Henry

Henry is a big green mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the North Western Railway, usually working along The Main Line. He was originally built as a dysfunctional prototype engine, and needed special Welsh coal to operate properly. Following his accident when pulling the Flying Kipper, Henry underwent an extensive rebuild, giving him a new shape and better performance.

Biography
(Coming Soon)

Personality
Henry is generally well-behaved and friendly, but is sometimes arrogant. Henry is at heart, a very hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work. His illnesses almost always have something to do with his boiler. Unlike Gordon and James, Henry does not mind pulling trucks, especially as he is a mixed traffic engine, although when he is given the job of pulling the express whenever Gordon is unable to, this can get to his smokebox and he can act full of himself. While he does not usually mind pulling trucks Henry hated to shunt his own trains, which led to several miserable days stuck in the sheds after a failed attempt at going on strike.

Basis
Henry's history is unusual. The Fat Controller had intended to buy a Robinson Atlantic of the Great Central Railway, but was swindled and instead received Henry. According to men who worked on Henry pre-rebuild, he had a superficial likeness to Gordon, but the aesthetics were as far as this went. Although Henry's exact origins are difficult to trace, it is generally thought that he was built by an unknown rival locomotive builder to Sir Nigel Gresley, whose spy stole the wrong drawings for Gresley's upcoming A1 pacifics, resulting in Henry.

Henry in this shape developed performance issues from flaws in the design, compounded by his stay in the tunnel. Henry was a bad steamer; with good-quality coal, he could get enough heat to make plenty of steam, but when there was a poor lot delivered, his undersized firebox could not hold enough coal to make a proper fire. On advice from Henry's fireman, the Fat Controller ordered high-grade Welsh Coal, which made an appreciable difference in Henry's performance. In illustrations where Henry is depicted as a 4-6-2, he appears to be based on the LNER Raven Class A2, albeit with the dome moved forward slightly and a modified cab.

When Henry suffered an accident and severe damage in the winter of 1935, the opportunity was taken to send him to Crewe, where he was rebuilt into a London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0.

Livery
Henry is painted in NWR apple green with red and yellow lining. His number 3 is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow. Henry has a cream undercoat.

Behind The Scenes
See Henry's Behind The Scenes Page for more information.

Season 1

 * Henry Tells A Lie

Season 2

 * James, Henry and The Railway Board

Season 3

 * Steam-Friendly

Season 4
(Coming Soon)

Songs
(Coming Soon)

Gallery
See Henry's Gallery Page for more information.

Theme
(Theme Goes Here)

Whistle
(Whistle Goes Here)

Trivia

 * The Reverend Willbert Awdry originally wanted to write Henry out of the Railway Series, seeing how problematic he was. He eventually decided to work with Henry instead.
 * Henry was originally portrayed by a Bachmann Model in Season 1. Sometime during filming, his chassis broke and a Bachmann Thomas one was used in it's place, as seen in the original Engine Roll Call video. Near the end of Season 1, Henry's model was replaced with a Hornby model. One of the Bachmann models' body shells was made into scrap dressing, and the other was sold on eBay.