Elliot

Sir Elliot is a vain mixed-traffic steam tank locomotive. He is a fan made character and unfortunately does not appear in the canon version of the series. Elliot's character was created in 2005 when I was still into Thomas and Friends. Even though I have grown out of Thomas and Friends, I have looked back upon the old days when I was into the series, looking back upon some of my fan made engine characters as a result.

Biography
Sir Elliot was brought to the Island of Sodor about three fifths of the way through the year 2005, to help pull fish trucks at the docks, the port, and the the fishing village, and to pull passenger trains such as the express. He was rewarded with two coaches names Katrina and Ashley (who look like Annie and Clarabel) after he helped a derailed Arthur back on to the track. Elliot was given his own branch line at some point during his time on the Island of Sodor. Despite this, Elliot is regarded as a "main line" engine, because of his job pulling heavier main line trains such as express trains, and regular heavy goods trains. Elliot's branch line is apparently located at the port somewhere near Duck's branch line, Arthur's branch line, and Brendam Docks.

Personality
Elliot is at times, rather arrogant and self-centered. In a way, he is very similar to James the Red Engine, in terms of his attitudes and habits. One obvious difference between James and Elliot, is that the former much prefers pulling coaches and that he thinks he is too good to pull trucks. The latter while not lavishing praise for pulling trucks as a whole, does enjoy pulling fish trucks to and from the port, the fishing village, and the docks. Even though Elliot does not like getting dirty, he apparently enjoys working at the fishing village more than he hates getting dirty. Like Arthur and Salty, Elliot doesn't mind the smell of fish.

Despite being a tank engine, Elliot has no problems mixing with tender engines, nor do they have problems mixing with him. Like James, Elliot thinks himself superior to others, and can shallow, boastful, and vain, particularly to those who appear old-fashioned, weak, slow, or dirty. Because of this, he often looks down on tank engines such as Thomas and Percy, both of whom he believes are common cheeky little tank engines.

Elliot appears to be good at keeping a level head, and is usually unaffected by any rude comments the other engines may give him, although he is often quick to retaliate. While James tends to suffer from "self-importance", Elliot usually tends to suffer from "being cool" as well.

Basis
Elliot is based on a LB&SCR E2 tank locomotive much like Thomas the Tank Engine, although various parts of him were rebuilt over time. While he hasn't undergone any physical changes outside receiving a belpaire firebox prior to his arrival on Sodor, a new Giesl ejector as of 2005, larger wheels with more prominent counterweights, and golden buffers as of 2009, Elliot seems to have changed a lot from his former self.

For one thing LB&SCR E2 tank locomotives usually can only travel between 30 and 50 miles per hour, but since Elliot's rebuild, he is capable of reaching 90 miles an hour. It is presumed that Elliot has been given a newer engine as well, since he is now a mixed-traffic engine who can pull both passenger trains and freight trains quite easily. Elliot is also quite strong as he is capable of pulling long fast passenger trains, including the express.

LB&SCR E2 tank locomotives usually wouldn't be able to pull long fast passenger trains like Gordon's Express, since they would have been too heavy. They also usually wouldn't be able to pull heavy goods trains like BoCo's regular heavy goods train. As revealed in the episode "One Good Turn", it would normally require two small tank engines to pull one of these trains. Elliot would be able to pull both of these trains single-handed.

Livery
Elliot is painted red, with yellow lining, similar to how Thomas is painted blue, with red lining. Unlike most Sodor steam engines, Elliot has yellow trim instead of red. He has red wheels with yellow coupling rods, a yellow bunker, yellow chassis, and a yellow cab roof. Unlike Thomas, Elliot has a red circle with a yellow outline surrounding a small yellow number 14, instead of a big yellow number 1. Elliot also has his name painted on his sides, whereas Thomas does not.

Another difference between Thomas and Elliot's appearances, is that Thomas always wore a lamp on one of his lamp irons, and a tail lamp on his back. Elliot did not wear these unless they were being used, until 2013, when he began to wear them permanently. Unlike Thomas who was based off the later series of LB&SCR E2 tank locomotives, Elliot's built date is June 1913, which means that he must be based off the earlier series of LB&SCR E2 tank locomotives. It is presumed that he was remodelled to resemble the later series during one of his rebuilds.

Arthur
Despite their contrasting differences in personality, Arthur is usually portrayed as being Elliot's best friend. While they may fall out from time to time due to Elliot's arrogance, and Arthur's politeness, their close bond helps to keep their friendship from falling apart.

They became friends after Elliot helped to pull Arthur back on to the track when he was derailed. Arthur could not have pulled himself back on to the track, and Elliot couldn't have pulled Arthur back on to the track without his help.

Gordon
Although Elliot does tend to tease Gordon, he does have a lot of respect for him. Both engines share the same perspective towards tank engines like Thomas and Percy who are in their opinions "not as important". They are also both agreed on the subject of trucks. Even though Elliot is a tank engine, not a tender engine, Gordon does not seem to look down on Elliot because of this.

This is probably because he knows that Elliot is not the one to give Gordon the satisfaction, should Gordon ever address Elliot as "inferior" for being a tank engine. However this does not stop Gordon from thinking that no one is as important as he is.

Henry
Similar to Gordon, Elliot tends to tease Henry about his differences, and past accidents. While Elliot doesn't seem to be quite as close to Henry, as he is to Gordon, they are generally portrayed as friends.

James
Ironically despite their similarities, Elliot and James have actually had little direct contact in my fan made stories of Thomas and Friends. This is partly because the matching shallow, boastful and vain sides of their characters often made it redundant for them to directly appear together at the same time. Because of this, they were often separated by a few more engines, usually Gordon, Henry and Arthur.

In the few times that Elliot and James have appeared together in my fan made stories, James has been shown to dislike Elliot's liking for working at the port because it often involves fulling fish trucks and I often portrayed James to dislike the smell of fish, while Elliot, like Arthur, is unaffected by the smell. Despite this Elliot and James are considered to be distant friends.

Thomas
Elliot often liked to bully Thomas when the former first came to the railway. While their relationship was never the greatest, it did improve over time. Despite Elliot's initial reluctance to admit it, he discovered that him and Thomas were more alike than Elliot liked to believe.

Percy
Like most engines who like to take advantage of Percy's keenness to oblige, Elliot was often quick to bully Percy in these situations. Despite getting off on the wrong wheels many times, Elliot deep down does respect Percy for his differences, and Percy respects Elliot as a fellow member of the North Western Railway in return.

Trivia

 * Elliot has James' whistle sound, but it is slightly higher in pitch.
 * His face mask (or facial structure) is somewhere between Thomas' and Arthur's in appearance.
 * His favourite station is Kellsthorpe.
 * He is considered to be faster than Arthur, but slightly slower than Henry. However Henry's basis has been reported to be capable of reaching 90 miles per hour, much like Elliot, though Henry has been able to narrowly beat Elliot in a race, while Elliot has never managed to beat Henry in a race. Elliot was also portrayed to be faster than D261 and Diesel 10, although their basis have been reported to reach 90 miles an hour, like Henry and Elliot. At the time I was unaware that both D261 and Diesel 10 were capable of reaching 90 miles an hour.
 * He sleeps in the counterpart of Tidmouth Sheds that has more than the usual six berths, as seen in "Oliver Owns Up", "Percy, James and the Fruitful Day", and "Thomas and Percy's Christmas Adventure".
 * Elliot apparently dislikes getting covered in coal dust, and hates the smell of mince and cheese pies.
 * He has a New Zealand accent, due to being shipped there for many years before being brought to live on the Island of Sodor.
 * Similar to Thomas, Elliot does not usually get on very well with Rosie. In Thomas' case because she idolises him, and Elliot's case because of her being weaker, slower, and dirtier than him.
 * At the end of 2005, there was a Sodor race in which Gordon, Henry, Elliot, and Arthur came first, second, third and fourth respectively. I deliberately excluded certain other participants (including James) to make sure that those four engines could finish in the placings that I had picked out for them.
 * Since Elliot is a tank engine, he technically wouldn't be able to travel as far as most tender engines can without needing to stop to take on more coal and water. However these disadvantages of being a tank engine had never been explored, prior to writing my fictional Thomas and Friends story "Elliot's Tender" in 2019. Until then, it had never been explained whether Elliot was prone to these disadvantages, or whether he had faced these disadvantages.