Rosie

"It's meeeeeee!"

- Rosie, "Thomas and the Birthday Mail", tenth season

    Rosie the Purple Tank Engine

Rosie is a lavender tank engine who idolises Thomas. Quite where she came from is a mystery, but what is known is that she is one of 382 engines of her class built for use in WW2 in Iowa and Pensylvania in 1942, then shipped to Britain for storage in 1943. After the June 6th 1944 D-Day landings they were delivered to mainland Europe and used as part of the war-effort by the United States Army Transport Corps. After the war many were sold by the USATC to various European railways, and one of these, the engine now known as 'Rosie', eventually made her way to Sodor sometime between 1945 and 2006.

Bio
Bright, cheerful, lively and eager (some might say over-eager), Rosie idolised Thomas to the point of hero-worship and imitation. Though this is said to be the most sincere form of flattery, it only served to irritate Thomas whilst he was trying to deliver a special birthday post train to Alice at Hill Farm. After Thomas had an accident in the course of delivering this train, she helped him and he started to respect her. Rosie later helped Thomas shunt trucks until Hector frightened her away.

Rosie made a later appearance in the Season 12 episode "Rosie's Funfair Special", where she was charged with acting as back-engine to Emily on the titular special. Wanting to take the train herself, and thinking she was doing Emily a favour, Rosie succeeded only in creating 'confusion and delay' on a grand scale, but eventually set things right.

Rosie's personality, cheerful and excitable in everything she does, seems at odds with her background, as use in a military environment would have presumably caused her to grow-up quickly. This then could be basis to suggest that she somehow 'missed the draft' and was never used in actual wartime service, possibly through being sold by the USATC to a British railway company after arriving in the UK in 1943, but before her classmates were forwarded to the battlefields of Europe in 1944.

Regardless of her personal history, Rosie and her classmates were designed and built to be reliable and powerful, simple to operate and drive, and to be used in difficult wartime conditions with little maintainence. As a result of this her rugged construction, powerful design and mechanical simplicity, together with her nippy turn of speed and cheerful, eager-to-work disposition, will presumably make her an asset to the Fat Controller, if she could just reign-in her overenthusiasm.

Basis
Rosie is based on a USATC 'S100-class' 0-6-0T. As detailed above, they were used in military service during WW2. Fifteen engines of this type were after the war sold to the Southern Railway where they were reclassified as "USA Class" and used as dockyard shunters, replacing the ex-LB&SCR E2s, Thomas's classmates, making her obsession with emulating him ironic.

Livery
Rosie is painted lavender with gray tank panels, gold boiler banding and red detailing on her wheels and metalwork.

Appearances
Rosie appeared in the tenth and eleventh seasons, perhaps most notably in the episodes “Thomas and the Birthday Mail” and “Hector the Horrid”. She also has notably appeared in a tenth season music video which states that she isn’t seen much. She received an episode to herself in the twelfth season- the first non-Steam Team/narrow gauge/new character episode since the seventh season.

Detailed List of Appearances

 * "Thomas and the Birthday Mail" Rosie is introduced.
 * "Hector the Horrid" Rosie helps Thomas shunt the trucks.
 * "Thomas Sets Sail" Rosie makes a small appearance.
 * "Thomas and the Runaway Car" Rosie makes another small appearance.
 * "The Great Discovery" Rosie makes a small cameo on the bridge with Molly at the end.
 * "Rosie's Funfair Special" Rosie has another leading role.

Mix-up
There is an engine similar to Rosie in the sister shows TUGS, but as discussed by the members of Sodor Island Forums: it would have taken too much time and money to convert an old model into a new character. This trivia fact about Rosie appears on several websites and it should be noted that, until there is proof from HiT Entertainment, it should not be assumed that Rosie originated on TUGS.

Trivia

 * Rosie is the second female character to have a flower-type name. The first is Daisy.
 * Rosie is the fourth female engine steam engine on Sodor. The first three are Lady, Emily and Molly. She is also the second female tank engine on Sodor. The first is Lady. She is also the sixth female engine on Sodor when Daisy and Mavis are counted.
 * Rosie wears freckles- the third character in the television series to do so (the first two are Alfie and Mac).

Popularity
As the third female steam engine in the television series, Rosie seems to be one of the more popular characters, appearing in all major merchandising lines, magazines, DVDs and with more merchandise coming in the future.

Merchandising

 * LC Wooden model
 * Take-Along model (available as normal, and in metallic and lights & sounds in 2009)
 * TOMY/Trackmaster model
 * 'My First' model
 * My Thomas Story Library 'Rosie'