Brian

**Brian** is a Wellsworth and Suddery Brake Van.

## Biography

Brian was a brakevan for the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway. In 1915, Adam was taking a train of gunpowder vans along the line with Brian as his brake van. At Crosby, he stops for a drink as they hear Edward approaching them with a passenger train on the same line. Edward throws on his brakes as Brian orders Adam to take his train away without him. A signalman changes the points into the yard as both Edward and Brian brake as hard as they can, managing to stop the train, saving the barber shop from damage. However, the barber isn't happy with them scaring his customers. If Old Bailey hadn't arrived at the scene, then the barber would have lathered his and Edward's faces.

Sometime after, Brian did volunteer to be part of a goods train heading for Manchester since the previous brake van failed. One the way, he was swapped over to another train that also had a dodgey brakevan. He ended up in Wales until the end of the First World War when he was transferred to London. During the days of the Big Four, he worked for the LMS and around the city until the Second World War. He then says he had a big memory lapse, remembering the blitz of 1941 but nothing until after his bad accident when he woke up in a workshop in 1962. He then remembers that after the crash, he was working in the Midlands and he decided he wanted to return to Sodor one day.

He finally returned to Sodor in 1964 being pulled in by Eric, much to Edward's shock and delight. He was on James' goods train being pulled by BoCo. Edward introduced him to Terence and Diesel.

One night, a few days after his return, after Douglas shares his story about when he and Thomas were making their way back to their platoon with Oliver in Germany, Brian then tells them his time during the blitz, suddenly saying he was hit by a bomb and was killed in an unfitting tone. Edward, Douglas, Eric and Salty get skeptical over the brake van's claims. Then Brian begins to believe he saw Colin, Lily and Adam, and then he was gone, back in London in the exact spot he died. Brian then had a mental breakdown. Later, the engines have exited their shed as Brian is given green water, wondering if the brake van had come back from the dead. Mickey arrives, saying that Brian is in unusually top-form for a brake van that's almost eighty years old. Mickey had also requested for Brian's service record while he gives the brake van therapy to get to the reason why Brian believes he died.

Fortunately, it worked. Brian adamantly believed he had died until Mickey showed him his service record, which contained a detailed account of his activities during the time he was supposedly dead. Mickey theorised that Brian seeing his dead friends was a symptom of his amnesia, having been told of their deaths, and built an elaborate fantasy as a coping mechanism, with Brian feeling guilty about surviving while his friends didn't. After intense therapy and recovery, he was brought back into service and is one of the best workers on Sodor, sharing many stories about his adventures.

## Basis

Brian is based on an LNWR 20-ton "Diagram 18" brake van.

## Appearances

### The Stories of Sodor

#### Season 4

* Modernisation *(cameo)*
* Diagnosis *(not named; does not speak)*
* Return

#### SCPs of Sodor

* Path of the Dead *(mentioned)*
* A Troublesome Engine *(does not speak)*
* The Standing Stones *(cameo)*

#### Sodor Specials

* Non-Faceless Vehicles *(cameo)*
* A History of its Railways *(cameo)*