Edward

Edward is a blue mixed-traffic tender engine. Edward runs his own branch line with BoCo in Wellsworth, where he later moved to. Edward is one of the oldest engines on Sodor and is occasionally made fun of for his age. Despite this setback, he is also very wise and optimistic and spreads his knowledge and encouraging attitude towards the other engines and is very clever. Edward was the first character created in the Railway Series.

Bio
Edward is very kindhearted, mature, wise and 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. Edward was also the voice of reason to some of the engines. If ever an engine misbehaves or acts out, it is Edward that the Fat Controller turns to in order to soothe things out. As he runs a branch line, Edward knows the responsibilities it takes to be successful doing so, including shunting. This sometimes puts him at odds with Gordon, James and Henry, who firmly believed that tender engines are too important for menial jobs such as shunting. Because of this, Edward found himself treated harshly for his shunting duties until Sir Topham Hatt shut the big engines up in their sheds.

Basis
The Rev. W. Awdry himself stated that Edward is based on a heavily modified Sharp, Stewart and Company "Larger Seagull" K2 class, supplied to the Furness Railway in 1896.

Sodor "historian" Martin Clutterbuck noted that Edward bears a close resemblance to an LNER D34 "Glen" (NBR Reid Class K) 4-4-0 and an LNER D20 (NER Class R) from the London and North Eastern Railway. He also bears a striking resemblance to an LNER D40 (GNSR Class F). The Reverend W. Awdry also used an LMS Class 2P to represent Edward on his model railway. Some fans have even compared Edward to the LSWR T9 Class, which has a similar general shape.

Visible Crovan's Gate modifications are: making the rear splashers flush with the cab, removal of the coupling rod splashers, new cab windows as opposed to cutaways in his cab side sheets and square cab lookouts as opposed to the original round ones. In both The Railway Series and television series, Edward has a Fowler tender.

Appearances

 * The Beginning