Mike

"Give me goods trains every time."

- Mike, Small Railway Engines

  CGI Series= |-|Railway Series=   Mike    Mike is a strong red engine who prefers goods trains to passengers. He is the youngest out of the original three Arlesdale Railway engines.
 * Builder: Clarksons of York
 * Built: 1966
 * Gauge: 15 inch
 * Configuration: 2-8-2
 * Arrived on Sodor: 1967

Bio in the Railway Series
Mike worked on an unnamed line in England until 1967, at which time their line closed down and he, Rex and Bert, were sent to Sodor to work the Arlesdale Railway. Not long after arrival, Mike mocked Duck when the latter had trouble with his whistle making unusual noises, which lead to Rex telling Mike to lose his whistle. While pulling a passenger train, a stray cow had wandered onto the line and Mike whistled so loudly to make her move that his whistle flew off. This meant that his crew and passengers had to whistle for him. To make matters worse, there were no spare whistles for Mike so he was sent to the quarries for the rest of the day. Mike would soon come across some sheep on the line and complained about how silly they were, with Rex pointing out how useful they were with their wool.

Mike, along with the other small engines, were offered to be in a book about Duke if they behaved. When the rescue team found him, Mike brought tools to help him out of the shed.

Years later, a few months after Jock came into service, Mike decided to pay the new engine back for all his cockiness. So, whilst double-heading a passenger train, Mike reduced steam after the Green, causing Jock to pull him and the passenger train alone. However, Mike's plan backfired when his injector failed on the return journey and Jock had to take him home. After being mended, Mike apologised to Jock.

Bio in the Television Series
When Marion meets the small railway engines for the first time, Mike took her belief that they were magical much less kindly than the other two. The following day when Thomas came up to Arlesburgh West, depressed about being sent to work on the new branch line as punishment for derailing the Express Coaches. Mike, along with the others, sang "Never Overlook A Little Engine" to cheer him up. However, this lead to Thomas becoming overly eager to be useful, which lead to him falling into Calles Cavern. At dusk that day, Mike was shunting ballast wagons onto the chute when Marion reappeared at their junction to make a wish; while Rex and Bert managed to escape unnoticed, Marion trapped Mike on the chute with her shovel and held on until she made her wish. Mike escaped at full speed when Marion let go, but this only strengthened Marion's belief. When Sailor John went through with The Pirate Ship two nights later, the three small engines shunted a train of ballast wagons off the chute in front of the ship to decrease its speed after hearing Thomas approaching the junction. The ship ran over most of the hoppers, but one got caught under the flatbed the ship was on, lifting its front bogey off the track and slowing it down as a result. A loose rope from the ship then got caught on Ryan's buffer and he was able to derail the slowing ship.

As in the Railway Series, Mike loses his whistle when he came across a cow, and his temper when he came across some sheep.

Persona
Mike can sometimes appear a little arrogant. He thinks he should be in charge of the other two engines, though neither of them really let him boss them around. Bert simply humours him, but Rex goes out of his way to tease Mike and wind him up, which is not very difficult. Mike much prefers pulling goods trains to passengers, unlike Gordon, as he considers goods much more straightforward and less likely to complain. He is proud of his strength and appears rather confident, but he would not be so easy to tease if he was not hiding at least a little insecurity. He can sometimes be a little irritable, and it's not uncommon for him to overheat when he loses his temper.

Basis
Mike is based on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway's River Mite.

Livery
Mike is painted red with blue and yellow lining. He has a brass dome, brass builder's plates on the sides of his cab, red nameplates with gold writing mounted on each side of his boiler and "ARLESDALE" written on the sides of his tender in yellow. According to Rex, Mike used to be painted green. In the Railway Series his wheels are black, but in the television series they are red.

Appearances
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The Railway Series

 * Small Railway Engines - Ballast, Tit for Tat, Mike's Whistle, and Useful Railway
 * Oliver the Western Engine - Donald's Duck (not named; does not speak) and Resource and Sagacity (cameo)
 * Duke the Lost Engine - Sleeping Beauty
 * Jock the New Engine - We Need Another Engine (does not speak), Sticking Power, Jock, and Teamwork
 * Wilbert the Forest Engine - Wired-Up (does not speak)

Companion volumes

 * 1970 - Twelve Happy Engines (mentioned)
 * 1972 - The Railway Series: Surprise Packet
 * 1976 - Famous Engines and Railway Map of the Island of Sodor
 * 1979 - Annual
 * 1980 - Annual
 * 1987 - The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways (mentioned)
 * 1996 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection
 * 2005 - Sodor: Reading Between the Lines (mentioned)
 * 2007 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The New Collection

Television Series

 * Season 20 - The Way She Does It (cameo), Tit for Tat, Mike's Whistle and Useful Railway

Specials:
 * Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure
 * The Great Race
 * Journey Beyond Sodor

Music Videos:
 * Never Overlook A Little Engine and Will You Won't You

Learning Segments:
 * Guess Who? Puzzles

Books
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 * 2007 - Thomas' Giant Coloring Book
 * 2008 - Thomas' Sticker Express
 * 2015 - Pirate Treasure, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure (does not speak), Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure: Sticker Activity Book, and Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure: The Movie Storybook (does not speak)

Voice Actors

 * Tim Whitnall (UK/US)
 * Tomohiro Tsuboi (Japan)
 * Waldemar Barwiński (Poland)
 * Stan Limburg (The Netherlands)
 * Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Latin America; Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure only)
 * Christian Strempler (Latin America; twentieth season onwards)
 * Dor Srugo (Israel)
 * Constantin von Westphalen (Germany)

Trivia

 * Tim Whitnall gives Mike a West Country accent.
 * In Mike's trading card promo, he is depicted as a 4-8-2 along with Rex and Bert and is missing his front coupling hook.
 * When Mike was introduced in the television series, he gained a brakepipe, a lamp above his smoke box, and his buffers became more oval-shaped.
 * He has had the most merchandise of any small engine.

Merchandise

 * Wooden Railway (discontinued 2005; reintroduced 2015)
 * Take Along (discontinued)
 * Take-n-Play
 * Collectible Railway
 * Trading Cards (discontinued)
 * TrackMaster
 * Capsule Plarail