Toad

Toad

Background information

**First episode**
"Wilbert, Frank and the Milk"

Character information

**Age**
Unknown (*Brake Van*)

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

**Friends**
* Duck
* Donald and Douglas
* Oliver
* Skiff
* Gator

**Toad** is Oliver's loyal brake van who escaped from scrap with the help of Douglas.

Personality
Toad is a polite, gentlemanly brake van. He is also somewhat imaginative and a bit of an optimist. Toad minds his manners well and is always quick to refer to the engines as "Mr.", "Miss" or "Sir". He escaped from scrap with Oliver, with some help from Douglas. Toad is very loyal, keeps Oliver's trucks in order and has his best interests at heart. He has a cunning streak within him should the trucks cause any particular bother and does like fun when it comes his way, but he is typically calm, obedient and content in his work.

Technical Details
Basis
Toad is based on a GWR 16-ton brake van. Early vans were just 10 or 16 tons weight, but this gradually increased to 20 and 25 tons. A brake van on the Mid Hants Railway (No. 35907) was renumbered 56831 and given 16 ton markings to match Toad in the television series. A number of these brake vans are preserved by heritage railways, such as the Dean Forest Railway.

Toad's basis
Livery
Toad is painted grey with the letters "**GW**" and his number (56831) written on his side in white.

Appearances
Television Series* **Season 1** - Wilbert, Frank, and the Milk and Thomas' 4th of July (cameo)
* **Season 3** - Donald Visits the Scrapyard
* **Season 4** - Slippery Rails (cameo)
* **Season 7** - The Final Fate of Spamcan
* **Season 8** - Tick-Tock-Jock (cameo)
* **Season 10** - Toad the Brakevan: Missing in Action
* **Season 11** - Stepney and the Bluebell Branchline (cameo), The Great Western Way (does not speak) and Just Duck's Luck (cameo)
* **Season 12** - Scottish Blues, Truckus Ruckus (cameo) and Vicarstown Takedown
* **Season 13** - Bert's Arlesdale Fail (cameo) and Toad Gets Towed
* **Season 14** - Double-Decker-Wrecker (cameo)
* **Season 17** - Sidney Transplant (cameo)

Specials* Lady the Lost Engine
* Sodor's Last Stand
* Oliver's Eleven

Trivia* Toad's model was originally displayed at Nitrogen Studios.
* Toad's Ertl toy incorrectly states that his number is "5683".
* Both Toad's physical and CGI models deviate a bit from their real-life counterpart: in real-life, Toad's basis has sandboxes near the handbrake and also has a white interior with a desk, seat, etc. Toad lacks these features, both in the model and CGI forms.
* In the US dub of "Toad Stands By", narrator George Carlin does an impression of Peter Lorre for Toad's voice.
* Toad was called *Crapaud* in the French dub between the third and seventh series.
* In Latin America, Toad gains an Argentinean accent in the eighteenth series episode, Toad's Bright Idea.
* In the Japanese dub, Toad refers to Oliver as Oribā-san (or another engine with a different name from Oliver), mainly because "-san" is a suffix attached to the end of a person (or in this case, an engine) to refer to them in a formal way in Japan.
* In the Days Out with Thomas events, his face was worn by Class 40.
* Toad's Hornby and Bachmann models incorrectly depict him as being a 20-ton due to their toolings being based on them.
* During the model series era, Toad had a total of eight facial expressions, one of which, an angry face, was not used on-screen.
* One of Toad's faces is now owned by Twitter user TomsProps.
* Toad's Wooden Railway toy was among the toys that were part of the Lead Paint Crisis in 2007.
* A GWR 20 ton brake van resembling Toad was put on display at Drayton Manor from 2009 to late 2019. In February 2020, it was given Toad's happy face. Since July 2022, it has been replaced with his wincing face.