Awdry's Railway Series Wiki
Register
Advertisement
OldIronRS8

Edward the Blue Engine is a blue 4-4-0 tender engine with red stripes, about the same size as James, and is the Number 2 engine on the North Western Railway. Like James, he is a mixed traffic engine, meaning he can easily pull freight or passengers, and unlike most of the big engines he does not mind trucks; he even enjoys shunting them in the yards. He is one of the major characters in both the Railway Series books and the Thomas & Friends television series.

Edward was first featured in The Three Railway Engines, the first book in The Railway Series, in 1945, and played a prominent role in his own book, Edward the Blue Engine in 1954.

Personality[]

Edward is a kind engine, who typically is keen to help a friend in need and knows how to treat them respectfully. He works hard but the big engines tend to see him as old-fashioned and slow. The smaller engines such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Percy the Small Engine, Toby the Tram Engine and Duck the Great Western Engine respect him greatly and stick up for him whenever he is criticised. He had the special assignment of acting as a pilot engine for the Royal Train when the Queen visited the railway.

Edward has proven time and time again that despite his age he is capable of working as hard as any other engine. Many stories revolving around him, both in the books and TV series, have involved Edward proving his worth to the others, though later TV episodes have portrayed him more as being weak and inexperienced, whereas the classic stories highlight how resourceful and determined he is. The most notable examples are Old Iron, in which he earned himself an overhaul by selflessly helping to capture a runaway James, and Edward's Exploit, in which he brought home a special train despite a breakdown, caused by one of his coupling rods breaking.

The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways cites Edward was sold for a nominal sum in 1921 from the Furness Railway, and in 1948 he was put in charge of his own Branch Line. This coincided with the opening of the adjoining China Clay Workings, which meant a versatile engine would be needed to handle the increased traffic experienced on the branch. Since 1965 Edward has been assisted by BoCo, a diesel engine.

In more recent years, the NWR became aware of duplicate records from the archive of the Vulcan Foundry locomotive factory in Newton-le-Willows. They revealed that Edward had been dispatched to Vulcan Foundry in 1924 for a contracted rebuild, devised by the first Sir Topham Hatt. It explains his unique shape, replacing his low saturated boiler with a raised superheated one; piston valves in place of his old sliding inside motion, as well as a redesigned cab and the provision of a larger tender. Following tests he was ready to return, with the cited prospect a similar engine would be obtained to benefit economy of parts in the long run, which apparently led to James's purchase.

Charlie Sand and Sidney Hever[]

Edward is the only engine whose driver and fireman are named in The Railway Series (Henry's driver was named in the annuals, being 'Ted'). In the foreword to Edward the Blue Engine, their names are given as Charlie Sand and Sidney Hever, and in the story Saved from Scrap, their names are mentioned.

These names are puns on their jobs. One of an engine driver's jobs is to sand the rails when they are slippery in order to allow the engine to grip. A fireman's job is to "heave" the coal from the tender or coal bunker to the engine's fire.

Their first names come from a real engine crew named Charlie and Sidney on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway (see Toby the Tram Engine).

Behind the Scenes[]

Edward was the first character created for The Railway Series in 1942. The inspiration for the character came from the Rev. W. Awdry watching trains on the Great Western Railway as a child. He said in interviews with Brian Sibley that to him, the noise of the locomotives' exhaust almost sounded like dialogue. For instance, the larger engines having trouble climbing the hills would appear to be saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it," and the smaller engines helping them would sound like they were saying, "I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!" This was the direct inspiration for the second story in The Three Railway Engines, 'Edward and Gordon'. The first story was 'Edward's Day Out', which was an introduction to the character.

Unlike later characters in the Railway Series, Edward is not directly based upon any particular class of locomotive, but typifies a late 19th century/early 20th century 4-4-0. The Rev. Awdry stated Edward is based on a heavily modified Sharp, Stewart & Co. "Larger Seagull" locomotive supplied to the Furness Railway in 1896. This was evidently decided as he worked out the geography of Sodor and it became apparent the Furness Railway (which was grouped into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway in 1923) was the closest mainland railway. Martin Clutterbuck however notes that Edward bears a closer resemblance to certain Scottish locomotives of the North British Railway, notably the D20.

The Furness origin for Edward is once again brought up in Thomas and Victoria, as Edward and Victoria are both from that area. The Reverend Awdry used a model of a LMS Class 2P 4-4-0 class to represent Edward on his model railway.

Inspiration[]

The inspiration for Edward himself 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!" Later, Reverend Awdry told his son a bedtime story about an engine who was sad because he was never taken out of the shed for being old. Upon being asked what the engine's name was by his son, the Reverend Awdry picked the name Edward out of thin air.

Advertisement