Ashima

Ashima is a brightly-painted Indian tank engine, who works on a standard gauge railway in India. She was one out of many engines to participate in the Great Railway Show, and competed in the Shunting Challenge, and of whom Thomas is very close friends with.

Biography
Ashima was originally a metre gauge engine before she came into a standard gauge engine in 1951.

Ashima was invited to participate in the Great Railway Show for the Shunting Challenge. She, along with the other eleven contestants for the show, came to Sodor by mistake when the ferry they were on accidentally stopped at Sodor instead of England, and she was accidentally left behind when the ferry left with all the other engines except her. Ashima, lost and not knowing the way to the Mainland, tried to ask Thomas for his help, but Thomas, who was already jealous of her, refused to assist her. Ashima soon managed to befriend Thomas, and she convinced him that he did not need to change for the competition, and suggested that he participate in the Shunting Challenge, but Thomas was involved in an accident which put him out of the competition. Ashima was taken to the Mainland with the other Sudrian engines who would be competing in the Great Railway Show.

After arriving and watching the Best Decorated Engine parade, Ashima was questioned by Emily on why she did not compete, revealing to the Sudrian engines she would compete in the Shunting Challenge. She does so alongside Ivan, Raul, Gina and Thomas, who had managed to arrive to the Great Railway Show after all and took Percy's place. During the race, she helped Thomas hold Vinnie back when he was bullying Philip, and also pulled Thomas back when a pylon nearly fell on him. During the end of the competition, Ashima ended up winning after Thomas sacrificed his own chance to win when he spotted a derailed flatbed on her track, but the judges made the both of them the winners of the competition. Ashima returned to Sodor with the Sudrian engines, where she would then return back to India.

Some time later, Thomas visits Ashima in her homeland of India, where he spends some time working on the Indian Railway. While there, he is formally introduced to Rajiv, whom he had not had a chance to meet back at The Great Railway Show, and learns from Ashima about how elephants used to help out in the yards when the engines were busy. He later finds her waiting for a cow that's fast asleep on the tracks in front of her to wake up and move, not wanting to disturb it due to how cows were sacred in India. She later arrives to find that Thomas had suffered a minor derailment as Rajiv had shown up with the Indian Breakdown Cranes, but Thomas explains that a female elephant helped him back on the tracks. Ashima recognized the elephant as an old friend, Trusty Trunky, whom had helped her previously, and shares a laugh with Thomas and Rajiv after Trusty Trunky hosed the mud off Thomas, splashing Rajiv a bit in the process.

She is later at the station as it is being used to film a Bollywood movie, and learns that her Controller, Charubala, and the film's director, have asked Thomas to take the lead actor to the site of the next scenes to be filmed. Before that, Thomas inquired as to what a Bollywood movie was, and Ashima explains how it is India's version of the movies filmed in Hollywood in the United States. She is also in awe when Rajiv reveals he is performing in the movie as well. Thomas later daydreams of himself saving Ashima from plunging off a broken bridge, with Ashima calling him a hero for it.

Basis
Ashima is based on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway X class. She is based off of the oil-burning version of the engine. These engines are built to run on metre gauge rails, but unlike Ashima, Ashima was rescaled from metre gauge to standard gauge.

Livery
Ashima is painted hot pink with white and royal blue lining. Her wheels and bufferbeam are also painted royal blue, and she bears several bright green , white and orange patterns, inspired by Indian textiles and Henna Tattoos. In addition, the flower petal designs on her front cylinder block was based on her basis X-37385's.