Henry

Henry is a green goods engine that worked on the North Western Railway. He was originally a failed prototype hybrid of a GNR Gresley A1 Pacific and an Ivatt C1 Atlantic but was rebuilt into a LMS Stainer Black Five in 1935

Biography
Henry's exact origins are unknown. The story goes that he was built from drawings stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley at Doncaster in 1919 by an anonymous locomotive builder who held a grudge against him. The spy, however, blundered and took the wrong drawings. Instead of the new A1 "Pacific" locomotives that Gresley was designing at the time, the thief ended up with plans that had been rejected early on. The mistake was realised too late and Henry was built with many resulting flaws, and only a superficial likeness to Gresley's Pacifics. One of these flaws was an undersized firebox, making Henry an unreliable shy steamer.

The thief was delighted to unload his "White Elephant" on to the first desperate customer who came along - The Fat Controller. He had intended to buy a Robinson "Atlantic" of the Great Central Railway, but was tricked into purchasing Henry instead. Henry arrived in 1922, and due to the railway being desperate for locomotives the Fat Controller had no choice but to keep him.

Henry was vain and stopped in the Ballahoo Tunnel and refused to come out, citing that his paintwork would be spoiled by the rain. After several attempts to move him failed, he was bricked up in the tunnel until Gordon broke down while pulling the Express. As Edward was unable to move the train himself, the Fat Controller offered to let Henry out of the tunnel to help. Henry eagerly accepted.

Henry performed well and the Fat Controller promised him a new coat of paint, since Henry's existing paintwork had been spoiled more by his stay in the tunnel than it would have been by the rain. Henry asked to be painted blue like Edward, only for many people to confuse him with Gordon, much to the bigger engine's annoyance. The matter was worsened after a trip to the Works when Henry was given a spare set of Gordon's buffers. Sometime before 1935 the mainline engines were offered new paint. Henry chose green and so ended the Gordon/Henry confusion.

Unfortunately, Henry was to suffer humiliation when he was pushed out of a tunnel and later hosed with water by an escaped elephant. After Gordon and James had suffered humiliations of their own (and all three had become thoroughly fed up having to do their own shunting and fetch their own coaches), the big engines went on strike. The Fat Controller naturally disapproved of this nonsense and locked them up in the shed for several days, leaving them miserable. However, they were let out again after promising to work hard.

The poor engine and his system - which was already finicky at best due to design flaws - never really recovered from his stay in the tunnel. Henry developed steaming problems, which he complained about constantly, though he found little sympathy from the engines, especially when it caused him to run late.

A period came when the Main Line engines were supplied with a poor delivery of coal and Henry had a very difficult time of it indeed. He had strength to pull trains only sporadically, in spite of numerous part replacements, and there was talk of being replaced by another engine. At last, the Fat Controller looked into it personally and asked for the opinion of Henry's fireman, who told him about the poor coal and Henry's firebox being too small to burn it efficiently. The fireman also suggested purchasing the high-grade Welsh coal used on the Great Western Railway. Sir Topham Hatt agreed to purchasing some in order to give Henry "a fair chance".

When the Welsh coal came, Henry's performance vastly improved, such that he was comparable to Gordon. He continued to use the coal until he had a collision with a goods train at Killdane Field while pulling the Flying Kipper and was sent to Crewe to be rebuilt in 1935. Henry was rebuilt into a Stanier 5MT. The Fat Controller had connections with Sir William Stanier, so this is likely the reason he managed to get Henry rebuilt so quickly. Besides being given a new shape, Henry also received a larger firebox, allowing him to use regular coal again.

After returning, Henry was added to the rotation for the Express and pulled it so well that he made Gordon jealous. Gordon tried to get even by rudely criticising Henry for whistling loudly at stations, but he had to eat his words later that day after his own whistle valve jammed open. Some time later, Henry was taking a slow train. As he passed under a bridge, three boys he had assumed to be railfans threw stones at him and his coaches. He paid them out on his return journey by "sneezing" ashes that collected in his smokebox at them.

When Queen Elizabeth II was due to visit Sodor in 1953, Henry (justifiably) assumed that he was the Fat Controller's choice to pull the Royal Train. But the day before, while he was idling at the station, his smoke blinded a painter, who fell along with his paint pot onto Henry. The paint splashed over Henry's boiler and as painting over it would take too long, Gordon was given the job instead.

When Duck arrived in 1955 to take over Percy's duties as station pilot, Henry - along with Gordon and James - teased him and tried to give him orders, as they had been doing to Percy. With Percy's help, Duck blocked the big engines from entering the shed. The Fat Controller arrived and told the two tank engines off for causing a disturbance. Henry and the others laughed - until the Fat Controller shouted for silence and told them that they had been worse, as they had made the disturbance. He told them that Duck was right - he, Sir Topham Hatt, is in charge and he gives the orders; Henry respected Duck more after that.

Personality
Henry is generally well-behaved, but is sometimes arrogant. Henry is at heart, a very hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work. His illnesses almost always have something to do with his boiler.

Henry has also been portrayed with a much kinder and softer personality. He has been shown as a nature-lover as evident for his love for trees. This personality carried on, with Henry being occasionally a tree-hugging engine too as he tried to prevent the tall pine tree and the wishing tree from being cut down.

Henry is also sometimes really worrisome, as shown in multiple occasions. He has shown instances when he was either moody, arrogant and vain, but proud, strong and witty, much like the earlier seasons.

Basis
Henry's history is unusual. The Fat Controller had intended to buy a Robinson Atlantic of the Great Central Railway, but was swindled and instead received Henry. According to men who worked on Henry pre-rebuild, he had a superficial likeness to Gordon, but the aesthetics were as far as this went. Although Henry's exact origins are difficult to trace, it is generally thought that he was built by an unknown rival locomotive builder to Sir Nigel Gresley, whose spy stole the wrong drawings for Gresley's upcoming A1 pacifics, resulting in Henry. Henry in this shape developed performance issues from flaws in the design, compounded by his stay in the tunnel. Henry was a bad steamer; with good-quality coal, he could get enough heat to make plenty of steam, but when there was a poor lot delivered, his undersized firebox could not hold enough coal to make a proper fire. On advice from Henry's fireman, the Fat Controller ordered high-grade Welsh Coal, which made an appreciable difference in Henry's performance. When Henry suffered an accident and severe damage in the winter of 1935, the opportunity was taken to send him to Crewe, where he was rebuilt into a London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0. After "The Eight Famous Engines", Henry's Stanier tender was replaced by a standard Fowler tender. Eighteen members of the class have survived into preservation. Several members of this class survived until the end of steam on British Railways in 1968. Three class members, 44781, 44871 and 45110 were used to haul the Fifteen Guinea Special on August 11, 1968. 44871 and 45110 have survived into preservation whereas sister engine 44781 was purchased for use in the film, The Virgin Soldiers, and was scrapped after being used in a train scene disguised as a Malayan Railway L class locomotive (donning the number 531.03).

Livery
Henry is painted in NWR apple green with red and yellow lining. His number 3 is painted on the sides of his cab in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow.