Kirke

**Kirke the Snarky Dockside Engine** is a supporting character from the SeventyVerse's TUGS spinoff series. He was number five of the Bigg City Dock Railway.

## Backstory

When Kirke arrived with Porter and Henney, he was very rude to everyone he met at Bigg City and ended up in an accident with some coal. After that, Mr. Frederick Lloyd demoted him to maintenance work as punishment. It was thanks to Captain Lucky's consoling the truth was revealed - he was often bullied by others in his old home, and he used his bullying as a defense mechanism. He started to become more relaxed following Captain Lucky's advice. When Lexi, Placido and Maeve came to help with the grain, Kirke made everyone laugh with a comment about a "shake-shake bridge". Kirke was angry when Little Owl kept calling the Z-Stacks idiots solely for Zak and Zeus' actions of thinking that a tyrant was a good man, even going as far as to call her "birdbrain". Kirke heard about Little Owl's grudge effecting the Z-Stacks and was later helping Puffa, Top Hat and Zob repair the tracked between Mittsville and Uptown after Little Owl's accident. He was relieved that Little Owl let her grudge go.

Sadly, Kirke met his end in World War II after he saved the Dockside Railway from being blown up by a flaming munitions van. He took it to the tunnel, so only he would die in the explosion.

In the TUGS Survival AU, only the back of Kirke's cab was damaged. As of now, Kirke still runs on the Bigg City Dock Railway, before being bought by the Bigg City Museum.

In the Canon Divergent AU, Kirke came to the Dockside Railway with Tillie and Jebediah instead of Porter and Henney.

## Relationships

### Puffa

Kirke's troublesome behaviour annoyed Puffa to the point where he didn't want to listen to his apology. But after Puffa's injector failed, Kirke came to help out and the two patched up their differences.

### Little Owl

At first Kirke and Little Owl were in agreement on the Z-Stacks, but after Kirke apologises to the Z-Stacks, he started to get annoyed with Little Owl's grudge, especially she started calling them idiots on the sole basis that Zak and Zeus were supporting a tyrant. Kirke even went as far to call her "birdbrain". He was angry with Little Owl for believing Johnny Cuba's lies about Zebedee, Zip, Zug and Zilly. After Little Owl apologized to the Z-Stacks, Kirke and Little Owl mended their relationship.

### Porter

Porter would often get cross with Kirke for upsetting Henney but after Kirke's turnaround, they patched up their differences. When Kirke was killed in the explosion inside the tunnel, Porter wished his friend smooth runnings and dry rails in the Great Railway.

### Henney

Henney would often get upset whenever Kirke insulted someone, but after Kirke's turnaround, they patched up their differences. Henney was heartbroken when Kirke was killed in the explosion inside the tunnel.

### Top Hat

When Kirke first arrived, he insulted Top Hat by calling him "Hat Stand". As a result, Top Hat was reluctant to bring Kirke to his counseling session at Lucky's and only did when Captain Star reminded him he himself was on thin ice due to his recent attitude. On the way back from the session, Kirke apologized to Top Hat, who didn't expect an apology so soon but accepted it.

### Captain Lucky

After Kirke got in trouble with his attitude, Captain Lucky decided to give him a counseling session at Lucky's Yard and discovered that Kirke was bullied back in Brooklyn.

## Personality

When Kirke first arrived, he was rather rude and disobedient, but it turned out that it was a coping mechanism for being bullied back in Brooklyn. After that, Kirke apologized to everyone he insulted and became a much friendlier engine, albeit a bit snarky. He was also quite brave as when Bigg City Port was under attack, Kirke bravely rushed a flaming boxcar of munitions into the abandoned tunnel, even going as far as to tell his crew to jump out and didn't seem to care that he would be killed in the explosion - all he cared about was saving everyone else.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Kirke is based on a H.K. Porter 0-6-0ST, built in Butler, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. These engines mainly worked in the dockyards on the east coast of the United States. The Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad, which served the dockyards in Brooklyn, New York, owned several examples of Porter's design, all of which were retired after the railroad started using diesel locomotives in 1963. One of these, B.E.D.T. 15, was rebuilt into an operating replica of Thomas by the Strasburg Railroad in 1998 for use during Days Out with Thomas events throughout the US. Porter appears to be directly based on B.E.D.T. 15 prior to its rebuild. Another engine, 14, is preserved at the Ulster & Delaware Railroad Historical Society in Arkville, New York. Yet another is preserved in Essex, Connecticut on the Valley Railroad. Porter's 'real life' number is 12, which is a backwards number of the episode he debuted in during series 17. It's unknown when this engine was built, withdrawn or scrapped.

### Livery

Kirke is painted viridian (grey-green) with yellow stripes and lining, brass fittings and gold nameplates with his name painted on them in black. He has a gold star on each side of his lamp and red window frames.

## Differences Between Great Race Friends Near and Far and the SeventyVerse

* In *Great Race Friends Near and Far*, the Dockyard Engines were unnamed and were annoyed by Vinnie's boastfulness. In the SeventyVerse, Kirke is a snarky sort of engine and was quite troublesome at first, but after mellowing out, he became much friendlier and proved heroic as well when he saved the entire railway from being blown up during the attack.

## Trivia

* The preferred voice actor for Kirk is Alan Tudyk, who voiced Iago from *Aladdin (2019)*.
	+ Originally, his preferred voice actor Shaun Prendergast, who voiced Sunshine in the original *TUGS* series. However, this was changed because of the creation of Moonlight as a mythology gag to Sunshine being male in the original series.