Stanley

**Stanley** is a silver saddle tank engine. He works as both a shunting engine and a mixed traffic engine.

## Biography

### *Thomas & Friends*

Stanley was brought to Sodor to take care of Thomas' workload during the restoration of Great Waterton. It had to be ready by Sodor Day. Upon his arrival, Stanley became very popular and enjoyed the company of the engines.

Stanley's popularity caused Thomas to feel jealous and later neglected. Thomas felt that Stanley was newer, bigger, and stronger than he - and would take over his place on the railway. Thomas then planned to make Stanley look weak - the trick backfired and caused Thomas' friends to consider him mean and incompetent.

When Thomas later went missing, Stanley was the first to realise Thomas' feelings. He searched for Thomas until he finally managed to find him in a ditch and rescue him. Then, both became friends and with a combined effort made it back to Great Waterton in time to prepare for the opening celebrations.

Stanley later worked in the yards with Thomas and James during the winter and helped with the rebuilding of the Sodor River Bridge. Also, he went to Great Waterton with Gordon to pick up passengers, and when Gordon bumps into a flatbed being pushed by Ben, he warns Stanley about the fallen logs and is able to warn him just in time.

Stanley was amongst the engines at Knapford who were worried about Percy's whereabouts when Percy was spending his time with the Diesels at the Dieselworks. Later on in the winter, he suffered from a faulty firebox and Thomas came to his aid once again.

More recently, Stanley can be seen working at the Shunting Yards, the China Clay Works and Ffarquhar Quarry. Salty also mentioned that Stanley, in one of his spooky stories, was an old engine who lost his flatbeds while climbing a hill, and ever since then his flatbeds have been stated to haunt the rails. When Samson backed onto Gordon's express coaches by accident when he was told to take stone to the Blue Mountain Quarry, Stanley tried to inform Samson that he had made a mistake, but the cabless tank engine refused to listen to Stanley, while proving not to make another mistake.

Stanley was also one of the engines told about the rumour of Toby being scrapped.

He later helped with the construction of the Harwick Branch Line and was also the first engine to cross the unstable track that the Pirate Ship was under.

He also shunted a train of shiny branch line coaches for James one day, who was being his usual self; vain and overconfident, and when James was asked to take waste trucks to Whiff's Waste Dump, he questioned Stanley why he could not pull nice shiny coaches, in which Stanley tells James that Edward took them instead.

Stanley was also one of the many engines who wanted to go to the Great Railway Show. Like most engines, however, he was not chosen and was left on Sodor to do the other engines' jobs.

## Personality

Stanley is the "boy-next-door" of Sir Topham Hatt's Railway. Cool, courteous, and cheery, he is a little bit bigger, a little bit newer, and a little bit stronger than Thomas, which, at first, made Thomas jealous when all focus seemed to be on this shiny, new arrival, especially when he began helping with the restoration of Great Waterton. However, even Thomas was soon won over by Stanley's positive attitude, charm, and friendliness and came to see why he was so popular and well-liked among the other engines. As such, Thomas and Stanley are now firm friends.

Stanley is incredibly compassionate and empathic: there is nothing he would not do for another engine. And if he could not do it, he would find someone who could. He is sleek, smart, and stylish, and his silver and light grey appearance, with striking red wheels and a shining smokebox certainly makes him look the part as he eagerly goes about his work.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Stanley is based on a hybrid cross of a Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST engine and Kitson's No. 5459 "Austin I", but with a taller funnel.

Stanley's Basis

### Livery

Stanley is painted in a silver grey livery with a metallic silver smokebox, red wheels and lining. He has a red running plate with a dark grey base coat, and has red nameplates with his name in silver on each side of his saddle tank.

## Appearances

* Television Series
* Other Media

### *Thomas & Friends*

* **Series 12** - James Works it Out, Gordon Takes a Shortcut and Thomas Puts the Brakes On
* **Series 14** - Thomas' Tall Friend (*cameo*), Merry Winter Wish (*cameo*) and Thomas and the Snowman Party (*cameo*)
* **Series 15** - Percy's New Friends (*cameo*), Surprise, Surprise and Kevin the Steamie (*cameo*)
* **Series 16** - Ol' Wheezy Wobbles (*cameo*), Percy and the Monster of Brendam (*cameo*), Flash Bang Wallop! (*cameo*), Thomas and the Rubbish Train (*does not speak*), Salty's Surprise (*cameo*), Emily's Winter Party Special (*cameo*) and Muddy Matters (*cameo*)
* **Series 18** - Flatbeds of Fear (*not named; does not speak*), Disappearing Diesels (*cameo*), Signals Crossed (*cameo*), Toad's Adventure (*cameo*), Thomas the Quarry Engine (*cameo*), Marion and the Pipe (*stock footage cameo*), Missing Gator (*cameo*), Timothy and the Rainbow Truck (*cameo*) and Samson at Your Service
* **Series 19** - The Truth About Toby, Very Important Sheep (*cameo*), Helping Hiro (*cameo*), Philip to the Rescue (*cameo*) and Thomas the Babysitter (*cameo*)
* **Series 20** - Saving Time, Pouty James and Henry in the Dark (*cameo*)
* **Series 21** - Stuck in Gear (*cameo*)
* **Series 22** - Thomas and the Monkey Palace (*stock footage cameo*), An Engine of Many Colours (*fantasy*) and Counting on Nia (*cameo*)
* **Series 23** - Steam Team to the Rescue! (*cameo*) and Diesel Glows Away (*speaks in fantasy only*)

#### Specials

* **2008** - The Great Discovery
* **2010** - Misty Island Rescue (*cameo*)
* **2011** - Day of the Diesels
* **2012** - Blue Mountain Mystery (*cameo*)
* **2014** - Tale of the Brave (*cameo*)
* **2015** - Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure (*cameo*)
* **2016** - The Great Race
* **2017** - Journey Beyond Sodor (*cameo*)
* **2018** - Big World! Big Adventures! (*cameo*)

#### Music Videos

* **The Great Discovery** - Where, oh Where is Thomas?, Engine Roll Call and Thomas, You're the Leader
* **Series 14** - All You Need
* **Series 16** - Thomas and Percy and Go, Go Thomas
* **Tale of the Brave** - Monsters Everywhere
* **Series 18** - The Best Friends Express
* **Thomas' YouTube World Tour** - Navigation
* **Series 19** - Let's Go! and Spring is Here!
* **Series 20** - Accidents Will Happen
* **The Great Race** - Will You Won't You
* **Journey Beyond Sodor** - I Want to Go Home (*cameo*)
* **Big World! Big Adventures!** - Where in the World is Thomas? (*cameo*)
* **Series 22** - Engine Roll Call and The Steam Team

#### Learning Segments

* **The Great Discovery** - Spot the Difference and Tough Trucks

## Trivia

* One of Stanley's models used to be on display in Canada at Nitrogen Studios.
* Stanley's popularity with the public has grown following an online video called "A Toy Train in Space", in which a Wooden Railway toy of him was sent into the stratosphere. As a result, Take-n-Play, Collectible Railway and Adventures "Stanley in Space" toys have been released.
* A remote that was used to control the eye mechanisms of both Stanley and Murdoch is owned by Twitter user IsaacM6991.
* Stanley has had a different voice actor in the US dub for almost every single one of his appearances. This makes him the first character to not have a consistent voice actor in one of the English dubs.
* During his debut, he was temporarily the ninth member of the Steam Team.

## Merchandise

* Wooden Railway (*five versions; discontinued*)
* Take Along (*discontinued*)
* Take-n-Play (*normal and with space helmet; discontinued*)
* Motor Road and Rail (*discontinued*)
* TrackMaster (*normal and remote-control*, *remote-control model discontinued*)
* Minis
	+ Classic Minis
	+ DC Super Friends Minis (*as Black Hand*)
	+ Creatures Minis
	+ Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Minis (*as the White Ranger*)
	+ Slime Minis (*exclusive to the 2017 30-pack*)
	+ Neon Splatter Minis
	+ Fruit Minis
	+ Camo Minis
	+ Light Up Minis
	+ Neon Glow in the Dark Minis
	+ X-Ray Minis
* My First Thomas (*talking; discontinued*)
* My Thomas Story Library (*discontinued*)
* LEGO (*discontinued*)
* Mega Bloks (*discontinued*)
* Wind-up (*normal and metallic; Japan and Australia only*)
* Boss (*with grey tanker; discontinued*)
* Bath Toys
* Collectible Railway (*normal, space helmet and glow racers*)
* Adventures (*normal, glow racers and "in space"; all discontinued*)
* Wood (*redesigned in 2019*)