C.Syde's Fictional Locomotive Characters

Although I don't really like the Thomas and Friends series anymore as a whole, due to being grown up, I still have happy memories of when I was still into the series. And I still like the engine prototypes the characters are based on.

In addition to the many characters of Thomas and Friends that I was fascinated by, one of my childhood hobbies was creating lots of my own fictional engine characters. Although most of them were one time appearance characters.

I made a story about them or I drew them, but that was it. A lot of them were forgotten over the years as a result. However I still have some scrapbooks of some of them, or copies of stories about them, so some of them are still remembered, even if they only made one appearance.

But here's a list of my "inner circle" of fictional engine characters. Some of these engine characters I created as a child, and some of them I created when I had already officially grown out of Thomas and Friends but wanted to reawaken the happy memories and times that I had enjoyed as a child.

I discovered the Fletcher Jennings Class C, LB&SCR E2 Class, LMS Fowler Class 3F, LNER Class A4, Bagnall 0-4-0ST, British Rail Class 08, Hunslet Austerity, Midlander 4wDM, BR Class 42 "Warship", and British Rail Class 17 because certain engines of Thomas and Friends - Skarloey, Thomas, Jinty, Spencer, Bill and Ben, Diesel, 'Arry and Bert, and Splatter and Dodge, Wilbert, Rusty, Diesel 10, and Derek - are based on these classes.

Although I have officially grown out of Thomas and Friends, I still haven't completely abandoned it permanently. This is partly due to my interest in characters, and my interest in locomotives. The rest of the classes that are featured here I discovered in 2010 while reading through this book of locomotives, with the exception of the BR Class 20 which I discovered sometime in 2017. Enjoy! :D

Honny
Honny and his twin brother Ponny are the earliest fictional Thomas the Tank Engine characters that I can remember creating. They were created in 2002 when I was 6 or 7 if I remember correctly, and most of the fictional characters I created were one-time appearance characters back then, so it explains why Honny is one of the only characters I can remember from that long ago. It also explains why Honny has such a childish name. I never would have called him that if I had created him and his twin brother today.

Honny and Ponny are a duo of cheeky and troublesome tank engines who liked to play tricks on this well behaved crane. But they both meant well, really. And in spite of their troublesome ways, Honny and Ponny appeared to be friends, or became friends with the crane. I can't remember what the crane's name was. But his name definitely began with a "J". I think he might have been named Jayden, but I'm not sure.

I have yet to decide what basis Honny and his twin are, as I have yet to find a basis that looks remotely similar enough to Honny. But what I do know is they are both 0-6-0 side tank locomotives, not unlike Thomas or Jinty, and no bigger than either of them. Though unlike Thomas, Honny and Ponny don't have rounded wheel arches. They may or may not have wheel arches, but they aren't rounded ones. When I was very young, I paid no attention to how many wheels I drew on the engines. Although I probably don't still have the pictures, I do remember Honny and Ponny having ten wheels in one picture, and twelve wheels in another. Not very accurate, but I was probably too young to notice or give a damn about these inconsistencies.

Both twins are painted red, with black wheels, and have given numbers. Honny is 99 and Ponny is 100. I used two sources of inspiration for Honny and Ponny. Obviously I got some inspiration from Bill and Ben. I also got some inspiration from Iggy and Ziggy, two crows who battled Huckleberry Hound in order to eat his corn.

Although the twins are identical, Honny's cheeks aren't usually as expressive and defined as Ponny's cheeks are when they smile. This is a trait that I adapted from Bill and Ben. In the earlier episodes, Ben usually wore a face mask that made his cheeks prominent on his face, whereas Bill didn't wear that face mask nearly as often. On close examination, Honny's grin may appear larger than Ponny's, though it is most likely due to the facial expressions they have.

Ponny
Ponny and his twin brother Honny are the earliest fictional Thomas the Tank Engine characters that I can remember creating. They were created in 2002 when I was 6 or 7 if I remember correctly, and most of the fictional characters I created were one-time appearance characters back then, so it explains why Ponny is one of the only characters I can remember from that long ago. It also explains why Ponny has such a childish name. I never would have called him that if I had created him and his twin brother today.

Ponny and Honny are a duo of cheeky and troublesome tank engines who liked to play tricks on this well behaved crane. But they both meant well, really. And in spite of their troublesome ways, Ponny and Honny appeared to be friends, or became friends with the crane. I can't remember what the crane's name was. But his name definitely began with a "J". I think he might have been named Jayden, but I'm not sure.

I have yet to decide what basis Ponny and his twin are, as I have yet to find a basis that looks remotely similar enough to Ponny. But what I do know is they are both 0-6-0 side tank locomotives, not unlike Thomas or Jinty, and no bigger than either of them. Though unlike Thomas, Ponny and Honny don't have rounded wheel arches. They may or may not have wheel arches, but they aren't rounded ones. When I was very young, I paid no attention to how many wheels I drew on the engines. Although I probably don't still have the pictures, I do remember Ponny and Honny having ten wheels in one picture, and twelve wheels in another. Not very accurate, but I was probably too young to notice or give a damn about these inconsistencies.

Both twins are painted red, with black wheels, and have given numbers. Ponny is 100 and Honny is 99. I used two sources of inspiration for Ponny and Honny. Obviously I got some inspiration from Bill and Ben. I also got some inspiration from Iggy and Ziggy, two crows who battled Huckleberry Hound in order to eat his corn.

Although the twins are identical, Ponny's cheeks are usually more expressive and defined than Honny's cheeks are when they smile. This is a trait that I adapted from Bill and Ben. In the earlier episodes, Ben usually wore a face mask that made his cheeks prominent on his face, whereas Bill didn't wear that face mask nearly as often. On close examination, Ponny's grin may appear smaller than Honny's, though it is most likely due to the facial expressions they have.

Wilbur
Wilbur was a fictional Thomas the Tank Engine character that I created in April 2004. Though he only made two appearances in 2004. By the time I brought him back in 2010, I probably forgot exactly how I drew him the first time, though a lot had changed in 2004 and 2010, so it probably didn't matter. I'm pretty sure he was always a 0-6-0 tank engine, and he was definitely meant to be a side tank locomotive. I don't even think I gave him a number the first time, back in 2004. In 2010, I gave him the number 1.

In 2017 I decided on Wilbur being a LMS 3F "Jinty", although there are some differences between Wilbur and the other engines of his basis. A notable difference is that Wilbur is depicted as having an extra dome which is smaller than the first dome. He is also shorter than most of the engines of his basis, as he is no bigger than Thomas. Wilbur was inspired by Wilbert the Forest Engine, although he is a side tank engine, whereas Wilbert is a saddle tank engine. But the two of them are painted in blue livery with red lining and a black footplate, though Wilbur is painted a darker shade of blue than Wilbert.

Not that much is known about Wilbur's personality, as he has yet to be given a defined backstory. Although from what I can remember thinking of him, he was kind, sensible, and outgoing. In a story I wrote in 2004, Wilbur was capable of reaching the speed of 60 miles an hour. Though at the time, I didn't realise that certain other types of side tank locomotives were capable of reaching that speed. It is unknown if other engines of Wilbur's class can reach 60 miles an hour, but if they can reach a higher speed, then Wilbur would certainly be capable of doing so as well.

Tenny
Tenny was a fictional Thomas the Tank Engine character that I created during the 2004 Christmas Holidays, so he would have been created sometime in January 2005. He made one appearance in January 2005, and another appearance in January 2006. Though the scrapbook that I drew him in in January 2006 is missing, it should be hidden among some of my stuff, though there's so much stuff, it will take some time to find it.

Though I'm not quite sure whether I've drawn him exactly how he was meant to be drawn, from what I can remember, he was a large pink diesel engine with what looks like a red saddle on his head, a red cab, and white footplates and buffer beams. Unlike most engines, his face is the same colour as his body. I have yet to confirm what Tenny's original number was when I drew him, if he even had a number, but in 2011 I think it was, he was given the number 2.

Sometime in 2011 it was, I think I confirmed that Tenny was meant to be a BR Class 17 but there were several major differences between him and a real engine of that class. This can be reconciled if it's assumed that he was rebuilt at some point after his initial creation date. It was eventually confirmed that he was. The real difference between him and the other engines of his basis were that instead of having his cab placed in the centre of his body, his cab is placed at the back of his body. Tenny's body was also higher than on most diesels of his basis.

When I drew him last, he definitely had doors on both sides of his front, as well as on both sides of his cab, which all other engines of his basis lacked. So he needed to have his basis redetermined as something else when I got the chance, although it wasn't exactly easy since I had yet to find a real basis that looked enough like Tenny for him to be based on. As of 2017, I have confirmed that he was originally built as a BR Class 17, and the reason he ended up looking so different was because he got rebuilt into a BR Class 20. Tellingly, his cab is still close to it's original shape.

Tenny made his debut in January 2005 where he accompanied a black pannier tank engine who's name I can't remember back to where he was meant to go, after he was discovered to have travelled to the wrong part of the island. This incident parodied the part where Lily gets on the wrong train in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, and Stacy Jones takes her back to Muffle Mountain which was where she was meant to go.

Tenny later made an appearance in a drawing that I drew in January 2006, but I have yet to find where exactly the missing scrapbook is. He wasn't brought back until 2009 and 2010. But since the scrapbook has been missing since the end of 2009, it's location will need to be found to help me determine what Tenny was meant to look like, although it can't be very inconsistent from my latest picture of him, since my drawings along with their details have improved a great deal since. As shown by his debut, Tenny is a rather kind and helpful diesel engine.

Metey Barnett
Metey Barnett (usually Barnett for short) was a fictional Thomas the Tank Engine character that I created during the 2005 Christmas Holidays, either in late December 2005 or early January 2006. He made his debut in a fictional Thomas story that I wrote "Metey Diesel" which he appeared as the main antagonist. The story was about one page long, I often wrote one page stories back in 2005 when I was ten years old. Sometime at the beginning of the story the steam engines were holding a discussion after hearing that Barnett would be coming to the North Western Railway. Although the engines had never met Barnett, they had obviously been forewarned about his intentions, because they were rather fearful about his upcoming visit.

Based on what the Big City Engine had been telling Henry, Barnett was intending to take over the railway, and displace all the steam engines. It was rumoured that he was planning to have the steam engines rebuilt into diesels, and to have Thomas and Fergus scrapped on the spot. Unfortunately for Barnett, his visit to The Fat Controller's Railway was short lived after he attempted to antagonise James - which would have been successful if no one else had come to his aid - only to be shunted under the coal bunker towards the end of the story. Barnett was sent back to where he came from, so that he wouldn't cause any more disruption.

Barnett wasn't brought back until 2009 and 2010, except he didn't return to the Island of Sodor. Instead he appeared alongside some of my other fictional engine characters, several of them were ones that I had previously created as fictional Thomas and Friends characters. Barnett is unquestionably pompous, snobbish, and rude. Like many other diesels, he held no exception in believing that steam engines were inferior to diesels. In a way, he is shown to be very similar to D261 and D199.

Barnett also seemed to be rather dismissive of The Fat Controller's wishes, given that he tried to take over the railway with the intention of having the steam engines scrapped or rebuilt into diesel engines, despite it being clear that The Fat Controller had no intention of prohibiting steam engines from his railway. When Barnett's plans were foiled, The Fat Controller was not in the least bit sympathetic, and made it clear that he would not be invited back.

In 2010 I confirmed that Barnett was officially based on a BR Class 37, although I had always imagined him to be the same basis as D199, meaning that for the longest time I imagined him to be a BR Class 46. I didn't know much about the different classes before reading this book of locomotives in 2010, and when I saw a picture of a BR Class 37 locomotive, I was like "That's what kind of diesel Metey Barnett is".

Because the BR Class 37, BR Class 40, and BR Class 46 were roughly the same shape, I would not have figured out that they were all different types of diesels without research. Barnett is a BR Class 37, despite being painted to resemble a BR Class 46. Instead of being painted blue with yellow like D199, Barnett is painted grey with light grey. He also has a light grey face that is square shaped, just like D261.