Gordon

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Neil Crone (Thomas and the Magic Railroad, UK; 2015 - present and US; All Engines Go)
Keith Wickham (UK; 2008 - 2015)
Kerry Shale (2008 - present)
Rob Rackstraw (2020-2021; Thomas' Magical Birthday Wishes, Learning with Thomas and The Sodor Springtime Parade)

### Debut

The Three Railway Engines (RWS)Thomas and Gordon (T&F)

**Gordon** is the No.#4 Big Blue Express Engine who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only surviving brother. He is also one of the fastest and strongest engines on the Island of Sodor and his main task is to pull the Wild Nor' Wester, the railway's express train. At times, this leads him to feel superior.

Gordon is mainly used for passenger duties, but has occasionally pulled goods trains, much to his dislike, as he believes that these are below him.

## Appearance

Gordon is a big tender engine that's painted blue like Thomas and Edward and the same size as Henry. He has round-squared buffers on his front and on his tender. He has a short funnel and dome. He also has a loud whistle and a number #4 painted on the side of his tender. He has two leading wheels at the front, and six large driving wheels in the middle.

## 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 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, though not to the extent that James does. 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 get what they want.

Sometimes, Gordon acts mean and insulting, particularly towards smaller engines like Thomas or Percy, although he has helped them on a few occasions. He can also be rude to older and more weaker engines like Edward, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon had to acknowledge that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine. However, Gordon still sometimes doubts Edward is still reliable, such as the time he did not believe Edward could win a race against Spencer as he is only a "back engine" and a "waste of steam". He soon stopped belittling Edward for good after being tricked by Thomas; he learned his lesson and apologized to Edward, saying that he promised not to call him old or unreliable anymore. Despite the way he treats Edward sometimes, deep down, Gordon cares a great deal about Edward and the other engines on the railway. This was especially shown when he was very upset after he learned 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 is able to 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 NWR, but this time, Gordon realized himself that he was wrong to do so, especially when he ended up smashing through a set of buffers.

Since the twentieth series, Gordon has developed a tendency to pin his own faults on others. This was shown when he blamed Henry over 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, remaining mistrustful of Sonny due to his role in Kenji's runaway and the theft of the plans for Ruth's Hover-Car, due to the well-tank engine being owned by the crooks in the first place, but eventually he learned from Thomas that he did not mean to be involved in the part due to refusing help them. Despite this, he 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.

## Technical Details

According to The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Gordon was built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire. Once the first batch of A1 Pacifics appeared in 1922 Gordon would have more than likely have been reclassified A0 indicating he is slightly different to the rest of the class.

Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number and was never put into regular traffic; he was only ever used on test runs. Owing to various problems, Gordon was rebuilt in 1939 at Crewe. Sir Topham Hatt and Sir William Stanier worked together to rectify these problems - everything under the running board is of Stanier's design while the running board itself is that of Sir Topham Hatt's. In both the Railway Series and television series, Gordon is depicted with a Fowler tender.

His valve gear is similar to that of the LMS Stanier Pacifics in the illustrations, but in the television series, he and Henry share the same valve gear.

According to his Meet the Contenders video, Gordon is an LNER A3 Pacific in the television series, just like Flying Scotsman and his other siblings. This however is incorrect.

As "The Shooting Star," Gordon's appearance is based on a streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad K4 (Hank's class), specifically #3768.

## Trivia

* Gordon is named after a rude boy who lived on the Awdrys' street when Christopher was a child.
* One of Gordon's models was on display at Nitrogen Studios, but is now on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum.
* The Halloween Engine in the eighth series episode, Halloween, was recycled from one of Gordon's scrap models.
* Gordon's upset face is used for Boulder in Rusty and the Boulder.
* In the US dub of All Engines Go, Gordon is voiced by Neil Crone, who also voiced him in the 2000 movie, *Thomas and the Magic Railroad.*
* In the Greek narration of the Model Series, Gordon is called Johnny. From thirteenth series onwards, Gordon has been referred to with his original name.
* According to the Rev. W. Awdry in the book The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, the reason why Gordon has square buffers is because not long after he got his new safety valve following the events of The Three Railway Engines, he was showing it off and not paying attention to his surroundings. He crashed into the end of the "Big Station" at Tidmouth, damaging his buffers and had to go to the Works to have them replaced. The only buffers available were long, square ones, which Gordon despised at first, but soon got used to them and became proud of being the only engine on the railway with square buffers. Then Henry had a similar incident to Gordon and got square buffers himself (explaining the illustration error in "Thomas and the Guard"), now the subject of buffers offends Gordon greatly when mentioned to him.
* As of Big World! Big Adventures! and the twenty-second series, Gordon is one of the four remaining engines from the Railway Series to be part of the Steam Team and Gordon and Thomas are the only members of the Steam Team to be the exact same colour.
* As of the CGI series, Gordon's catchphrases are "O The Indignity" and "Express Coming Through".
* In the first series, Gordon had a winch that was first used to tow Percy, mounting over his centre lamp iron and front coupling. However, it disappeared after its second use, which was when he used it to rescue Thomas.
* Gordon, Henry, Thomas and James are the only engines to appear in every special. The latter three, however, are the only ones to speak in every special.
* From the first series to the twelfth series of the television series, Gordon had at least two face masks: disgusted and yawning; that were never shown on-screen.
* Gordon's whistle sound was used for Henry in the eighth and tenth series.
* In the magazines file facts, it is stated that Gordon and Spencer are cousins.
* Gordon was one of 2 engines featured on a poster for the NWR. The other was Thomas.
* His whistle is a deeper toned version of Henry's.
* In a 2020 Australian Red Nose Day advertisment a child is seen playing with an Ertl Gordon and 2014 My First Percy.
* Gordon's special friends are Lori Loud, Lynn Loud Jr., Lola Loud and Rainbow Dash.
* Gordon also serves as the Fireside Girls' private engine a little like Spencer and James. To Isabella and the Fireside Girls, he is known as, "the Fireside Express".

## Quotes

* **"O The Indignity!"**
* **"Express Coming Through!"**