Gordon

Gordon is a big blue express engine who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only remaining brother. Gordon is also one of the fastest and strongest engines on the Island of Sodor, and his main task is to pull "The Wild Nor' Wester", the railway's express train. At times, this leads to him feeling superior.

Biography
Gordon was built at Doncaster in 1922 as an experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley’s A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Inevitably there were faults which needed correction; so Gordon was kept "hush hush" and, apart from test runs, was never put into regular traffic or given a GNR number. He was used experimentally untill all defects had been cured and the first batch of Pacifics had appeared in 1922/23. In 1923 therefore Gordon was no longer needed, and was sold to the NWR together with a spare boiler and firebox.

During Gordon's early years on the railway, he often looked down on the smaller engines like Edward and Thomas. However, he would soon find he needed help from Edward to be his banker after he got stuck on a hill with a train of trucks. He also needed Edward and Henry to pull his passenger train after he broke his safety valve in front of Henry's Tunnel.

Gordon often found Thomas very annoying for whistling rudely at him, so he taught him a lesson by bringing him along his express train before he could be uncoupled. Thomas usually fetched the coaches for him, however, after Thomas left the yard when he was given a branch line, Gordon, along with Henry and James, soon found that they had to fetch their own coaches. After the big engines had several mishaps, one of which involved Gordon having to pull his train backwards, Gordon proposed that they all go on strike, where they would only pull their coaches if another engine fetched them. Edward was the only engine left and since he was a tender engine and that Gordon proposed that tender engines do not shunt, they started to discriminate against Edward until the Fat Controller decided to leave them in the shed until they learned the error of their ways.

After Gordon, Henry and James saw how silly they were, the Fat Controller let them out, reminding them to behave and bought a tank engine named Percy to help fetch their coaches. Gordon almost had a run-in accident with Percy when he carelessly stood on the Main Line. After Percy ran away backwards and stopped in a pile of dirt, Gordon helped him out. Gordon was still arrogant and insulted Henry for the way he whistled. However, he ate his own words when his whistle jammed and he went running down the main line whistling continuously. He did not stop until a fitter climbed up and knocked his whistle in place.

Gordon is mainly used for passenger duties, pulling the North Western Railway's express, the Wild Nor' Wester, but has occasionally pulled goods trains, much to his dislike. He has been known to run into ditches and stop on hills to get out of doing these jobs, as he believes that these are below him.

In 1939, Gordon went to Crewe for a rebuild. His conjugated valve gear, which had been giving much trouble, was replaced by a two-cylinder chassis (designed by the Fat Controller), he received a smoother running plate, Stanier underframes and cylinders. This rebuild effectively made him a Gresley/Stanier hybrid.

Gordon has become famous after his adventures: In 1952, he was forbidden from pulling passenger trains following his incident in the ditch he caused, but after a period of good behavior, by 1953, his punishment ended and he pulled Queen Elizabeth II's royal train. In 1956, he travelled to London, where he was lauded by a large crowd. Gordon did not like the visit, however, as he discovered that London's big station was St. Pancras, which he thought was King's Cross.

In 1957, when Diesel arrived on trial and was having trouble moving some old trucks, he decided to make rumours about Duck giving Gordon a bad nickname, the "Galloping Sausage." So he, Henry and James began to turn against Duck by forbidding him from the shed. However, when the truth came out that Duck had not made the nicknames, they begin to feel very silly about jumping to conclusions before knowing the true story.

In 1965, Gordon complained about BoCo going on the main line, because the diesel only works on Edward's Branch Line. He claims that the Fat Controller would never agree and states that branch lines are vulgar. That night, Gordon's crew mistakenly claimed that the passenger with a green hat is the guard waving his green flag. As a result, Gordon leaves with the majority of the passengers, the luggage, and the guard stranded on the platform. Everyone is surprised, but the surprise quickly gives way to anger. This makes Gordon so embarrassed, he brought his train back down to the big station as Edward was already late with his train. But the signalman at the junction was not told about the change. Because of this, Edward was sent to the main line and Gordon was sent down to Edward's branch line.

In 1967, Gordon felt devastated about his siblings were all scrapped on the Mainland, but happy to hear that his brother Flying Scotsman was preserved, when the Fat Controller brought him to reunite with Gordon.

Then, in 1986, Gordon got to visit Carlisle when a Diesel taking a Railtour failed.

As Gordon could not go far on the Other Railway due to a lack of waterpipes, Gordon would have to change places with a diesel locomotive at Barrow, who would take the Wild Nor' Wester onwards to London. By the early 2000's, however, this wasted too much time and the timetable was considered too slow. Sir Stephen Hatt decided to buy Pip and Emma to run the service, as they are capable of doing a complete round trip every day, which he did so in 2011. Gordon now pulls fast passenger trains, which he prefers as he can do two round trips per day instead of one and does not need to hurry.

Gordon's last train of the day stops at all the stations on the Main Line. One evening, delays on the Other Railway resulted in him being late. At Killdane, he encountered a fire and he urged his driver to do something; his driver used a hose to put out the fire with water from Gordon's tender. Following this, the Fire Brigade recommended him for The Queen's Fire Service Medal, which he is very proud of.

Basis
According to ]The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Gordon was built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire. Once the first batch of A1 Pacifics appeared in 1922 Gordon would have more than likely have been reclassified A1/1 - the '/1' indicating he is slightly different to the rest of the class.

Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number and was never put into regular traffic, he was only ever used on test runs. Owing to various problems Gordon was rebuilt in 1939 at Crewe. Sir Topham Hatt and Sir William Stanier worked together to rectify these problems - everything under the running board is of Stanier's design while the running board itself is that of Sir Topham Hatt's. In both the Railway Series and television series, Gordon is depicted with a Fowler tender.

His valve gear is similar to that of the LMS Stanier Pacifics in the illustrations, but in the TV Series, he and Henry share the same valve gear.

As "The Shooting Star", Gordon's appearance is based on a streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad K4 (Hank's class), specifically #3768.

Livery
Gordon is painted in NWR sky blue with red and yellow lining. His number is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow. Before arriving on Sodor, he was painted in GNR apple green with white and black lining.