Henry

Kevin Frank (Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed)

### Debut

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

The Sad Story of Henry (T&F) Official Debut

**Henry** is a green mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the Main Line, and a former member of the Steam Team. He was originally a failed prototype engine, and needed special Welsh coal to operate properly. Following his accident when pulling The Flying Kipper, Henry underwent an extensive rebuild, giving him a new shape and a better performance.

## Appearance

Henry is a green tender engine who's painted the same colour as Percy and the same size as Gordon. He has a short funnel, two leading wheels and six big driving wheels. He has a tender with a number three painted on it, And a brass whistle. Henry had his problems in the past. A long time ago, Henry used to have an old shape and a small firebox. He couldn't give enough heat, until the special Welsh coal came. But after Henry's recent accident with the Flying Kipper, he came back from Crewe with a new shape and a bigger firebox. And now, he's a really useful engine once and for all.

## Personality

Henry is generally well-behaved and friendly, but is sometimes arrogant. Henry is at heart, a very hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work. His illnesses almost always have something to do with his boiler. Unlike Gordon and James, Henry does not mind pulling trucks, especially as he is a mixed traffic engine, although when he is given the job of pulling the express whenever Gordon is unable to, this can get to his smokebox and he can act full of himself. While he doesn't usually mind pulling trucks, like James and Gordon, Henry hated to shunt his own trains, which led to several miserable days stuck in the sheds after a failed attempt at going on strike.

In the television series, Henry has been portrayed with a much kinder and softer personality. He has been shown as a nature-lover, as evidenced in Henry's Forest. This personality carried on throughout the more recent series with Henry being occasionally a tree-hugging engine too, as he tried to prevent the tall pine tree and the wishing tree from being cut down.

In the newer series, Henry is portrayed as not too bright and sometimes really worrisome, as shown in multiple episodes. This worrisome personality was also featured in The Adventure Begins, which greatly contrasts to the original version of The Sad Story of Henry. He has shown instances when he was either moody, arrogant and vain, but proud, strong and witty, much like the earlier series, particularly when someone pokes fun at his expense and when vain engines start getting smug. Henry is the most likely to be respectful to smaller engines such as Edward, Percy, Thomas and Toby on a regular basis. He does not frequently antagonize his fellow friends, and usually shows remorse for his actions.

## Technical Details

Henry's history is unusual. The Fat Controller had intended to buy a Robinson Atlantic of the Great Central Railway, but was swindled and instead received Henry. He was built from rejected plans for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific prototype with the hybrid design of an GNR C1 Atlantic. The plans were stolen from Gresley by an anonymous rival. The resulting engine had a superficial likeness to Gordon, but aesthetics were as far as this went. Henry in this shape developed performance issues from flaws in the design, compounded by his stay in the tunnel. Henry was a *bad steamer*: with good-quality coal he could get enough heat to make plenty of steam, but when there was a poor lot delivered, his undersized firebox could not hold enough coal to make a proper fire. On advice from Henry's fireman, the Fat Controller ordered high-grade Welsh Coal, which made an appreciable difference in Henry's performance. When Henry suffered an accident and severe damage that winter, the opportunity was taken to send him to Crewe, where he was rebuilt an LMS Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0. After "The Eight Famous Engines," Henry's LMS Stanier 5MT tender was replaced by a Fowler tender.

In the television series, Henry has always had a one-window cab with an LNER-style tender. The differences between his shapes were removed splashers, the Belpaire firebox replacing the tapered, added steampipes beneath his smokebox, and a top feed. This was done to ease the changeover to his "Black Five"-esque appearance. However, Henry kept his parallel boiler instead of the tapered one that the Black Fives had. He later regained a full set of wheel-arches in Series 2 onwards, making him somewhat a hybrid of the 5MT and the similarly designed LMS Jubilee Class. The grey and purple tender engines are also members of this class.

## Trivia

* Henry is the third character to retire from the Steam Team, the first two being Edward and Toby.
* Of these three, Henry is the only one to not have any major roles following his removal from the main cast.
* Henry is the only former Steam Team member who does not appear in the Meet the Steam Team videos.
* According to the online video "Still the Best of Friends", the official reason Henry relocated to Vicarstown was to be closer to his work, referring to his taking trains to the Mainland in Tale of the Brave and Journey Beyond Sodor.
* Although he does not have a Fowler tender in the television series, some merchandise of him have him with said tender.
* Henry is the only former Steam Team member who does not appear in the Meet the Steam Team videos.
* Henry's original whistle was the same shape as Gordon's.