Godred

"Godred never learnt sense. His driver and firemen, and the manager all spoke to him. They even took him to pieces to see if anything was wrong, but he still went on in the same old way."

- Culdee, Bad Look Out, Mountain Engines

   Godred   Godred, named after Godred MacHarold, a famed king of Sodor, was a pompous mountain engine who worked on the Culdee Fell Railway.
 * Number: 1
 * Builder: Winterthur
 * Built: 1895
 * Arrived on Sodor: 1900
 * Scrapped: 1900
 * Configuration: 0-4-2

Bio
Godred was built at the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1895. He was arrogant from the start, and believed that should he have any trouble his automatic brakes would save him. Of course, barely a month after the railway's opening he came off the rails and was sent to the shed in disgrace. According to Culdee, he was subsequently cannibalised for his parts. However, the true nature of Godred's demise is debatable, as it was said the whole tale was made up; then again, all other canonical sources support Culdee's version of events, which only confounds things more.

Persona
Godred was careless, reckless, arrogant, and self-centred - Culdee believes this may have been because of the nature of his naming. Godred put too much faith in his automatic brakes, despite all the warnings, and paid the price.

Basis
Godred was based on the Snowdon Railway's L.A.D.A.S., who also suffered a similar fate.

L.A.D.A.S' accident was caused by subsidence of the track, leading to the pinion wheel disengaging - this was amended by fitting guard-bars to the rack-rail. Since the Culdee Fell Railway opened four years later, it seems likely that guard-bars would have been required by the Board of Trade from the outset, implying a different chain of events causing the derailment, somehow disengaging both the pinion wheels and the gripper fitted to the engine which connects with the guard-bars to prevent such an event.

The most likely explanation is that the Reverend W. Awdry wanted his fictional railway to mirror its real-life counterpart as closely as possible, but as this would involve the "death" of a character, he chose to end it as he did in order to avoid upsetting his readers.

Livery
Godred was painted purple with orange lining. In Culdee's Story, he was painted red with yellow lining.

Railway Series

 * Mountain Engines

Magazine stories

 * 1997 - Culdee's Story (does not speak)

Quotes

 * "We have no money to mend you," said our manager, "So you'll go to the back of the shed." As time went on, poor Godred got smaller and smaller, until nothing was left.
 * "What, What, What happened?" asked Duncan anxiously.
 * "It's not nice to talk about," said Culdee.
 * "But what happened?! Why isn't it nice?"
 * "Our drivers used Godred's parts to mend us," answered Culdee mournfully.

- Culdee and Duncan discussing Godred's fate, "Bad Look-Out"

Merchandise

 * ERTL (discontinued)
 * Trading Cards (discontinued)