Gertrude and Millicent/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Gertrude and Millicent are fictional narrow gauge coaches created by the Rev. W. Awdry.

Gertrude and Millicent originally belonged to the Mid Sodor Railway, but where later rescued and restored by the Skarloey Railway. The coaches have only been depicted with faces in illustrations by Edgar Hodges.

He first appeared in the Railway Series book, The Little Old Engine, which was published in 1959. His last appearance was in New Little Engine, published in 1996.

Illustrations of Gertrude and Millicent:

Television Series
Gertrude and Millicent were not introduced in Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. Their roles in the television adaption of Home at Last were omitted.

While all the narrow gauge coaches in the Railway Series were female, any instance of the coaches in the television series being referred to in gender-specific pronouns were removed and omitted. This is could of been a result of sexism allegations centred around the fact that the engines were almost invariably male, while the coaches were always female which surfaced in the 1980s. This could of attributed as to why Gertrude and Millicent never appeared in the television series.