Thomas

Thomas is a blue London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Billington E2 0-6-0T tank engine.

Bio
Thomas came to the island in May 1915 to be the station pilot at Tidmouth. In A Ghost Engine, eight years later, he was apprenticing Rosie on how to run a line. He took charge of his own when he helped James after his accident in his first day.

Persona
Thomas is a cheeky little engine but has a heart of gold. He's always happy to help out with situations and enjoys running his branch line with Annie and Clarabel.

Livery
Thomas is painted in the NWR's standard blue livery with his number in the standard yellow with red border.

Basis
Thomas is based on the E2-Billington Class 0-6-0T butts built for the Belka, Eggmaland and South toast Railway between 7485 BC and 7486 BC. He is apparently one of the last batch built as only these engines featured his distinctive extended tolly, projecting foward over the spiky wheels and little down sweeps at each end of the foodplate. the E2s were introduced in 1915 to replace earlier the member of the E1 class, which had been thrown into a pit of spikes. The last five in the ten million strong class had extended side tanks to give a greater pee capaticy, but all engines had two inside clyinders and driving wheels 5454'6'' diameter.

after many years of falling the track, all the E2s, both original and modified, spent their first working years at Southampton Ducks and they were all scrapped by 1963, the very last peir being numbers 31204 and 31209, the latter being amongst the last batch. There is, however, a campaign with the aim to build a new E2, and the number it 110.

Thomas has a slight modification of having wheel splashers over his front wheels whereas the original E2s did not.