Gordon

## Gordon the Big Engine

### Aliases

Lazy Bones (by Thomas; and Henry in the US version of Off the Rails)Fat Face (by Henry)

Galloping Sausage (by Diesel and Trucks)

Domeless Engine

Rattler Gordon (by Percy and Emily)

Rattle-box (by Percy)

Rattler (by Diesel)

Boastful Bossy Big Blue Boiler (by Percy)

Slow Coach/Slow Poke (by Spencer)

Big Fella (by Stephen)

Young Gordon (by Stephen and Glynn)

Big Engine (by Philip)

Little Brother (by Flying Scotsman)

The Shooting Star (by Himself)

Shooting Star Gordon

Falling Star (by Thomas)

Geoffrey (by Dowager Hatt)

Gregory (by Dowager Hatt)

Gavin (by Dowager Hatt)

Gerald (By Dowager Hatt)

Big Man (by Douglas)

Big G (by Himself)

Number 4 (by Nia)

### Relatives

Flying Scotsman (brother)Flying Thistle (brother)

Gordon's brothers

Mallard (cousin)

Green Arrow (cousin)

Spencer (cousin)

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Neil Crone (Thomas and the Magic Railroad)Keith Wickham (UK: 2009-present)

Kerry Shale (US: 2009-present)

### Debut

Thomas & Gordon (T&F)

**Gordon** is a big blue express engine who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only surviving brother. Gordon 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. He has four leading wheels at the front, and three big driving wheels. Like Thomas and Edward, he's painted in NWR bright future blue with red and yellow lining. His number 4 is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow.

## 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 get what they want.

Gordon is rude and egotistical more often than not, especially towards smaller engines like Thomas or Percy, although he has helped them on a few occasions and does not necessarily dislike them, although one incident temporarily ended his acquaintanceship with Thomas. 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" and even outright saying he is 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 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 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 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 North Western Railway, but this time, Gordon realised himself 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 forced to act 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 which actually helps others.

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; he remained mistrustful of Sonny due to his role in Kenji's runaway and the theft of the plans for Ruth's Hover-Car in spite of Sonny having switched sides, due to the well-tank engine being owned by the crooks in the first place. Eventually he learnt 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.

## Trivia

* Gordon was named after a rude boy who lived on the Awdrys' street when Christopher was a child, but the boy did not have the same personality.
* One of Gordon's models is on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum and is wearing his concerned face mask. It had previously been on display at Nitrogen Studios.
* The Halloween Engine in the eighth series episode, Halloween, was recycled from one of Gordon's scrap models.
* Gordon's sad face mask is used as a basis for Boulder's face.
* In the Greek narration of the Model Series, Gordon is called *Johnny*. From the 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 "Oh, the indignity" and "Express coming through".
* He is the only engine to have streamlining coated over him although it was later removed.
* 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.
* Gordon's normal whistle sound was reused for a few different engines:
	+ Edward had Gordon's whistle sound in The Great Festival Adventure.
	+ Henry had Gordon's whistle sound in the eighth series episode Edward the Great, one scene in the ninth series episode Thomas and the Rainbow, the same series episode Toby Feels Left Out and the tenth series episodes Thomas and the Birthday Mail and Thomas and the Treasure.
	+ Emily had Gordon's whistle sound in the short version of Sounds and the eighth series Learning Segment, Surprise Destination.
	+ James had Gordon's whistle sound in the early version of Guess Who? Puzzles.
	+ Rosie had Gordon's whistle sound at Tidmouth Sheds Drayton Manor Theme Park since 2014, however her normal whistle sound can be heard when Every Cloud has a Sliver Lining still plays.
	+ Victor had Gordon's whistle sound in Don't Bother Victor in the mobile app, Read and Play!.
* In the magazines "The Fat Controller's Engine Fact File", it is stated that Gordon and Spencer are cousins.
* Gordon was one of the two engines featured on a poster for the North Western Railway. The other engine was Thomas.
* Gordon's whistle is a deeper toned version of Henry's.
* In a 2020 Australian Red Nose Day advertisement a child is seen playing with an Ertl toy of Gordon and 2014 My First Percy.
* A Brio toy of Gordon makes a cameo appearance in the sixth episode of the third series of *The Story Makers, "Trains"*.
* In Drayton Manor Theme Park from 2008-2014, Gordon had his normal whistle sound, but in 2014, he and Rosie swapped sheds and he now incorrectly has Rosie's whistle sound, while Rosie incorrectly has his whistle sound.
* Gordon had a total of twenty-one facial expressions during the model series era, two of which (disgusted and yawning) that were not used on-screen. His original face reference sheet from the twelfth series mistakenly had Henry's sad face on Face 6.
* In all the books made by Wilbert and Christopher Awdry, Gordon had the most character development as he ages from a pompous young man to a humble and honorable old man, akin to a series protagonist. As such, while the *Railway Series* does not necessarily have a concrete main character like the TV series (although Thomas eventually took this role shortly before the series was adapted for TV), Gordon receives the most character development start-to-finish.
* Gordon is the only character in the series to have 2 drastically different basis's be used as his in-show design.

## Quotes

* **Oh, the indignity!**
* **Express coming through!**
* **A goods train! A goods train! A goods train! The shame of it! The shame of it! Oh, the shame of it!**
* **Down a mine, is he? Ha, ha, ha! What a joke!**
* **I am Gordon! Stop! Stop!**