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Edward is an elderly mixed-traffic engine.
Bio
Edward was built by Sharp Stewart and Company in 1896 and worked on the Furness Railway before coming to Sodor in 1920 to finish the building of the North Western Railway. After his work was completed, Edward was kept in a shed, to the delight of the other engines, who claimed that he was too weak to work. Edward was eventually let out again, and proved that what he lacked in strength he made up for in work ethic.
Edward currently runs the Wellsworth-Brendam branch line with BoCo, and occasionally Donald and Douglas. He is sometimes used as a pilot engine for special trains.
Persona
Edward is kind-hearted and always keen to help a friend in need. The small engines trust him to lend a listening ear and sympathetic advice. He is a hard worker too, and always does his best to finish a job.
Sadly, the big engines often see Edward as old-fashioned and slow. While it is true he is the oldest engine on the North Western Railway - it must be noted he helped build it - he has proved time and time again that he is more than capable of working as hard as any engine.
Despite his reputation of being kind and friendly, Edward has sometime seemed to act cheeky as Thomas, as with Harvey and Rocky - or, then again, perhaps he simply dislikes cranes!
Basis
Unlike most characters in the Railway Series, Edward is not directly based upon any particular class of locomotive. The Reverend W. Awdry had stated that Edward is based on a heavily modified Sharp, Stewart and Co. "Larger Seagull", supplied to the Furness Railway in 1896, but this was a piece of retcon created for "The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways".
Sodor "historian" Martin Clutterbuck notes that Edward bears a close resemblance to a LNER D34 "Glen" 4-4-0 from the London and North Eastern Railway. At any rate, the Reverend W. Awdry used an engine of this class to represent Edward on his model railway.
Modifications made to Edward's shape include a change to make his rear splasher flush with cab and new cab windows and lookouts.
In an early version of Railway Series, Edward had a rear splasher flush with cab and a cutaway cab window.
Edward has neck supports, large driving wheels and an extended front footplate.
Livery
Edward is painted NWR blue with the NWR red lining. Before arriving to Sodor, it can be assumed that he was painted red with a yellow "FR" on his tender sides and black wheels. In an early version of "The Three Railway Engines", his dome was gold.
Appearances
Edward's Railway Series appearances are listed in chronological order:
- "The Three Railway Engines"
- "Thomas the Tank Engine"
- "James the Red Engine"
- "Troublesome Engines"
- "Henry the Green Engine"
- "Gordon the Big Engine"
- "Edward the Blue Engine"
- "Four Little Engines"
- "The Eight Famous Engines" (non-speaking role)
- "Duck and the Diesel Engine"
- "The Twin Engines"
- "Gallant Old Engine" (non-speaking role)
- "Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine
- "Main Line Engines"
- "Small Railway Engines"
- "James and the Diesel Engines" (non-speaking role)
- "More About Thomas the Tank Engine"
- "Thomas and the Twins"
- "Henry and the Express" (cameo)
- "Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines"
- "Thomas and Victoria"
Please note that this list does not include books that only include references to Edward's station.
Edward has appeared in every season of the television series.
An Edward is Born
Edward was the first character created for the Railway Series, in 1943. The inspiration for Edward came from the Reverend W. Awdry's watching trains on the Great Western Railway as a child. He said in an interview with Brian Sibley for "The Thomas the Tank Engine Man" that, to him, the noise of the locomotives' exhaust almost sounded like dialogue - for example, the larger engine having trouble climbing the hills would appear to be saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it," and the smaller engine helping them would sound like it were saying, "I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!"
Charlie and Sidney
Edward is the only engine whose crew has been named in the Railway Series. In the foreword of "Edward the Blue Engine", their names were given as Charlie Sand (driver) and Sidney Hever (fireman). Their surnames came from their duties: one of the driver's jobs is to sand the rails when they are slippery to let the engine's wheels grip, while the fireman "heaves" coal from the tender or coal bunker to the firebox. Their Christian names came from an engine crew from the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, where engines like Toby used to work.
Cautious Edward
In the whole of the series, Edward has only had three accidents involving derailment or worse - being knocked off the rails by a ship's boiler in the seventh season episode "Edward's Brass Band", crashing into a barrier in the eleventh season episode "Edward and the Mail", and crashing into James and into a poster of him in the tenth season episode James the Second Best.