Minor characters in The Railway Series

The Railway Series by Reverend W.V. Awdry and Christopher Awdry is populated with many and varied characters. Some of these had only a few stories or pages devoted to them and, as such, they cannot be regarded as 'major' characters.

This page lists and profiles these characters using the same categories as the sister page, Major characters in The Railway Series.

=Standard gauge engines= These are the characters that run on standard gauge railway track. They comprise the majority of Engines on the Island of Sodor.

Neil

 * See: Sodor & Mainland Railway locomotives

Sixteen
Sixteen is a Hunslet 'Austerity' Class tank engine. He had no name. In the book Wilbert the Forest Engine, Wilbert (another Austerity) told a story about Sixteen, in which Sixteen worked in a steelworks and spent all day shunting trucks full of slag to take to a place called the 'tip' - a huge pile of waste. Engines were not allowed to travel along the track on the tip itself, as it was not firm enough to take their weight. However, one day Sixteen wished to be insolent, and told the trucks to drag him past the board. The ground beneath him gave way and he rolled down an embankment. He was rescued but not repaired, and remained in storage until bought by a preservation society, and he now works somewhere in the Midlands.

The Old Engine
The Old Engine is based on the GER Class Y14 and appears in the book Toby, Trucks and Trouble, in which he was rescued by Toby when that engine worked on the London and North Eastern Railway. The old engine was dirty and badly maintained, and suffered from steam leaks which made it hard for him to pull trains.

The Old Engine was an LNER Class J15. Again, the Old Engine is a nickname applied by fans, as the character was unnamed in the story.

Albert
Albert is a Furness Railway J1 2-4-2 tank engine who worked on the Lakeside branch, as seen in the book Thomas and Victoria, where his two coaches are Victoria and Helena. He is involved in an incident where snow falls on him as he sets off with gusto from Haverthwaite station which teaches him to take more care in wintery conditions.

The J1 class was rebuilt from the earlier E1 class of 2-4-0 tank engines of 1870, which were built originally by Sharp, Stewart & Co. Seven of these were rebuilt into J1s in 1891.