Bowler

**Bowler the Snooty Diesel** was a diesel from the Mainland and one of the antagonists of the Seventyverse.

## Backstory

D261 was built in a unknown year. He met a diesel numbered D199 and they antagonized several steam engines. One day they ran into D7101 and he managed to get D199 to change his ways. One day he and 7101 went to Sodor on trial while there he was rude to the steam engines and even kidnapped Dexter and wanted Henry to be burnt alive. Afterwards he sucked in a bowler hat gaining him the nickname "Bowler" and broke down before sent him away after Sir Topham Hatt found out about what he said about Henry. He later met Diesel 10 and teamed up with him. When they snuck onto on Sodor he lied and said he had Dexter scrapped. He later fell into a barge at the harbour when Bear played a trick on him. After Diesel 10's team was caught, he and Diesel 10 were taken to a unknown area. While he was dozing, Addison gave him a final firing. He was later taken by Christopher to Barrow Ironworks where he was scrapped.

## Relationships

### D199/Nicholas

261 and 199 both thought they were superior to steam engines. Unfortunately for 261, 7101 came along and whipped 199 into shape. With his companion now deeming him as no longer a friend, 261 now hated 7101 for 'corrupting' 199.

### Henry

Bowler was very rude and antagonising to Henry. He even wished that he was 'burnt alive'. This got the other engines to hate 261 even more than they already did. If that wasn't enough, Henry hates Bowler for taking Dexter to be scrapped, supposedly.

### Diesel

Diesel feels that his first visit paled in comparison to Bowler's. Bowler was also shocked to hear Diesel standing up for *Duck* of all engines.

### Oliver

Oliver was the one who dubbed 261 with the name "Bowler", a name he detests.

### Diesel 10, Arry and Bert

Bowler teamed up with them to take over Sodor. Of course, they fail, but the other diesels are shocked to hear (and see) that Bowler was dead.

### Christopher

Whether Christopher and Bowler met before isn't clear, but Christopher did take Bowler's remains to Barrow to be melted down.

### BoCo

Bowler taunted BoCo for being 'inferior' to him, and was shocked when BoCo was chosen for Sodor over him.

### Arthur

Not only was Arthur taunted by Bowler for being a steam engine, he was shocked that Arthur turned down a trial on Sodor to give BoCo a fair chance of life.

## Personality

Bowler was snooty, sadistic and rude and would get other diesels to be as rude as him. This was a massive downfall for him though, as it lead to his eventual death.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Bowler is based on a British Rail (BR) Class 40 1Co-Co1. Boris is also a member of this class. 200 members of this class was built from 1958 to 1962, and the last was withdrawn in 1985. They were given the nickname "Whistlers" because of the strange whistling noise their engines would make. Seven Class 40s are preserved with the first built, D200, at the National Railway Museum.

Bowler's number belonged to a real Class 40. The real D261 entered service on the 26th of February 1960, initially built with the 'disc' headcode marker. In 1965, it along with Nos. D260-D266 would then be converted with the 'central' headcode marker and were based in the Scottish Region. Sometime between 1965 and 1970 it was repainted into BR rail blue. In 1973 it was renumbered to 40 061 under the TOPS system, until the engine was withdrawn from service in 1983 and scrapped at Crewe in March the following year.

### Livery

Bowler is painted in the BR Deep Bronze green livery. He has a thin, lighter green stripe running along his top, full yellow warning panels on his front and back end with his rooftop painted black and shining silver buffers as opposed to the regular grey buffers. His number is painted on his cab sides in yellow similar to the *Railway Series* illustration.

## Differences between the books and TVs

* Bowler takes D199's role from Super Rescue as well as his own role from Bowled Out and bits of Old Stuck Up's role from his own story.
* It is never stated what happened to him in the books and TV series; here, he was given a final firing by Addison Darnell.
* In the books Bowler's number was D4711. In the TV series, his number was D261/40061.
	+ Oddly enough, his book number was inauthentic, but his TV series number was worn by a real BR Class 40. It was built on the 26th February, 1960, withdrawn in 1983, and scrapped March 1984.

## Trivia

* The preferred voice actor for Bowler is Vincent Tong, who played Prince Blueblood from *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*.