The Austerity Engine

The Austerity Engine is an engine which The Fat Controller planned to get to assist Donald and Douglas with their branchline work. In order to assess the abilities of such an engine, he hired Wilbert from the Dean Forest Railway for a period in the early 1990s. He told Wilbert that he knew where he could get another engine like him. Christopher Awdry has confirmed to a fan that the engine was intended to be one of the many Austerity type 0-6-0STs located at Heritage lines in the UK. Contrary to speculation, it was not meant to be the for Barry, the latter character being confirmed by the author has having been thought of in the 1980s.