morning, Charubala showed up at the sheds to return Rajiv's crown to him, but also to both reprimanded him for his little strike while also congratulating him for his heroism.

Later on, Ashima was at Varkala when Thomas showed up after making a delivery to a distant part of the Indian Railway. However, Thomas realised he delivered it to the wrong station after Ashima asked him if he took the right turnoff. Ashima suggested explaining the mistake to Charubala, but Thomas feared of how she would respond and tried to fix it himself. Unfortunately, he only made things worse. He soon finally explained what happened to Charubala, who was understanding of Thomas' mistakes. Ashima later assisted Thomas alongside Noor Jehan and Shankar to set everything right, returning to Varkala that evening to be congratulated on a job well done by Charubala, before jokingly asking if anyone wanted to go for a swim after an elephant trumpeted. This left everyone with a good laugh.

## Personality

Ashima is usually found working on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Southern India, where the steep incline makes the track very dangerous and difficult to climb. Beautifully crafted with hand painted decals, Ashima is a fun, feisty and likeable engine who is more than happy to help out wherever and whenever needed.

## Livery

Ashima is painted hot pink with white and dark blue lining. Her buffer beams and wheels are painted royal blue as well, with white wheel rims. She bears several bright green, white and orange patterns, inspired by Indian textiles and Henna Tattoos. Additionally, the flower petal designs on her front cylinder block was based on her basis X-37385's.

## Trivia

* Ashima's name means "without borders/limitless" in Hindi.
* Whilst Ashima's basis only uses its top wheels for climbing inclines, Ashima uses all her wheels whenever she moves.
* Despite the fact she is based on an oil-burning tank engine (and has an oil tank on top of her boiler), Ashima still uses coal to make steam, and has a coal bunker found on the coal-burning versions of her class.
* Ashima has been partially modified to work on British railways; she has been given buffers and chain couplers, and her cowcatcher has been reduced in size and lowered to accommodate these.
* Ashima is the only engine with a painted whistle (her whistle valves are painted in her primary colours and have similar trim to her more intricate details, save for the blue). All of the other steam engines have bare brass whistles.
* The Cuban dock workers' models from *Blue Mountain Mystery* were reused as Ashima's driver and fireman.
* Ashima is the only returning international character from *The Great Race* to retain the same voice actor from her debut. Yong Bao never spoke during said film and was given an actor for the first time in *Big World! Big Adventures!*, Carlos, Raul and Gina were recast since *The Great Race*, and Rajiv and Shane were originally cast in the twenty-second series. In addition, Etienne, Axel, Vinnie, Ivan and Frieda only spoke in *The Great Race*.