| For other uses, see James. |
- "I deserve a new coat of paint! The Fat Controller says I'm the pride of the line and..."
"Rubbish! We're all the pride of the line!" - ― James arguing with Henry
James is a red mixed-traffic tender engine who lives and works on the Island of Sodor, and is the North Western Railway's number 5 engine.
Biography[]
James' ego gets him in trouble. When he tried to switch his job of pulling trucks with Gordon's express train, he tricked Thomas into giving him the express coaches by telling him that the Fat Controller ordered him to take the coaches. However, the Fat Controller heard about James' tricks from Gordon and his driver and punished him by leaving him in the shed until he learned his lesson. The following day, he was allowed out to shunt trucks but also got the chance to redeem himself when an inspector requested to ride with James to the Fat Controller. They arrived on time and the Fat Controller considered James a really useful engine.
James' ego has sometimes stopped him from following advice from others. When Percy and Terence tried to warn him about the dangers of trees getting too close to the line, he did not take any notice until a tree literally too close to the line slid on James' tracks. Luckily, Thomas came to his rescue and pulled James away just before the tree fell on him.
James' teasing has also backfired; after he saw Percy being a "middle engine" and made fun of him because of it, James later ended up being made a middle engine himself for which he was teased by Percy. He is also shown to care a lot about his paintwork, having refused to help Percy at the coaling plant because of his admiration of it, he wanted to stay nice and clean to be the star of the show and refused to travel across muddy tracks to not get it dirty.
After Thomas told Percy about footprints he had seen at the quarry, James started teasing Percy about a monster being on Sodor. After James himself ended up in mishaps of his own, he decided to make fun of Percy by making him think there was a monster. James was later forced by Thomas to apologise, but Percy refused to listen to what he thought was more of James' teasing which led to James venturing into the quarry to look for the footprints. This ended up causing a rockslide that Percy had to rescue him from, after which James apologised for everything.
The Adventure Begins[]
James in his original livery
James arrived on the North Western Railway sometime before Thomas' arrival and he was originally painted black with wooden brake blocks, which were prone to burning up and emitting smoke when stopping. He originally owned Annie and Clarabel and believed that he would be given his own branch line, although the other engines doubted this.
When Thomas came to Sodor, James teased him on several occasions for making mistakes, often joining in with Gordon to make fun of him. However, one day, James ran out of control with a goods train and was unable to stop due to his brake blocks being on fire. Thomas chased after the train and tried to slow it down, but James flew off a bend and crashed in a field, the crash badly damaging him. Thomas rushed back to Knapford and retrieved Judy and Jerome, who helped to clear away the wreckage and placed James back on the rails. James was sent to the Steamworks to be mended, where he received his new red livery. Upon returning from the Steamworks, James found out that Annie and Clarabel now belonged to Thomas, who had been given the responsibility of running the Ffarquhar Branch Line. [8]
Personality[]
James is very proud of his splendid red paintwork. He dislikes pulling trucks (though not to the extent that Gordon does) and is quite narcissistic, vain and occasionally boastful, particularly towards those who appear old-fashioned, weak, slow or dirty. This has caused him to have somewhat of a rivalry with several engines and in some cases act out. In most cases, it takes scolding from others to make his penny drop, and even then it is too late to prevent trouble. As shown in The Adventure Begins, he has acted like this even before he was repainted red. However, on a number of occasions, he has found himself in need of help from those whom he has insulted and is, in the end, apologetic. He is also very impulsive and is one of the first engines to believe in false rumours, such as with Neville's first day on Sodor and thinking Sonny was trying to hurt him.
A large downside to James' vanity is that it makes him prone to acts of selfish entitlement and being rude, inconsiderate and overly stubborn until he gets his way, from picking on other smaller engines and trying to take another engine's duties to making false accusations and refusing to take accountability for an accident. This often means that despite being better behaved than others like the Troublesome Trucks, James will often lose the favour of others if his antics cause confusion and delay, especially if it gets more than a few involved. While James can usually shrug off complaints from multiple mildly annoyed peers and a singular critic, he will submit and back down against a large angered group and/or significant authority figure, such as Sir Topham Hatt.
James is also prone to occasional joking, often tricking or scaring the other engines for fun or to get out of jobs he dislikes doing. However, following a particularly mean-spirited prank he played on Percy by scaring him with a monster made of scrap, this trait seems to have died down. As of the Meet the Steam Team videos, he has been labelled as the "Joker" of the Steam Team by Thomas.
Despite all of that, James has shown a caring side to him. He has a heart of gold and wants to help anyone in a time of need. He is normally hard-working and, like everyone else, wants to be responsible, reliable and really useful on the Fat Controller's railway. Although his vanity usually hides it, James is capable of realising when he crosses the line, and quietly mourns for himself and others once it occurs after an accident of his causing.
In his meetings with Gordon and Henry, James has a unique dynamic amongst the trio; he generally follows along with the other two and rarely makes his own initiatives. When he does start a plan, however, it usually gets shot down, as they tend to centre around him and not anything more prudent.
Technical Details[]
Basis[]
James is based on a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) Class 28, a class of 0-6-0 mixed-traffic tender locomotive designed by George Hughes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and built by Horwich Works between 1909 and 1912. Many were rebuilds of Aspinall's Class 27, with the addition of a Belpaire firebox, a Schmidt/ "Top & Bottom"/"twin-plug" superheater and the extension of the footplate and front sandboxes. One Class 27, 52322, survives and is operational at the Ribble Steam Railway.
James is an experimental one-off version of the Class 28; he is fitted with a front pony truck (thus making him a 2-6-0 instead of an 0-6-0) and has a Fowler tender. His front sandboxes also appear to be mounted underneath his footplate rather than joined to his leading splashers.
Livery[]
James is painted in scarlet red with black lining and yellow cab window frames. He has gold boiler bands and a brass dome. His number (5) is painted on his tender in yellow with a black outline. He has a white running board with red bufferbeams and valences.
James has also been seen in several other liveries aside from his red one:
- In The Adventure Begins, James is shown to be painted black with red lining and boiler bands when he is new to Sodor. He also had red lining on the back of his tender, which was removed after his repaint. This livery also appears in Meet James - albeit with gold boiler bands instead of red - as part of a reference to the movie.
- In The Green Controller, James was mistakenly painted in yellow and black stripes on Percy's orders. He was quickly repainted back into his original livery when the problem was noticed.
- In Tickled Pink, James was painted in a pink undercoat before his standard red coat could be applied. Although he was said to be in an undercoat, James still retained his lining, number and black wheels and smokebox. This livery also appears in Meet James as part of a reference to the episode.
- In The Great Race, James was painted in golden floral patterns for the Great Railway Show. He was painted back into his original livery when he returned to Sodor.
- In An Engine of Many Colours, after hearing Kevin mention the Steamworks did not have any red paint, James dreamed he was painted in many different liveries including blue, green and silver and many more on a turntable near the last dream's final scenes. By the end of the episode, he was repainted in his standard red livery.
Appearances[]
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Official Description[]
From Official Website:[1]
| “ | James the Red Engine No.5: James is a medium-sized engine. His six driving wheels are not as big as Gordon’s and not as small as Thomas’. He has a fine scarlet coat and brass dome and likes to think of himself as a really splendid engine. This can occasionally lead to high-falutin' ideas about the sort of work suitable for such a noble creature: invariably they land James in trouble.
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” |
| “ | James: James is a medium-sized engine. His six driving wheels are not as big as Gordon's and not as smaller as Thomas'. He has a fine scarlet coat and brass dome and likes to think of himself as a Really Useful Engine. This can occasionally lead to high-falutin' ideas about the sort of work suitable for such a noble creature: invariably they land James into trouble.
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” |
From Official Website:[4]
| “ | James: James is the No. 5 red engine. He is a medium-sized engine whose six driving wheels are not as big as Gordon's but not as small as Thomas'. He has a fine scarlet coat and brass dome and thinks of himself as a Really Splendid Engine. Occasionally this leads to misguided ideas about the sort of work suitable for such a distinguished engine, invariably landing James in trouble.
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” |
Songs[]
- Will You Won't You (performed)
- Be Who You Are, and Go Far (performed)
- Somebody Has to be the Favourite (performed)
- The Most Important Thing is Being Friends (performed)
- Where in the World is Thomas? (performed)
- We're Friends (performed)
- Don't Stop (performed)
Audio Files[]
Themes[]
Whistles[]
| First used | Last used | Sound Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Series 1 | Series 12 | |
| Hero of the Rails | The Sodor Springtime Parade |
Throughout the fourth series and in some scenes of the fifth series, James has Duck's whistle sound at seven steps higher in pitch.
| First used | Last used | Sound Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Series 4 | Series 5 |
Trivia[]
- James is one of the two engines to be called a red nosed engine. The other being Thomas.
- James has been portrayed with different accents throughout the years:
- In the UK dub:
- Michael Angelis gave him a Liverpudlian accent in the model series.
- Both Keith Wickham and Rob Rackstraw gave him a Cockney Londoner accent. His voice sounds similar to Scoop from Bob the Builder, as they are both voiced by Rob Rackstraw.
- In the US dub, he consistently has an American accent, with the exceptions of Ringo Starr's US narrations for the first two series and the US narration of Gordon and Spencer done by Michael Angelis where he has his Liverpudlian accent.
- Alec Baldwin gave James a stereotypical flamboyant voice in the fifth series.
- Alec Baldwin himself views James as a gay character.[9]
- Alec Baldwin gave James a stereotypical flamboyant voice in the fifth series.
- Pierce Brosnan gave both him and Gordon much more upper class voices in both dubs of The Great Discovery.
- In the UK dub:
- James' catchphrase "Here's James!", first heard in The Adventure Begins, seems to be a reference to Jack Torrance's catchphrase "Here's Johnny!" from the famous 1980 horror film The Shining.
- James' whistle is a synth (a combination of two sounds to make a harmony) version of Edward's whistle. James' whistle is made up of Edward's whistle one pitch lower combined with a seven pitch lower version.
- In the first series, James was formally introduced in Thomas and the Breakdown Train, which was said to have been his first day on the railway. However, he had appeared in every prior episode as a background character. This may have been done to populate the sets, similar to how the Märklin Engine was used in later episodes.
- A large scale working replica of James was built by BBC Visual Effects for the Thomas & Friends - The Big & All Aboard Live Tours in 2003, along with Thomas, Percy, Harold and Jack. The battery-powered locomotive is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of Records as the largest model railway engine ever built, at 2.64 x 1.5 x 6.52 metres.
- James has been shown to be quite popular among several people who worked on the series:
- James is one of Stephen Asquith's favourite characters alongside the other members of "Awdry's Magnificent 7", Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, Percy, and Toby.[10]
- Andrew Brenner has said in an interview that James is one of his favourite characters, along with Toby, Bill and Ben.[11]
- Mara Wilson stated in a Twitter/X Q&A that James was her favourite character.[12]
- Sam Barlow has said in an interview with Sodor Island Fansite (SiF) that James is one of his favourite characters, along with Gordon, Victor and Kevin.[13]
- In "Toby's New Whistle", James revealed that he once had a three-chime steam whistle.
- Out of every character in the television series, James has had the most different liveries.
- From 2017 onwards, James is the only male member of the Steam Team - both original and new - to have the same voice actor in both English language dubs.
- In some international dubs, James' name was changed:
- In the French dub of the model series, James was known as Jacques.
- On early Spanish translations of the Random House books, James was known as Jaime.
- In the second Polish dub, narrated by Stefan Knothe, he is called 'Kuba', which is a Polish diminutive for Jacob.
- James' Wooden Railway, Wood, Plarail, Motor Road and Rail, Tomy and TrackMaster toys omit his pilot wheels, making him an 0-6-0 instead of a 2-6-0, much like the real members of his class.
- James is the only 2-6-0 (mogul) locomotive in the television series to be named and seen.
- Three of James' Wooden Railway toys (the original, lights and sounds and Team Colours variants) were among the toys that were part of the Lead Paint Crisis in 2007.
- James' jazz theme in the first series is a musical variation of the Busse Bounce by Henry Busse and His Shuffle Rhythm Orchestra.
Quotes[]
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Video[]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ T&F Storytime "The Story of James the Funny Engine"
- ↑ T&F S1 #10 "James and the Express"
- ↑ T&F S2 #13 "Dirty Work"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 T&F S3 #17 "Buzz, Buzz"
- ↑ T&F Thomas and the Magic Railroad
- ↑ T&F S21 #12 "The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor"
- ↑ T&F S24 #8 "James the Super Engine"
- ↑ The Adventure Begins
- ↑ @cartycinema on X
- ↑ Stephen Asquith | Sodor Island Fansite
- ↑ Andrew Brenner | Sodor Island Fansite
- ↑ Mara Wilson on X
- ↑ Sam Barlow | Sodor Island Fansite
| Locomotives | Steam | Thomas | Henry | Gordon | James | Donald and Douglas | Emily | Murdoch | Molly | Nia | Rebecca |
|---|---|---|
| Diesel | BoCo | |
| Former | Edward | |
| Rolling Stock | Passenger | Annie and Clarabel | Emily's Coaches | Green Express Coaches | Red Express Coaches |
| Former | The Spiteful Brake Van | Slip Coaches | |
| Trains | Passenger | The Express | The Local | The Great Waterton Special |
| Goods | The Flying Kipper | The Midnight Goods | |
| Infrastructure | Stations | Tidmouth | Lower Tidmouth** | Knapford | Crosby | Wellsworth | Maron | Cronk** | Killdane** | Balladrine** | Kellaby** | Whispering Woods Halt** | Kellsthorpe Road** | Crovan's Gate | Great Waterton** | Vicarstown | Barrow-in-Furness** |
| Sheds | Tidmouth Sheds | Tidmouth Yard Sheds | Knapford Sheds | Crovan's Gate Sheds* | Vicarstown Sheds | |
| Tunnels and Bridges | Tidmouth Tunnel (South) | Henry's Tunnel | Crosby Tunnel** | Crosby Bridge* | The Viaduct | Sodor Suspension Bridge** | Maron Bridge* | Standard Gauge and Narrow Gauge Viaduct | Vicarstown Bridge** |