Gordon

Gordon

* Current
* Debut

Background information

**First episode**
"Stepney's Problem"

Character information

**Full name**
* Gordon the Big Engine
* Gordon the Express Engine
* Gordon the Big Express Engine
* Gordon the Big Blue Engine

**Other names**
* Galloping Sausage (*by Diesel and the Trucks*)
* Big Engine (*by Philip*)
* Little Brother (*by Flying Scotsman*)
* The Shooting Star (*by himself*)
* Shooting Star Gordon
* Big G (*by himself*)

**Age**
Unknown (*Engine*)

**Home**
Island of SodorEngland (*formerly*)

**Relatives**
* Flying Scotsman (*brother*)
* Spencer (*cousin*)

**Friends**
* Edward
* Toby
* Duck
* Philip
* Henry
* James
* Rebecca
* Thomas
* Percy
* Emily
* Nia
* Flying Scotsman
* Spencer

**Quote**
"Shall we form an alliance? You help me and I'll help you!""Right you are!"

**Gordon** is a big blue tender engine who works on the North Western Railway and is the railway's number 4 engine. He is Flying Scotsman's brother.
Gordon works on the Main Line pulling the Express. From the twenty-second series onwards, he shares this duty with Rebecca.

Personality
Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous, arrogant, stubborn, prideful, and self-important, with a good reason too; he is the fastest steam engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. But despite his pompousness, he is goodhearted, always willing to forgive, and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. Though he is also vengeful and will plot retribution if he feels he has been sufficiently slighted, as mentioned before he is happy to forgive especially after he has either had his retribution or the individual has received some other comeuppance. He also has a great hatred of goods trains and believes that he should only pull coaches. Because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the important passenger jobs, and either he sulks when he does not get what he wants or gets jealous of engines who do.
Gordon is rude and egotistical more often than not, especially towards smaller engines like Thomas or Percy. Despite this, he has helped them on a few occasions and cares about them. However, one incident temporarily ended his acquaintanceship with Thomas. He can also be rude to older and weaker engines like Edward. But following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon readily acknowledged that (despite being old) Edward is still a very useful engine. However, Gordon still sometimes doubts Edward is still reliable; he did not believe Edward could win a race against Spencer as he is only a "back engine" and a "waste of steam" and even outright saying he was worthless and calling for him to be scrapped. He soon stopped belittling Edward for good after being tricked by Thomas; he learnt his lesson and apologised to Edward, saying that he promised not to call him old or unreliable anymore. Despite the way that he mistreats Edward sometimes, deep down, Gordon cares a great deal about him and the other engines on the railway. This was especially shown when he was very upset after he learnt that Edward and Henry moved out of Tidmouth Sheds to sleep elsewhere for their own reasons, thus indicating how much he missed them. He appears to have a hard time accepting change, but with help from his friends (and Nia), he can pull through it.
Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the engines some advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful or honest, though, as James, Percy, and Sir Handel have discovered. This side resurfaced once Rebecca joined the North Western Railway. But this time, Gordon realised that he was wrong to do so, especially when he ended up smashing through a set of buffers. With Edward gone, Gordon has often found himself acting as the other engines' father figure. His pompous attitude often makes this a difficult role, but he eventually matured enough to give some meaningful advice that helps others.
Since the twentieth series, Gordon has developed a tendency to pin his faults on others. This was shown when he blamed Henry for having to do his jobs for the day and vice-versa, even though his lateness was what led to the change in the first place. When he and the rest of the Steam Team got in trouble for refusing to leave the shed at night, believing there was a ghost train about (which was actually Henry with a coat of luminous paint), he once again blamed Henry unfairly for the predicament.
Despite being labelled as one of Sir Topham Hatt's more sensible engines, he can act senseless if prompted, which is quite often. Because of his reputation, he has a fear of being found out and often tries to refrain from acting less than serious. Much like James, Gordon can be highly opinionated on an engine's character; he remained mistrustful of Sonny due to his role in Kenji's runaway and the theft of the plans for Ruth's Hover-Car despite Sonny having switched sides, due to the well-tank engine being owned by the crooks in the first place. Eventually, he learned from Thomas that he did not mean to be involved, but he still refused to believe that Sonny left the lifestyle of a thief until much later. Gordon is also very posh and egotistical, claiming engines wearing decorations for the best-dressed contest make him look ridiculous and Thomas to be undignified wearing a monkey costume, while others saw him as funny-looking. Despite this, he does have moral standards, as he chose to give Henry his special coal back instead of using it to break his speed record.
Whenever he meets and talks with Henry and James, Gordon is usually the one who directs the conversation and makes the decisions, making him the leader of sorts of the three big engines. He is always quick to place the blame of any errors on someone else, though his pride prevents it quite often, Gordon will give credit where it is due, especially after moments of guilt.

Technical Details
Basis
Like in *The Railway Series*, Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway, built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire.
Gordon's streamlined form as the Shooting Star is based on a streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad K4 (Hank's basis), more specifically #3768. The K4s were, incidentally, the inspiration for the design of the boilers on Gordon's basis, the Gresley A1s.

Gordon's basis
Livery
Gordon is painted in NWR cerulean with red lining on his cab, splashers, tender, cylinders and boiler and yellow lining around his windows. His number (4) is painted on his tender in yellow with a red outline. He has a white running board with red bufferbeams and valences.
In the sixteenth series episode, Bust My Buffers!, while his buffer beam was being repaired, Gordon received a spare diesel bufferbeam similar to Den's. The bufferbeam was painted in yellow and black hazard stripes.
In his streamlined form as the Shooting Star, Gordon is cerulean with red, silver and dark blue stripes which wrap around his body. His number is encircled by a red circle with a dark blue background. He also has a star emblem on the shrouding just above his cylinders, which is silver with a while outline.
In a magazine file fact, Gordon was incorrectly painted in NWR green similar to Henry.

Appearances
Television Series* **Season 1** - Stepney's Problem, A Scottish Tale and Gordon Plays a Trick
* **Season 2** - James' Tender Trouble, Save Sir Topham Hatt, Thomas Helps a Friend and The Daring Duel
* **Season 3** - George the Steamroller, Rusty Rocks the Railway and Mike's Ice Cream Party (cameo)
* **Season 4** - Thomas and the Ghost
* **Season 5** - The Express Turkey
* **Season 6** - Gordon's Flying Kipper and Listen to Gordon
* **Season 7** - Molly's Folly and Terence's Train
* **Season 8** - The New Controller and Fire at the Sheds
* **Season 9** - Tender Bender and Harvey's Second Chance
* **Season 10** - Bee Yourself, James, Coal Crisis and Groundhog Gordon
* **Season 11** - Stepney and the Bluebell Branchline (does not speak), The Great Western Way (mentioned), Big City Rumor, Station Situation (cameo), Just Duck's Luck, Spencer Goes Too Far, Holly Jolly Molly (cameo), Old Square Wheels, Wooden Brakes and BoCo and the Cocoa
* **Season 12** - Greetings, Montague!, Scottish Blues (cameo), The Importance of Being Billy, Gordon's Last Hurrah, If The Dome Fits, Bulgy Takes the High Road, Sidney the Renegade and Vicarstown Takedown
* **Season 13** - Duck and the Quack Attack, Bert's Arlesdale Fail, Who Stole The Coal?, Toad Gets Towed (mentioned) and Hector and Logan's Hot Pursuit
* **Season 14** - Henry Gets Stumped (mentioned), Double-Decker-Wrecker, Hiro and the Heat Wave (mentioned), Furious George, Dirty 'Arry (mentioned), James in a Jam, S.C.Ruffey's Sweet Tooth (cameo), Flat Stanley (mentioned) and Hatt Trick
* **Season 15** - Roundhouse Roulette (cameo), Flash Gordon, The Maron Station Makeover, Polar Express Coming Through!, The Island Of Misfit Engines (does not speak) and A Christmas Caroline
* **Season 16** - Henry's Hill, Luke Dukes It Out (cameo), Painting the Rosie's Red, Bad News Bear, Bowler Strikes Again, Paxman Pulls Through, Throw Topham from the Train, Ace in the Hole (cameo) and Finding Lorry
* **Season 17** - Unidentified Flying Scotsman, Tender Love and Care (mentioned), Bold Slow Coach, Wellsworth the Wait, Big Trouble on the Little Western, Oliver Confusion (cameo), Diesel Gets the Bronze, James and the Giant Screech, Toby, Or Not Toby (cameo), Rocked by a Hurricane (cameo), and Para-Norman Activity
* **Season 18** - Santa Claws, One Is The Loneliest Engine and Steam Team Dream (fantasy)

Specials* Claw of the Law
* Oliver's Eleven
* Saving Pirate Ryan

Trivia* In the Greek dub of the model series, Gordon is called *Johnny*. From the thirteenth series onwards, Gordon has been referred to with his original name.
* From the twenty-second series onwards, Gordon is the only member of the Steam Team to originate from the first book in *The Railway Series*. He and Thomas are also the only current members to share the same livery.
* Gordon, Henry, Thomas and James are the only engines to appear in every special. The latter three, however, are the only ones to have at least one line of dialogue in every special.
* In the magazines "The Fat Controller's Engine Fact File", it is stated that Gordon and Spencer are cousins. This was never mentioned in the show, however; Spencer simply referrs to Gordon as a friend.
* In 2014, Gordon and Rosie's whistle sounds at Drayton Manor Theme Park were accidentally swapped when they changed shed berths with each other.