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Background Information
Henry is a fictional standard gauge tender locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry.
Henry made his debut in the first series episode Kana Goes Slow, which first aired in 2021, and made his final appearance in the 2025 special, Sodor Sings Together.
Unlike the original series, Henry appears primarily as a background character.
Behind the Scenes
2D animated rigs
Henry in All Engines Go uses a series of complicated 2D rigs created by Nelvana Studio. These rigs are made up of different assets, which can be stretched, squashed and posed to create the desired movements and poses. Henry's movements are handled by an animation team, with a posing team to create specific poses as required for certain shots. Henry's 2D assets were made using Gordon as a base, with minor modifications.
Henry's 2D design has undergone many changes from the design used in the original series:
- When first introduced, Henry was simply a slightly modified version of Gordon's vector with Percy's colour palette, meaning:
- He has a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement rather than the 4-6-0 arrangement he had originally.
- He has a four-wheeled version of a Fowler tender instead of the six-wheeled tender he had in the original series.
- According to Rick Suvalle, the artists of Nelvana Studio could not change Henry's chassis for the show.
- Some merchandise of Henry from the original series - including his early Golden Bear, early Wooden Railway (1993-2001), 2015 Take-n-Play, and Adventures toys - as well as illustrations of him in later Railway Series books, depict him with a Fowler tender.
- His running board is curved.
- He had two small windows on his cab sides instead of one large window.
- His dome is now gold.
- His buffers are now oval-shaped like Gordon's.
- His handrails have been removed.
- His brakepipes have been removed.
- His lamp irons have disappeared.
- Only the first half of his running board remains grey, while the rest of it is now red.
- He has a round-topped firebox.
- Coincidentally, Henry also had a round-topped firebox in the original television series and The Railway Series before his accident with the Flying Kipper.
- He now has green irises.
- His side rods have been removed.
- His cab windows were placed above his firebox rather than on either side of it.
- His tender is now connected with buffers and chain-link couplings.
- He gained a first new whistle sound in Kana Goes Slow which is from the British built locomotive called John Bull, then gained the second one in The Tiger Train. From Nia's Surprising Surprise onwards, however, Henry regains his whistle sound from the original series, as previously used in No Power, No Problem!.
Originally, Henry was simply a recolour of Gordon using Percy's palette. Throughout the course of the series, Henry's design has been incrementally altered to be closer to his original appearance:
- Dragon Run:
- His firebox returns to its post-rebuild shape in the original series.
- He regained his topfeed.
- The Tiger Train:
- The back end of his running board returned to its original shape, leaving only the front half curved.
- His cab side windows return to being one large window.
- Thomas and Percy's Eggsellent Adventure:
- His cab front windows return to their original position.
Texture Variants
In addition to his standard livery, several other texture variants exist of Henry's 2D model. Many only appeared once, though a few were reused multiple times. These texture variants include:
