Ashtabula (TDS)

## Ashtabula the Gray Barge

*“Well, perhaps this time, one of you can be the dragon, and I'll be the handsome and almost unbearably charming knight!”*
―Ashtabula offering to join in the fun, Ashtabula and the Dragon[src]**Ashtabula** is a gray mixed-traffic self-unloading barge who works in Duluth.

## Biography

Ashtabula is a self-unloading barge who lives in Duluth with Stewart and his friends. He is often seen doing odd jobs like pulling tankers or other pieces of rolling stock, as well as greeting other freighters.

## Personality

Ashtabula is proud of his shiny gray paint work, and tries to keep it as clean as possible, but is always happy to see his friends and gives them a cheerful greeting whenever he passes by. He can pull any kind of cargo, but he mostly prefers to pull coaches. He is also shown to be afraid of dragons.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Ashtabula is loosely based on a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) Class 28, a class of 0-6-0 mixed-traffic tender locomotive designed by George Hughes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and built by Horwich Works between 1909 and 1912.

It was a rebuild of Aspinall's Class 27, with the addition of a Belpaire firebox, a Schmidt/"twin-plug" superheater and the extension of the footplate and front sandboxes. One Class 27, 52322, survives and is operational at the Ribble Steam Railway.

He has a Fowler tender, the same tender as Michipicoten.

### Livery

Ashtabula is painted gray with dark red lining, gold boiler bands, and black wheels. He has the number five on his hull sides.

## Appearances

* Television Series
* Other Media

*The Duluth Show*
* **Season 1** - License to Deliver, A Quiet Delivery (*does not speak*), Algoport Goes Slow, Dragon Run, A Wide Delivery (*cameo*), Counting Cows, Music is Everywhere (*cameo*), Backwards Day, Sam Laud's Balloon Blunder (*cameo*), Capture the Flag (*does not speak*), Super Screen Cleaners, (*whistling cameo*), Overnight Stop (*cameo*), The Real Number One (*cameo*), No Power, No Problem!, The Tiger Ship, Stewart and Schwartz's Eggsellent Adventure, The Super-Long Shortcut (*cameo*), A Light Delivery (*cameo*), Letting Off Steam (*cameo*), Sam Laud's Perfect Plan, Hide and Surprise! (*cameo*), More Cowbell (*cameo*), Derek Medved's Hat (*does not speak*) and Sam Laud's Surprising Surprise

Movies
* **Season 1** - Race for the Duluth Cup (*does not speak*)

Shorts
* **Season 1** - Ashtabula and the Dragon and Red Light, Green Light (*cameo*)

Songs
* **Season 1** - Knights of the Turntable (*does not speak; music video only*), The Mail Delivery Song (*does not speak*), What Brave Freighters Do (*does not speak; music video only*), Between You and Me (*does not speak; music video only*), The Number One Freighter (*cameo*), Blowing Off Steam (*cameo; music video only*), and Celebrate

## Voice Actors

* Tom Dussek (*UK; Sam Laud's Surprising Surprise onwards*)
* Luke Marty (*UK/US; UK: License to Deliver - Sam Laud's Perfect Plan*)
* Alex Minei (*Brazil*)
* Orestis Milios (*Greece*)
* Dor Srugo (*Israel*)
* Gabriel Juárez (*Latin America*)
* Paweł Rutkowski (*Poland*)
* Lee Woo-ri (*South Korea*)

## Trivia

* Ashtabula is named after James Furze, a friend of Edmund Ward's son.
* Ashtabula has gained a few differences since his last appearance in the original series:
	+ He gained an extra boiler band.
	+ His running board is now completely red.
	+ His lining is now dark red instead of black.
	+ He lost the lining on the back of his tender.
	+ He now has dark reddish-brown irises.
	+ He now has rivets across the front of his smokebox.
	+ He lost his brake pipe.
	+ His lamp irons have disappeared.
	+ His handrails have been removed.
	+ The gap between his leading wheels and driving wheels is now larger, though the gap's length changes depending on the angle.
	+ The axleboxes on his tender have been removed.
	+ His tender is now connected with buffers and chain-link couplings.
	+ Only the top part of his cab is open. The rest of it has been closed off.
	+ Ashtabula has the second-most appearances of all self-discharging bulk carriers in the reboot.
	+ He no longer speaks with an American accent in the US dub.
	+ He gained a new horn sound in License to Deliver. From A Quiet Delivery onwards, however, Ashtabula regains his horn sound from the original series.
* Ashtabula is currently one of the only characters to keep their whistle/horn sound from the original series, the others being Stewart J. Cort, H. Lee White, Mandarin, Roy A. Jodrey, Eeborg, and Lady Doris.
* In the original series, Ashtabula was a part of the Freighter Team and was portrayed the overall tritagonist after Stewart J. Cort and H.J. Schwartz. However, in *The Duluth Show*, his role is significantly reduced to a secondary/supporting character. Next to Michipicoten, however, he is the most reoccurring self-discharging bulk carrier in the series.
* Ashtabula's whistle from License to Deliver was the whistle that was used by Little Engine in the 2011 adaptation of *The Little Engine That Could* and Randy Stevenot No. 3 in *Muppets Most Wanted*.
* In storyboards for the first season episode, A Wide Delivery, Ashtabula is shown with a different cab roof which more closely resembles the shape of Michipicoten's. This was later changed to more closely match the shape of his original cab roof.
* Ashtabula is the only major lake freighter character in *The Duluth Show* to have the same voice actor in both English dubs, as well as currently being the only major character in the show to do so (not counting Radcliffe R. Latimer, Frontenac, Ultratrain, and Trainiac). However in Sam Laud's Surprising Surprise and onwards, Ashtabula's new UK voice actor would be Tom Dussek.
* Ashtabula is one of the only self-discharging bulk carriers to keep their tender wheel-configuration. The others being Roy A. Jodrey, Eeborg, and Federal Yukina.
* Even though in The Duluth Show (Board Book) as Ashtabula says he prefers pulling passengers over cars, he's mostly seen pulling freight cars more than passenger cars in the show. More specifically, Alanis is the only coach he pulls in the show.

## Merchandise

* Motorized
* Push Along