Bert

Bert is smaller and younger than Mike and Rex, and is the quietest of the engines. He is painted blue. For a long time he had trouble with steaming, but has been rebuilt with a taller chimney and cab which mean that he no longer suffers from shortness of breath. This modification has not appeared in the book illustrations, but is mentioned in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways.

Bert is based on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway's River Irt, a Heywood locomotive built at Duffield Bank, Derbyshire, in 1894.