Percy

"I must be brave!"

— Percy, Tale of the Brave

Percy

Number: 6 Class: GWR Avonside 0-4-0ST Designer: Avonside Engine Company Builder: Avonside Engine Company Configuration: 0-4-0ST Top Speed: 35 mph Built: Around 1900 Arrived on Sodor: Sometime between 1925 and 1935 Top speed: 45 mph

Percy is a cheeky green saddle tank engine who works on the Ffarquhar Branch Line.

Bio

Railway Series

Percy was most likely built by Avonside sometime around the 1900's and had gone through a subsequent rebuild in the years preceding his 2nd-hand sale to the North Western Railway. He is said to have been found wearing Hunslet parts, according to workers at Crovan's Gate.

When Gordon, James and Henry went on strike in protest of the extra work they had to do since Thomas left to run his branch line, the Fat Controller decided that the railway needed another tank engine. Going to the engine workshop, the Fat Controller saw a green saddle tank and when the engine confirmed he was willing to work hard, the Fat Controller bought him and named him Percy. Bringing him back to Sodor, Percy was charged with running the branch line while Thomas ran the Main Line with Edward and was allowed to stay after the big engines surrendered and returned to work. At first, Percy liked to annoy the big engines. Percy was later waiting at Tidmouth, but forgot to whistle to the signalman, and thus was startled when Gordon came running towards him with the express. Gordon managed to stop in time, but Percy was so frightened, he ran away and ended up stuck in a sandbank. He was rescued by Gordon and took up the duty of station pilot at Tidmouth.

Percy was still a cheeky engine and often liked to play jokes on Gordon and James, but one day the other engines got their revenge when Percy failed to recognize a "Backing Signal". After this, Percy was subject to bullying from the big engines until Duck arrived and helped Percy to put the big engines in their place, although Percy still received a reprimand from the Fat Controller for it.

With Duck's arrival, Percy was sent to Thomas' Branch Line to help build Knapford Harbor/Harbour and has stayed there ever since as a goods engine. He met a self-centered helicopter named Harold who said that railways were "slow and out-of-date", so he decided, to race him, of which he won. When Percy had to take the Sunday School children home, he came across a flooded paddock which swashed away his fire. Thankfully, with a little help from Harold, who had dropped supplies of hot drinks for his crew and the passengers, he was able to get the children home.

Despite being really useful, Percy was prone to having accidents, sometimes for acting naughty, and others for carelessness. He was naughty when he asked the trucks to push him past a danger notice, only to end up in the water until he could be lifted out and taken to the works by Henry. When a diesel railcar named Daisy came to look after Thomas' Branch Line, she constantly kept leaving behind the milk van every time Percy shunted it for her. Fed up with taking the milk for her, Percy offered to take Toby's trucks for him while he took the milk. However, the trucks were unfamiliar with Percy, and when he ordered them about, they decided to seek revenge by pushing him onto a line of stone trucks.

Television Series

In Tale of the Brave, Thomas tells Percy about some mysterious footprints that he saw at the China Clay Pits. Percy convinces himself that it must be footprints of a monster that is roaming Sodor. Continuing to be anxious for a few days, he causes lots of confusion and delay such as: mistakenly referring to Gator, the new engine as the monster, failing to delivery his mail on-time and running off before The Fat Controller finished talking to him. After talking with his new friend Gator, he understands what being brave is like and later uses this courage to save James from a huge landslide. He later learns that the monster was really a dinosaur a long, long time ago, which had now become a fossil. He also understood that the footprints Thomas saw, were also only fossils left from the dinosaur. Percy later says goodbye to Gator, who has to return to the mainland, but the two friends are certain they will meet again someday.

In the eighteenth season, Percy was starting to miss Gator and tries to forget him by working hard and not think about him. When he had to deliver trucks full of precious sculptures and paintings for a special exhibition, he didn't stop to be coupled and the Troublesome Trucks are rolling to the Old Mine. He thinks about Gator and his advice of how to be brave. Percy goes into the mine and rescues the trucks. Percy reunited with Gator on Christmas.

In the nineteenth season, he was to take the Mayor of Sodor to the Search and Rescue Center to present a new alarm bell to celebrate their one thousandth rescue. Diesel overheard Percy talking about it at the Docks and he played a trick on him, sending Percy to the Old Quarry which resulted him ending up on a badly flooded railway line and after Diesel unsuccessfully attempted to pull him out of the flood, he too also ended up getting stuck in the water after it badly damaged his generator. The rescue of Diesel and Percy marked the Sodor Search and Rescue Centre Crew's 101st rescue.

In The Great Race, Percy takes Thomas's place in The Shunting Competition of The Great Railway Show after Thomas has an accident and is left on Sodor. However, Thomas manages to make it to The Mainland after all and Percy drops out of the competition so his best friend can compete.

Persona

Percy is a cheeky little engine with no desire for adventure in the big world outside. He is always keen to oblige, a fact of which the other engines are apt to take advantage.

Basis

Percy is based on the Avonside 0-4-0ST, No. 5340 'Trojan' but with a class 1361 bunker and Hunslet parts.

Livery

Percy is painted NWR green with red lining and a "6" painted on his bunker sides in yellow with a red border.

Appearances

Season 1 - Emily Helps Out (does not speak), Percy Saves the Day, Edward Gets it Right (cameo), Henry's Happy Day, James and the Big Red Balloon, Salty's Story, Fishy Troubles (does not speak), Harold and the Flying Climbers, Gordon and Spencer the Fast Engines (cameo), Thomas and the Snow (cameo), and Thomas' 3 Cheers
Season 2 - Slow Coaches, Race with the Mail, Gordon and the Bend (cameo), Hiro and the Coaches (cameo), Disaster on Sodor, Stepney's Journey Out, and Flying Scotsman Departs
Season 3 - Percy and the Other Railway, Old Slow Coach, Bertie's Foggy Day (cameo), and Cold Crews
Season 4 - Thomas and Algy, Best Decorated Engine, Flora's Tram Coach, Brake Coaches (does not speak), It's Not Easy Being Green, The Wrong Sort of Coal, James and Flynn, and George and Buster (cameo)
Season 5 - Sodor Snowstorm, Henry to the Rescue, Percy and James, Stanley's Branch Line, and Bears
Season 6 - The New Diesel Fuel, Percy and the Problem with Snakes, Timothy the Ghost Engine, James and the Royal Train, and Edward and the Express (does not speak)
Season 7 - Young and Old, Toby and the Snowplough, and Thomas and Toad
Season 8 - Sidney Saves the Day, Waddling Wilbert, Henry Gets the Coaches, Snowploughing at Christmas, The Diesel that Stole Christmas, and Goodbye Glynn