Hiro

"Thomas, my friend. You must not worry. My welcome present is right here. Being here with my friends is the biggest present of all and the most special present from Sodor, there is nothing more special!"

- Hiro, The Biggest Present of All, thirteenth season

   Hiro   Hiro is a wise Japanese engine, who was famously known as the "Master of the Railway".
 * Number: 51
 * Class: JNR D51
 * Designer: Hideo Shima
 * Builder: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company
 * Built: Between 1936 and 1951
 * Configuration: 2-8-2
 * Top Speed: 55 mph

Bio
Hiro once lived on a railway in Japan. He was the strongest engine on his railway, and was famously known as the "Master of the Railway". He was eventually brought to Sodor, where he worked for many years. However, he began to show his age and the workmen did not have the necessary parts to repair him. To escape being scrapped, he was put on a siding, where he had to wait for the parts to come from his homeland. However, the parts never came and Hiro was all but forgotten.

Thomas eventually found him and, fearing Hiro would be scrapped if he was not Really Useful, promised to bring him back to his former glory while keeping him a secret from the Fat Controller. Thomas also had the rest of the Steam Team help in the restoration and Hiro quickly gained their friendship. After breaking down again while trying to avoid Spencer, Hiro was hidden away in another siding, where the engines visited him and kept him company.

When the Fat Controller found out about the situation, Hiro was brought to the Sodor Steamworks, where Victor oversaw his restoration. Once Hiro was restored, he helped Spencer after his accident and worked with him and Thomas to finish The Duke and Duchess of Boxford's summer house. Despite everything, Hiro had grown homesick, so the Fat Controller arranged for him to be sent back to his homeland.

Hiro eventually came back to Sodor to help the engines with the summer holiday traffic. Upon his arrival, Hiro went to the Steamworks to be examined and then went to Knapford station for his welcome party, which was almost delayed as Thomas was trying to find a welcome present for Hiro instead of telling the other engines about the party. But, Hiro told Thomas that having his friends at the party was the best welcome present. During his visit, Hiro told Thomas to take the load of bees through the woods, which Thomas ignored. However, Thomas took Hiro's advice after taking Hiro's flower truck to get the bees back to their hives. Later on, Hiro saw the Fat Controller and assumed he was too busy to give orders to his engines. So, he tried to help the Fat Controller by giving out the orders - but he only succeeded in becoming "Master of the Muddle". However, he made up for his mistakes by telling the engines to go to Knapford and await orders from the Fat Controller.

Hiro is still on loan to the Fat Controller. He saw Jobi Wood being delivered to the Docks and told Thomas about where it came from. He later pushed Henry to the Steamworks to have his side-rods repaired and when Hiro became homesick, Thomas took him to Misty Island, which reminded Hiro of his home.

Later on Hiro, along with Henry, took on some bad coal. While Henry did not want to carry on, Hiro was determined to get the job done. He did so, but during his next job of transporting girders with Henry, Hiro broke down and Henry had to come to the rescue.

Once, Diesel tried to teach him how to handle trucks, suggesting that the only way of tackling them was with force. However, Hiro insisted that being gentle was the best policy. However, when Diesel stuck to his own belief, he ended up causing Hiro's milk churns to spill over the Fat Controller — twice! After this, Diesel was found out and Hiro was tasked with teaching Diesel the correct way to treat trucks!

In the eighteenth season, he stopped Caitlin while he was on the Mainland after she accidentally took Annie and Clarabel and brought them back to Thomas on Sodor. Later, he helped clear the tracks so Connor could deliver the last of his passengers on Christmas Eve and nearly mistook Harold for Santa Claus.

After six years of virtually no accidents at all, Hiro derailed at a bend when he hit some pipes which came loose from Thomas' train. With his left side severely damaged, he was sent to the Steamworks to be repaired again.

In the twentieth season, at Christmas, he had the job of taking the mail to the Mainland to be delivered to the North Pole. Percy was supposed to bring more mail, but got stuck in a snowdrift meaning Hiro had to leave without it. Harold managed to catch up to him and give him the rest of the mail.

He would later go to the Great Railway Show to compete in the Strongest Engine Race, representing his home country of Japan.

Persona
Hiro is an old steam engine who has been on Sodor for a very long time and was originally known as the "Master of the Railway". He is grand, masterful, mature, wise, very dignified, enormously kind and is able to find good in any engine he meets. He has an appreciation for serenity and order and often thinks fondly of his homeland, far away, where he was once one of the strongest engines. Hiro fell victim to neglect when waiting upon parts to arrive for him from his island, when he began to break down and became lost. He was eventually rediscovered by Thomas, who, despite some problems in worrying about sharing the discovery of Hiro with the Fat Controller, helped Hiro to be fully restored to his former glory. Hiro continues to be gentle, wise and graceful, as well as a useful engine on the railway and a good friend to the other engines, especially Thomas. He does not appear to hold a grudge; in his first appearance, he helped Spencer after an accident, despite Spencer previously trying to send Hiro to the smelter's yard.

Basis
Hiro is a Japanese National Railways (JNR) Class D51 built by Kawasaki. However, Hiro runs on standard gauge track, while the real D51 engines were built for 3'6" gauge (Cape gauge).

Livery
Hiro is painted black with gold boiler bands and fittings and red wheels. His name is written in black on gold nameplates on his smoke deflectors. He has the number "51" painted on the sides of his tender in white. His "patchwork" colour scheme consists of some blue, green, purple and rust coloured parts.

Appearances
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Television series

 * Season 13 - The Biggest Present of All, Buzzy Bees and Hiro Helps Out
 * Season 14 - Thomas' Tall Friend (cameo), James in the Dark (cameo), Toby and the Whistling Woods (cameo) and Henry's Health and Safety
 * Season 15 - Emily and Dash, Happy Hiro, Kevin the Steamie (cameo), Wonky Whistle (cameo) and Fiery Flynn
 * Season 16 - Race to the Rescue (cameo), Express Coming Through (cameo), Ho Ho Snowman (cameo), Flash Bang Wallop! (cameo), Thomas and the Rubbish Train (cameo), Thomas Toots the Crows (cameo) and Sodor Surprise Day (cameo)
 * Season 17 - Henry's Hero, The Lost Puff (cameo), Percy's Lucky Day, Away From the Sea (cameo) and No More Mr. Nice Engine
 * Season 18 - Not So Slow Coaches, Signals Crossed (cameo), Spencer's VIP (cameo), Last Train for Christmas and Emily Saves the World (cameo)
 * Season 19 - Helping Hiro, Slow Stephen (cameo) and The Little Engine Who Raced Ahead (cameo)
 * Season 20 - Letters to Santa

Specials:
 * Hero of the Rails
 * Misty Island Rescue
 * Day of the Diesels (cameo)
 * King of the Railway
 * The Great Race (does not speak in English dubs; speaks only in German dub)

Magazine stories
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 * 2010 - The Best Present of All, Buzzy Bees, Hiro Helps Out and Misty Island Rescue (cameo)
 * 2011 - Hiro Helps Out
 * 2012 - Making Hiro Happy and The Best Present of All
 * 2014 - No More Mr. Nice Engine and Henry's Hero
 * 2015 - Signals Crossed (mentioned), The Perfect Present and Henry's Hero

Voice Actors

 * Togo Igawa (UK/US)
 * Tesshō Genda (Japan)
 * Kai-Hendrik Möller (Germany)
 * Helge Winther Larsen (Norway; Hero of the Rails - seventeenth season, excluding King of the Railway)
 * Stig Krogstad (Norway; King of the Railway only)
 * Janusz Wituch (Poland)
 * César Árias (Latin America; thirteenth season onwards)
 * Carlos Moreno (Spain)
 * Bernard Demory (France and French speaking Canada)
 * Leo Richardson (The Netherlands)
 * Jukka Voutilaninen (Finland; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Denis Bespalyy (Russia; seventeenth season onwards)

Trivia

 * Hiro is the first character to have the same voice actor in both English dubs.
 * Hiro says that he is the oldest engine on the island, but the D51 class was not built until 1936, making him much younger than most of the other steam engines on the island.
 * According to Christopher Skala, Hiro was originally going to be painted blue. This carried on to his patchwork model.
 * Like Hank, Sam and Flora, Hiro has only been partially modified to work on Sodor. He has been scaled up to standard gauge and has been given buffers on his front and his tender. But oddly enough, he has a chain coupling on his tender and a knuckle coupling on his front. This would make pushing rolling stock or being pulled away by another engine physically impossible, unless a special adapter used to connect knuckle couplers and chain couplings was fitted onto his knuckle coupling.
 * In the Norwegian narration, Hiro is known as "The King of the Railway".
 * Though Hiro's number is a reference to his basis, there really is a D51 with the number 51. However, unlike Hiro, the real engine is an earlier build of the D51 class, with its dome flush with its funnel. It is preserved at Torokko Saga Station in Kyoto, Japan.
 * According to the Japanese narration, Hiro is owned by Sir Takaboushi Hideki, who is also good friends with the Fat Controller.
 * According to SiF's Interview with John Lee, Hiro was going to have a different name.
 * Hiro was the last new character to be produced by Take Along before Fisher Price bought Learning Curve and started producing Take-n-Play models.
 * Despite participaiting in The Great Railway Show, he does not get his own promotional video. The same goes with James. The crew likely put him in The Strength Race because he's just a big render and the fact that he's the only non-British engine who is strong.

Merchandise

 * Wooden Railway (normal, "patchwork", "lost and found", metallic and battery powered)
 * Take Along (normal and "lost and found"; discontinued)
 * Take-n-Play (normal, "patchwork" and talking)
 * Motor Road and Rail (normal and patchwork; Asia only)
 * TrackMaster (normal, talking "lost and found" and R/C)
 * My Thomas Story Library (discontinued)
 * Tomica
 * Wind-up (normal, metallic, clear and "patchwork"; Japan only)
 * Pocket Fantasy (discontinued)
 * Boss (with ochre tanker and pullback; discontinued)
 * Capsule Collection
 * Diablock
 * Collectible Railway (normal and patchwork)
 * Minis (classics, heroes, electrified, Core Moments: patchwork)
 * Thomas and Friends Adventures (coming soon)