Toby

Toby

Background information

**First episode**
"Stepney's Problem"

Character information

**Full name**
Toby the Tram Engine

**Other names**
* Old teapot (*by Diesel 10*)
* Shed on wheels (*by some passengers*)

**Age**
Unknown (*Engine*)

**Home**
Island of SodorEngland (*built*)

**Friends**
* Thomas
* Percy
* Daisy
* Mavis
* Henrietta
* Hannah
* Bertram
* Edward
* Henry
* Gordon
* James
* Emily

**Quote**
"Toby's a fusspot!""Toby has forgotten more about trucks than you will ever know."

**Toby** is a brown square tram engine who works on the North Western Railway and is the railway's number 7 engine.
Toby originally worked on a tramway between Lower Arlesburgh and Arlesdale End, before being bought by Sir Topham Hatt after his line closed down to run the tramroad to Ffarquhar Quarry. His line would later be reopened as part of the North Western Railway, with Toby being reallocated to his old shed. Before reallocation he stayed at both Tidmouth and Ffarquhar sheds. He has a coach named Henrietta who has verandahs like Toad the brakevan.

Personality
Toby is old, but wise, hardworking and knowledgeable enough about running branch lines to justify running Thomas' line with Daisy after Percy's accident with the trucks until Thomas came back. He is also savvy enough to control the trucks. However, his advanced age and design means that he is weaker than the other engines. While Toby is always ready to work hard without any fuss, he can be a bit temperamental sometimes, especially when young and inexperienced engines who are full of themselves make things difficult for him, particularly Mavis and Daisy. However, work at the quarry line often soothes off his moods without any cause of grief to anyone, except of course his old faithful coach, Henrietta.
From the eighth series onwards, Toby occasionally suffered insecurity and questioning the capabilities of his own work and having senses of uncertainties in the tenth series, Toby acted childish about his roof with holes being removed from his shed. After he was given a job of taking Alicia Botti to the concert after being cleaned, he started to worry by making several mistakes such as going too fast spilling the tea in Henrietta, puffing through a dusty branchline, and going through a mud puddle resulting in Alicia Botti being upset about his dirty appearance when he arrived at the airport. But Toby can usually be more cheerful and friendly, as well as having subtle shades of nervousness on top of being placid and easy-going, enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside along Thomas' branch line. He even enjoys listening to the birds in the birdhouse next to his shed and is friends with the pigs at Farmer Trotter's Pig Farm. Although usually nervous and timid at times, and occasionally complaining in bad working conditions, Toby usually maintains a healthy sense of humour, and is not above laughing at juvenile level antics (notably, when making fun of Sir Topham Hatt's white safari hat).
Toby's wise and knowledgeable side was still sometimes shown such as when he told Emily that she needs to be clever in order to be a queen and laughs at her, and when he told her how to get help after him, Percy, and Mavis got into an accident. Toby was also shown to be wise when he helped Den out when it came to dealing with troublesome trucks and when it came to being brave and stopping the thieves from stealing the crown.

Technical Details
Basis
Toby is based on a GER Class C53 0-6-0T Wisbech steam tram (reclassified as J70 by the LNER) built at Stratford Works. They were seen by the Rev. W. Awdry and Christopher Awdry on a holiday at Yarmouth, hence Toby's origins. The J70 started their career on the Great Eastern Railway and were known as C53. They spent most of their career on the Wisbech and Upwell tramway pulling slow goods trains and, until 1927, passenger trains, though several were also assigned to the docks at Ipswich and Yarmouth. The first withdrawal came in 1942. Eventually, the sole survivor of this class was withdrawn from service and scrapped at Stratford Locomotive Works by 1955. They were replaced by BR Class 04s, Mavis' class.

Toby's basis
Livery
Toby is painted brown with grey sideplates and cowcatchers. His number (7) is painted on his middle side panel in yellow with a red outline. He has red bufferbeams. Between the first and fifth series, Toby's wheels were painted red. Starting from the sixth series, they were painted black.
In various books released by Publications International, the top side of his side plates are painted red, going along with his buffer beams.

Appearances
Television Series* **Season 1** - Stepney's Problem, Toby and the New Engine, The Trouble With Spencer and Gordon Plays a Trick
* **Season 3** - Cranky's Delivery and Toby's New Cowcatchers
* **Season 4** - All For One and One For James and Arthur Helps Out
* **Season 6** - Boulder's Express Route
* **Season 7** - The Final Fate of Spamcan, Rails on Fire, Stanley, Whiff and the Troublesome Dumptrucks and Toby's Adventure
* **Season 8** - The New Controller
* **Season 9** - Tender Bender, Late Again, Rosie! and The Arlesdale Rumor
* **Season 10** - Bee Yourself, James, Coal Crisis and Groundhog Gordon
* **Season 11** - Fergus' Day Off (cameo), Stepney and the Bluebell Branchline, Around the Railyard in 64 Seconds (not named, mentioned) Big City Rumor, Station Situation (cameo), Just Duck's Luck, Spencer Goes Too Far, Holly Jolly Molly and BoCo and the Cocoa (does not speak)
* **Season 12** - Greetings, Montague!, Stafford's Electric Slide (cameo), Truckus Ruckus, Rheneas and the Risky Rendezvous (cameo), If The Dome Fits and Bulgy Takes the High Road
* **Season 13** - Bert's Arlesdale Fail, Rust or Bust (cameo), Who Stole the Coal? and Sideplates and Skirmishes
* **Season 14** - Freddie at the Ready, Hiro and the Heat Wave (mentioned), James in a Jam, S.C.Ruffey's Sweet Tooth and Hatt Trick
* **Season 15** - Roundhouse Roulette, Toby's Turntable Fable, Nightmare on Sodor (does not speak), Ice Ice Daisy and The Island of Misfit Engines
* **Season 16** - Henry's Hill (cameo), Marion Had a Little Lamb (cameo), Bye Bye Bertie (cameo), Painting the Rosie's Red, Paxman Pulls Through (cameo), Victor and Victoria (cameo), Throw Topham from the Train (cameo), Ace in the Hole (cameo) and Finding Lorry
* **Season 17** - Unidentified Flying Scotsman (cameo), Bold Slow Coach (cameo), Diesel Gets the Bronze, Toby, Or Not Toby, Thomas' Crown Affair (mentioned), Rocked by a Hurricane (mentioned) and Para-Norman Activity
* **Season 18** - Santa Claws and One Is The Loneliest Engine

Specials* The Battle of the Branchlines
* Claw of the Law
* Oliver's Eleven (cameo)
* Saving Pirate Ryan (cameo)

Trivia* According to an interview with Mike O'Donnell, Toby's theme was used as a demo for the television series' opening theme.
* Toby's favourite station is Maithwaite.
* In an interview with SiF, Andrew Brenner stated that Toby was one of his favourite characters, along with James, Bill and Ben.
* Rob Rackstraw gives Toby a West Country accent in the UK dub.
* Toby's bell from the second to third series was later heard in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure after Ryan stops the pirate ship during the wide shot of Arlesburgh Harbour.
* Even though he has six wheels, some merchandise ranges with other six-wheeled engines depict him with only four because of difficulty navigating curved track.
* In the arcade game "Magical Truck Adventure" by SEGA, two J70 tram engines were seen at the first level and another was seen in an ending cutscene, each with a number 7, bearing a strong resemblance to Toby.
* Toby is one of only ten characters to appear in every series of the television series and one of only eight to speak in each one.
* He was the only member of the Steam Team not to have a berth at Tidmouth Sheds from *Calling All Engines!*-onwards because of his shed on his historic branch line.
* Toby was the namesake of the Talyllyn Railway's inspection trolley, which later inspired Ivo's Flying Bedstead.
* Toby was supposed to appear in the seventh series episode, "Emily's New Coaches", but was dropped and replaced with Oliver for unknown reasons.
* One of Toby’s models from the twelfth series is on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan and is wearing his startled face. It had previously been on display at Nitrogen Studios. The other twelfth series model was on display at Drayton Manor, but it was stolen from the display in 2011. His grinning face was on the model when he first arrived and was put on display there, but it had been replaced with a replica face. His cab roof was facing backwards on some days.
* Toby's sleeping face is now owned by Twitter user, ThomasTankMerch.
* Between the eighth and twelfth series, Toby was written as the oldest and wisest member of the Steam Team. This character role was perviously given to Edward, which he had in *The Railway Series*. Going by built dates, Emily is the oldest member of the Steam Team.