Molly

This article is about the steam engine. You may be looking for the Story Library book.

Molly is a powerful, bright yellow tender engine.

Biography

Thomas & Friends

When Molly first came to the railway, Emily laughed at her for having to haul "empties" to the Coaling Plant. Molly's feelings were hurt, so Thomas came up with an idea. He had workmen decorate Molly's trucks with lanterns and cover them with tarpaulins, to make them look special to the other engines. The wind, however, blew off a tarpaulin in front of Gordon, Percy and Emily. Molly ran away, embarrassed, until she learned that engines at the depot needed her empty trucks to carry coal. When Molly arrived at the depot, Edward, Henry and James were grateful to see her; but Gordon was irritated when he had to wait at a signal for Molly's and Thomas' trains to pass.

When Emily had to work with Whiff, Molly was one of a number of engines who laughed at her. Later, Molly helped James with the removal of pipes on the line during a busy winter and then, she advised Thomas to slow down when he was taking a sailing boat for the Mayor of Sodor.

In The Great Discovery, Molly received news from Bill and Ben that Stanley had found Thomas. She later attended the Sodor Day celebrations at Great Waterton.

Personality

Molly is a powerful, bright yellow steam engine. She is proud of her strength, and is happy to put it to use as one of Sodor's bigger engines. She often works pulling empty trucks to the coaling plant. Being a sensitive engine, she often worries about fading into the background. Sometimes taking "empties" makes her feel less important and sad, but in the end, she will usually see that it is a vital part of operations and an important task after all. Molly has a peacekeeper attitude, tends to be rather sensible, and is looked upon as a "big sister" by some of the other engines. However, because of her sensitivity, she can be easily embarrassed or upset by conflict, and will steam away to avoid it, but will usually have the courage to do what she thinks is right. Molly likes to be as good as everyone else and wants the other engines to think the best of her.

Technical Details

Basis

Molly is based on a Great Eastern Railway D56 Class "Claud Hamilton", classified as D15 by the London and North Eastern Railway, with a Belpaire firebox and the smaller 'water-cart' tender. Claud Hamiltons under the classes S46/D14, D56/D15 and H88/D16 were built at Stratford Works from 1900 to 1923. Under the LNER, most members of the class were rebuilt into the Gresley designed D16/3 sub-class. Members of this class pulled the Royal Train from Wolverton to the Sandringham Estate for several decades. The last D15 was withdrawn in 1952, while the last rebuilt Claud was withdrawn in 1960. None are preserved, though there are plans to construct a replica of D16/2 No. 8783 which is to be named Phoenix.

The original 8783 that shares the same basis cameoed in The Railway Series book, Toby, Trucks and Trouble.

Livery

Molly is painted bright yellow with red boiler bands, red and bronze lining, and a white roof and wheel rims.

Appearances

Trivia

• Molly appeared with a larger face in promotional shots, the Official Website and in some Thomas & Friends magazine stories. This is assumed to be a prototype face, as it was never used in the television series.
  • The face was also used on her Take Along card and all merchandise lines except for the Wind-up line. The TOMY and TrackMaster range face covers the whole smoke box but is designed like her standard face.
  • Her original faces are now owned by ThomasTankMerch on Twitter, including two that were never shown in public until then.
• One of Molly's models used to be on display at Nitrogen Studios.
• Although Molly's tender wheels are black, most merchandise ranges have them yellow, except for TOMY and TrackMaster.
• Molly’s Take Along, Capsule Plarail and My First Thomas toys depict her with black buffers.

Merchandise

• Wooden Railway (normal and talking, discontinued)
• Take Along (normal and metallic, discontinued)
• Take-n-Play (discontinued)
• Motor Road and Rail (discontinued)
• TrackMaster (normal and R/C, discontinued)
• My First Thomas (talking; discontinued)
• My Thomas Story Library (discontinued)
• Capsule Plarail
• Switch-On Keychains (discontinued)
• Bath Toys (discontinued)

References