Edward

"I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!"

- Edward "The Three Railway Engines"

    Edward the Blue Engine 
 * Number: 2

Edward is an elderly mixed-traffic engine.

Bio
Edward was built by Sharp Stewart and Company in 1896 and worked on the Furness Railway before coming to Sodor in 1920 to finish the building of the North Western Railway. After his work was completed, Edward was kept in a shed, to the delight of the other engines, who claimed that he was too weak to work. Edward was eventually let out again, and proved that what he lacked in strength he made up for in work ethic.

Edward currently runs the Wellsworth-Brendam branch line with BoCo, and occasionally Donald and Douglas. He is sometimes used as a pilot engine for special trains.

Personality
Edward is kind-hearted and always keen to help a friend in need. The small engines trust him to lend a listening ear and sympathetic advice. He is a hard worker too, and always does his best to finish a job.

Sadly, the big engines often see Edward as old-fashioned and slow. While it is true he is the oldest engine on the North Western Railway- it must be noted he helped build it - he has proved time and time again that he is more than capable of working as hard as any engine.

In the television series, Edward's personality differs slightly from that of the Railway Series. Despite his reputation of being kind and friendly, Edward has sometime seemed to act cheeky as Thomas, as with Harvey and Rocky- or perhaps he simply dislikes cranes.

Basis
Unlike most characters in the Railway Series, Edward is not directly based upon any particular class of locomotive. The Reverend W. Awdry had stated that Edward is based on a heavily modified Sharp, Stewart and Co. "Larger Seagull", supplied to the Furness Railway in 1896, but this was a piece of retcon created for "The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways".

Sodor "historian" Martin Clutterbuck notes that Edward bears a close resemblance to a LNER D34 "Glen" 4-4-0 from the London and North Eastern Railway. At any rate, the Reverend W. Awdry used an engine of this class to represent Edward on his model railway.

Modifications made to Edward's shape include a change to make his rear splasher flush with cab and new cab windows and lookouts.

In an early version of Railway Series, Edward had a rear splasher flush with cab and a cutaway cab window. His boiler was lower and he had a much larger brass dome.

Edward has neck supports, large driving wheels and an extended front footplate.

Livery
Edward is painted NWR blue with the NWR red and yellow lining and a number 2 painted on his tender sides in bright yellow with a red border. Before arriving to Sodor, it can be assumed that he was painted red with a yellow "FR" on his tender sides and black wheels. In Railway Series, Edward has his name painted in bright yellow on his boiler, a number 2 painted in bright yellow with a red border on his cab sides and "North Western Railway" painted in bright yellow on his tender sides. In an early version of "The Three Railway Engines", his dome was gold.

Appearances
Edward's Railway Series appearances are listed in chronological order:
 * "The Three Railway Engines"
 * "Thomas the Tank Engine"
 * "James the Red Engine"
 * "Troublesome Engines"
 * "Henry the Green Engine"
 * "Gordon the Big Engine"
 * "Edward the Blue Engine"
 * "Four Little Engines"
 * "The Eight Famous Engines" (does not speak)
 * "Duck and the Diesel Engine"
 * "The Twin Engines"
 * "Gallant Old Engine" (does not speak)
 * "'''Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine
 * "Main Line Engines"
 * "James and the Diesel Engines" (does not speak)
 * "More About Thomas the Tank Engine" (does not speak)
 * "Thomas and the Twins"
 * "Henry and the Express" (cameo)
 * "Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines"
 * "Thomas and Victoria"

Please note that this list does not include books that only include references to Edward's station.

Edward has appeared in every season of the television series.

An Edward is Born
Edward was the first character created for the Railway Series, in 1943. The inspiration for Edward came from the Reverend W. Awdry's watching trains on the Great Western Railway as a child. He said in an interview with Brian Sibley for "The Thomas the Tank Engine Man" that, to him, the noise of the locomotives' exhaust almost sounded like dialogue - for example, the larger engine having trouble climbing the hills would appear to be saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it," and the smaller engine helping them would sound like it were saying, "I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!"

Charlie and Sidney
Edward is the only engine whose crew has been named in the Railway Series. In the foreword of "Edward the Blue Engine", their names were given as Charlie Sand (driver) and Sidney Hever (fireman). Their surnames came from their duties: one of the driver's jobs is to sand the rails when they are slippery to let the engine's wheels grip, while the fireman "heaves" coal from the tender or coal bunker to the firebox. Their Christian names came from an engine crew from the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, where engines like Toby used to work.

Cautious Edward
In the whole of the series, Edward has only had two accidents involving derailment or worse - being knocked off the rails by a ship's boiler in the seventh season episode "Edward's Brass Band", crashing into a barrier in the eleventh season episode "Edward and the Mail".

Trivia

 * In "Edward's Exploit" When the crank pin broke, the side-rod was sent up into his bufferbeam, damaging his rear splasher, his cab, and shattering a cab window.
 * Edward usually has the length of his Railway Series counterpart but with his television series counterpart's boiler pillars and sides. He has a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement, flat footplate, round-topped boiler, space between boiler and footplate, no outside cylinders or motion, splashers over for all two pair of driving wheels, rear splasher merged with cab, two rectangular windows, a Fowler tender (replacing FR-style tender), and no gap underneath his boiler.

Before Number
Thomas is Number One