- "Being brave isn't the same as not feeling scared. Being brave is about what you do even when you do feel scared."
- ― Gator
Gerald, better known by his nickname "Gator", is a large green tank engine from Colombia who resembles an alligator.
Biography
Although Gator's real name is Gerald, he is known as Gator due to his resemblance to an alligator. He longs to travel and is excited about going to sea. He works on a railway in a faraway land, which runs up into the high mountains and into a village. Once, Gator had to cross the bridge leading into the village but became scared because of the bridge's massive height. In the end, Gator decided that he had to be brave and crossed over the bridge safely.
Gator once visited Sodor. He was pulling a train and because it was foggy, Percy - who saw Gator - mistook him for a monster. Percy ran back towards Brendam Docks, scaring everyone else there into thinking Gator was a monster. After he introduced himself, he explained that he was not going to stay on Sodor; he was waiting for a ship. He told Percy all about being brave, making good friends with him.
Gator ended up missing his ship, so he decided to pass the time by collecting a train from Duck's Branch Line and bringing it back to the docks after Oliver - who was pulling it - broke down. His lamp was broken and he could not see, concerning Oliver's brake van Toad. During his journey, he met James at a junction. James - who did not know Gator yet - was frightened and puffed away as fast as he could, resulting in him derailing into a pond. When Gator nearly crashed due to being nearly blind in the dark, Toad decided to loan him one of his own lamps. With help from the spare lamp, they arrived at the docks on time.
Two nights later, Gator was heading to the docks to catch his ship and was surprised to see Percy being loaded onto it too. Percy explained that he wanted to work with Gator and run away from his fears. Gator, however, told him that this was not being brave, leaving Percy to reconsider his decision. As the ship left, Thomas rushed into the docks and urged Cranky to stop the ship as he believed that Percy was on-board. Cranky stopped the ship, but he was nearly pulled off the docks and forced it to turn around. To Thomas' shock, Percy was not in fact on the ship. Due to the mishap, the ship was delayed yet again. The next day, Gator was finally able to leave after bidding an emotional farewell to Percy. As the ship sailed away, the two engines knew they had each made a good friend and thought that they would never see each other again.
For a long time afterwards, Percy was still sad about Gator leaving and kept thinking about him. He was told to throw himself into his work in order to drive Gator out of his mind. When some trucks ran away from Percy and got lost in a mine, Percy remembered Gator's advice about being brave. Percy was able to rescue the trucks and realised that thinking about Gator can also make him feel happy.
One Christmas, Gator returned to Sodor. Unfortunately, there was a shipment of rock salt that needed to be delivered and the dock manager did not know where it needed to go as the writing on his paper was smudged up. Gator was asked to go all around Sodor in search of the place where the rock salt needed to be delivered. Along the way, he wanted to greet Percy. But having failed to find him, it made him think that Percy had forgotten all about him. Eventually, Gator and Percy finally found each other when Percy accidentally bumped the trucks, covering Gator in rock salt.
It is very likely that after the snow melted, Gator returned to Colombia.
Personality
Gator is incredibly brave and longs to travel while retaining a calm, grounded personality. He longs to travel out at sea and works up in the high mountains, but also has a slight fear of heights.
Technical Details
Basis
Gator is based on the metre gauge Colombian Steam Motor engines built by Sentinel Waggon Works in 1934. Four engines of this type were built: the first was sold to the Belgian State Railway in May 1934, while the other three were produced for the Société National des Chemins de Fer en Colombe, and were shipped to Colombia in June 1934 after a brief trial in Belgium. These engines were designed especially to tackle the sharp bends and steep grades of Colombia. The engines were mounted on two six-wheeled bogies, with each axle driven by a Doble steam motor, and had Woolnough water tube boilers. All four of these engines have been scrapped.[1]
Gator is modified from his basis, being standard gauge rather than the metre gauge all examples of his type were built for, as well as having British styled couplings and buffers in order to interact with British rolling stock.
Livery
Gator is painted two-tone green (the top half, lime green and the bottom half, sea green) with gold lining and a red stripe, running board and buffer beams. He has a brass nameplate on the sides of his bunker.
Appearances
Thomas & FriendsSpecials
Music Videos
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Magazine Stories
- 2015 - Missing Gator (speaks only in speech bubble)
Books
- 2014 - Tale of the Brave
- 2018 - Character Encyclopedia
Official Description
From Official Website:[1]
| “ | Gator: Gator’s real name is Gerald, but he doesn’t mind being called ‘Gator.' Everybody calls him that. Gator has a calm, grounded personality and an adventurous spirit. He has been designed to work in the high mountains in a land far away. He longs to travel and is excited about going to sea and this makes him a hero in the eyes of Percy, who sees in Gator the brave engine he would like to be.
|
” |
Audio Files
Whistle
| First used | Last used | Sound Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Tale of the Brave | Series 18 |
Trivia
- Gator's appearance was first revealed in an online memory game on Tracks4Thomas.com in late 2013.
- In the first trailer for Tale of the Brave, Gator's CGI model had a few differences from his final one. These include:
- Coloured rivets around his water cap.
- White, thin lining on his front end, compared to the final having thicker gold lining.
- Gator's real name in the Dutch narration is Gerard.
- Gator's whistle sound on the Tale of the Brave mini-site sounds different from his standard whistle sound.
- His whistle sound is actually Charlie's, but seven steps lower-pitched.
- Despite the fact that his real name is "Gerald" and that "Gator" is only his nickname, his nameplates still read "Gator".
- Gator is the second engine to prefer being called by an animal nickname, the first being Duck.
- Several aspects of Gator are incorrectly modelled, likely due to images of his basis being difficult to find:
- Gator is depicted with a second funnel in front of his first one, which should be his water filler cap.
- The vertical cylindrical piece behind Gator's front funnel should be a square platform.
- What appear to be smoke deflectors around Gator's front funnel should be handrails; additionally, they should be much further apart.
- Gator has a panel with a small handle on it near the front along his sides, which is a misinterpretation of the footsteps used to access the top of his water tank.