Henry

"First the rain, then an elephant. Whatever will you be afraid of next?"

- Gordon, "Henry and the Elephant", fourth season

    Henry the Green Engine 
 * Number: 3
 * Class: LMS Stanier "Black 5" 4-6-0 with Fowler tender, originally GNR Ivatt Class C1/LNER Gresley Class A1/A3 hybrid 4-6-0
 * Designers: Sir Topham Hatt I and William Stanier
 * Build date: 1920, rebuilt 1950
 * Configuration: 4-6-0, originally 4-6-2
 * Arrived on Sodor: 1920s

Henry is a hypochondriac mixed-traffic engine.

Bio
Henry was built around 1920 from plans stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley and was something like a cross between a GNR/LNER Class A3 and a GNR C1 Atlantic. He was sold to Sir Topham Hatt, who was desperate for a locomotive.

Henry was vain and in August 1922 he stopped in a tunnel and refused to come out, citing that his paintwork would be spoilt by the rain. After several attempts to move him failed he was bricked up in the tunnel until Gordon broke down while pulling the Express.

Following this incident Henry was repainted in blue, but was later painted green again. He soon started to develop problems steaming however. This was attributed to his firebox's small size and Henry began using Welsh coal; but in February 1950 Henry had a collision with a goods train at Killdane and was sent to Crewe to be rebuilt. Henry was rebuilt into a Stanier 5MT. Sir Topham Hatt had connections with Sir William Stanier, so this may be the reason he managed to get Henry rebuilt so quickly.

In 1986, Henry was sent to Crovan's Gate to be rebuilt with a set of three full splashers over his driving wheels.

Persona
Henry is generally well-behaved, but he is occasionally arrogant and vain. Henry is at heart a hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work.

In the television series, Henry has being portrayed a nature-lover as evidence in Henry's Forest. This personality carried on throughout the most recent seasons, with Henry being occasionally a tree-hugging engine too as he tried to prevent the tall pine tree and the wishing tree from being cut down.

Appearances
Henry's Railway Series appearances are listed below:
 * "The Three Railway Engines"
 * "Thomas the Tank Engine" (does not speak)
 * "James the Red Engine" (does not speak)
 * "Tank Engine Thomas Again"
 * "Troublesome Engines"
 * "Henry the Green Engine"
 * "Gordon the Big Engine"
 * "Edward the Blue Engine"
 * "Four Little Engines"
 * "Percy the Small Engine" (does not speak)
 * "The Eight Famous Engines"
 * "Duck and the Diesel Engine"
 * "The Little Old Engine" (cameo)
 * "The Twin Engines"
 * "Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine"
 * "Main Line Engines"
 * "Small Railway Engines" (mentioned)
 * "Enterprising Engines"
 * "Oliver the Western Engine"
 * "Really Useful Engines"
 * "James and the Diesel Engines"
 * "Great Little Engines" (mentioned)
 * "More About Thomas the Tank Engine"
 * "Gordon the High-Speed Engine"
 * "Thomas and the Great Railway Show"
 * "Thomas Comes Home"
 * "Henry and the Express"
 * "Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines"

Henry has appeared in every season of the television series.

Basis
Henry was built as a GNR C1 4-6-2 Atlantic tender engine and was rebuilt as a GNR Class C1/LNER A1/A3 Pacific hybrid. After his second rebuilt, at Crewe, he became an LMS Stanier 5MT "Black 5" 4-6-0.

Henry bears a square Belpaire firebox, a tapered GNR Class C1/LNER Class A3-style boiler and an LNER Class A3-style cab. He has added splashers for his driving wheels, two cab windows, a low-capacity Fowler tender which replaced his previous six-wheel LNER B12-style tender.

In the television series, Henry has always had a one-window cab and an LNER-style tender.

Livery
Henry is currently painted NWR green with NWR red-and-yellow lining and the number "3" painted on his tender sides in yellow. He was originally painted LNER green, but he was repainted NWR blue with NWR red and yellow lining at the end of "The Three Railway Engines" and remained so until the beginning of "Troublesome Engines". In "Henry and the Express" he was briefly painted orange-red as an undercoat before his standard green coat was applied.

They're two, they're four, they're six, they're . . . seven?
The Reverend W. Awdry had a great deal of trouble with Henry. He was unhappy with C. Reginald Dalby's illustrations: he looked almost identical to Gordon, more so while he was painted blue - in "Tank Engine Thomas Again" Henry looked completely identical to Gordon, but this was passed off by explaining he needed to use Gordon's buffers while his were being repaired. To make matters worse, he was illustrated inconsistently, often having several different shapes within the space of a single story - in most of Dalby's illustrations Henry was portrayed as a 4-6-0, but occasionally he became a 4-6-2 instead.

Awdry's original idea had been to write Henry out of the series, but by "Henry the Green Engine" he had decided to instead have Henry involved in a serious accident, allowing him to be rebuilt into a Class 5MT. As this was a real locomotive, Dalby was thus forced to be consistent.

Is that Henry or Henry?
There is a certain amount of argument over Henry's rebuild, caused by "The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways", which was written to provide historical background to the Railway Series and to correct pictorial inconsistencies that had occurred in earlier volumes. The Reverend W. Awdry claimed that the pre-rebuild and post-rebuild Henry were actually two completely separate engines, although in the Railway Series Henry seemed familiar with events that happened before the crash. Henry's memory could have simply survived the rebuild, but as both sources can be considered equally canonical the question of whether there have been two Henrys or one will likely remain unanswered.

According to "TIOS" Henry was an experimental locomotive built from plans stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley, but the wrong plans were taken and the locomotive built was so riddled with faults that the only person who could be persuaded to buy it was the Fat Controller, who, at the time, was desperate for any locomotive he could get.

"TIOS" also featured a biography of the Fat Controller, which mentioned that he was apprenticed with Stanier at Swindon Works. It is possible that this was another piece of retcon added explain how Henry was able to be rebuilt so easily - something that even the Reverend W. Awdry admitted was "a mystery".

In "Sodor: Reading Between the Lines" Henry was said to look very much like a Stanier 5MT, which suggests that he is not totally identical to one of these engines. It is not clear why Christopher Awdry should have felt the need to contradict his father, but it could simply be a combination of errors and publication deadlines.

Metal surgery
Although Henry was never portrayed as a 4-6-2 in the television series, major differences have been noticed between the model of Henry as used in the television series and illustrations of Henry in the Railway Series. In the television, his old shape appears to have been used as his new shape as well: Henry's old shape appears to be identical to his newer one; the only difference is the presence of a sand hatch and a different firebox. This could have been done for ease of the changeover to his "Black 5"-esque appearance.

If looked at closely, when Henry collided with a goods train in the first season episode "The Flying Kipper", which necessitated his new shape, his sand hatch was already fitted, In another continuity error, during a head-on shot after Henry returned from his rebuild, his old shape is used.

When new models for the television series were made in 2000, Henry was given a cutoff splasher where his old shape's tapered boiler and old cutoff splasher was.

"As black as . . . er . . . soot"
Henry was at the centre of what might be the most controversial story in the history of the Railway Series. In the story "Henry's Sneeze" in "Henry the Green Engine", Henry got revenge on some stone-throwing boys by "sneezing" at them. The text said that the boys in question were left "as black as n******" by the joke. Despite being published in the 1950s, this comment was not discussed until 1972; so controversial was the issue then that it was reported in the national press. Awdry replied that the race relations board was being over-sensitive, which only made the public think he was a racist. To solve the problem, he changed the offending sentence to "as black as soot", which has been used in every subsequent edition of the book.

Henry was the focus of Awdry's irritation once again in the nineties, when the third season of the television series aired. This series featured a number of episodes that had not been adapted from the Railway Series, some of which annoyed Awdry with their lack of realism. The episode that particularly irked him was "Henry's Forest".

Awdry's complaints were directed at two aspects of the episode in particular. One was that it was unrealistic to have a railway running through a forest; Britt Allcroft, the series' producer at the time, countered by claiming that she had seen a number of railways that do just that. The other one was that Henry stopped to admire the view without alerting the signalman - a direct violation of British Railways' Rule 55. This, Awdry argued, would never be allowed to happen in real life, and would be highly unsafe.

In the fifth season episode "James and the Trouble with Trees", some trees were removed because "the Fat Controller says they're too close to the line". This may have been a way of amending this error.

Henry on the big screen
Henry was voiced by Kevin Frank in "Thomas and the Magic Railroad". In the movie, Henry had an American accent and suffered from boiler trouble due to deposits left by fumes from Diesel 10. This time, his sickness was cured by "Sodor coal".

Quotes

 * ''"You're too fat. You need exercise."

- Thomas, "Tank Engine Thomas Again"


 * ''"I don't disappear into the background like some engines I could mention. If it weren't for the noise, you'd need a yellow and black front like Mavis."

- James, "James and the Diesel Engines"


 * ''" . . . he (the Fat Controller) didn't like your sneeze, I seem to remember."

- Gordon, "Gordon the High-Speed Engine"


 * ''"An overhaul, is it? Sounds like you need retiring, you poor old thing."

- James, "Henry and the Express"

Merchandising

 * ERTL (discontinued)
 * LC Wooden (normal and in blue and green livery)
 * Take-Along (normal and metallic)
 * "My First Thomas"
 * TOMY/Trackmaster
 * Hornby
 * Bachmann
 * Tomix
 * My Thomas Story Library

Trivia

 * Henry has appeared in the Railway Series more than any other engine, having been in both the most books and the most individual stories.
 * In the 1997 "Thomas" annual Henry's driver's name was revealed to be Ted.
 * Henry was voiced by Ryō Horikawa in the Japanese narration until the end of the eighth season, at which time Junichi Kanemaru became his new voice actor.
 * The Learning Curve Wooden range depicts Henry with his wheel covers above his driving wheels.
 * Awdry's own model of Henry was as troublesome as his fictional counterpart: it never really worked properly. The model was eventually scrapped but never replaced.
 * Keith Wickham will begin voicing Henry in Hero of the Rails, in the UK.
 * William Hope will voice Henry in the US, from Hero of the Rails onwards.