Godred

    Godred 
 * Number: 1

Godred, named after Godred MacHarold, a famed king of Sodor, is a deceased mountain engine who worked on the Culdee Fell Railway.

Bio
Godred was built at Winterthur in Switzerland in 1896. 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 canonicla sources support Culdee's version of events, which only confounds things more.

Persona
Godred was arrogant and self-centered - 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.

Appearances
Godred only appeared in "Mountain Engines".

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

Livery
Godred is painted purple with orange lining. In a single magazine picture, he was depicted red with black lining and buffers.

Behind the Scenes
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.

Merchandising

 * ERTL (discontinued)