Gordon

Gordon the Big Engine
Number:	Number 4
Hobbies:	Pulling the Express
Relatives:	The Flying Scotsman (Brother)
Friends:	The Steam Team
Enemies:	Diesel, Diesel 10
Status:	Member of the Steam Team

Gordon is a big blue tender engine who pulls the express on the Island of Sodor. He is engine No. 4 on the Fat Controller's Railway. He is Flying Scotsman's only remaining brother and Mallard and Spencer's cousin.

Bio

Gordon is the No. 4 blue engine who pulls the express. As the senior member of the engine family, he is the fastest and most powerful of the Fat Controller's team - and he knows it. He's goodhearted, always willing to forgive, and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. [1]

Gordon was built by Sir Nigel Gresley at Doncaster Works in April 1922 as an A1 with a GNR eight-wheeled tender and green livery on the Other Railway during his trials and tests at Doncaster, but when he arrived on Sodor with a spare boiler and firebox later that year he was painted in the North Western Railway's blue livery.

Gordon was brought to Sodor in 1922 to compete in the Sodor Championship but the engine fell down a hill whilst trying to overtake Henry but when Henry was havin trouble pulling Percy up a hill when Percy was out of water, Gordon helped out and brought Henry and Percy to the finish line. Gordon later was teased by Henry for being scared of the dark but he didn't believe him so Gordon decided to give Henry the shock of his life. Then Gordon helped Thomas rescue Percy from the Dieselworks in Day of the Diesels when Diesel 10 took over the steamworks. Gordon is grand, strong and stern.

Persona

Gordon's important position as the engine who usually pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous and arrogant, with good reason, too; he is the strongest engine on Sodor after all. Gordon's philosophy "tender engines don't shunt" meant that he looked down on tank engines and tender engines who do shunt, but after being locked in the shed with Henry and James after going on strike he seems to have abandoned this philosophy.

Because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the important jobs and either sulks when he doesn't, or gets jealous of those who do. Sometimes, Gordon acts as a bully, particularly towards Edward, but following mis-adventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon had to acknowledge that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine.

Sometimes Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the younger engines advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice isn't exactly honest, though, as James and Sir Handel have discovered.

Basis

According to Sodor "historian" Martin Clutterbuck, Gordon is supposed to be an experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 "Pacific" design for the GNR - the so called "A0". Gordon was then built at Doncaster Works, Yorkshire, and tested against a similar NER Pacific in 1923. Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number, and was later rebuilt at Crewe with LMS underparts and a six-wheel tender, owning to various problems. Gordon has since been rebuilt below the footplate according to Stanier designs, his running plate being Sir Topham Hatt's own design.

Voice Actors

• Neil Crone (Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
• Kerry Shale (US; Hero of the Rails onwards)
• Keith Wickham (UK; Hero of the Rails onwards)

Trivia

• Gordon's model is currently on display in Canada at Nitrogen Studios.
• As of the CGI Series, Gordon's catchphrase is "Oh, the indignity!"
• Gordon is named after a rude boy that lived on the Awdry's street when Christopher was a child.
• The official website inaccurately states that Gordon is a "Liner" (LNER) A3 Pacific.
• Since Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Gordon's rear bogie has been joined to his driving wheel chassis.

Gallery

North Western Railway

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59 Engines | 53 Rolling Stock | 5 Non-Rail Vehicles | 8 People | 15 Lines | 17 Former