Emily and Gordon!

Despite being labelled as one of Sir Topham Hatt's more sensible engines, he can act senseless if prompted, which is quite often. Because of his reputation, he has a fear of being found out and often tries to refrain from acting less than serious. Much like James, Gordon can be highly opinionated on an engine's character; he remained mistrustful of Sonny due to his role in Kenji's runaway and the theft of the plans for Ruth's Hover-Car despite Sonny having switched sides, due to the well-tank engine being owned by the crooks in the first place. Eventually, he learned from Thomas that he did not mean to be involved, but he still refused to believe that Sonny left the lifestyle of a thief until much later. Gordon is also very posh and egotistical, claiming engines wearing decorations for the best-dressed contest make him look ridiculous and Thomas to be undignified wearing a monkey costume, while others saw him as funny-looking. Despite this, he does have moral standards, as he chose to give Henry his special coal back instead of using it to break his speed record.

Whenever he meets and talks with Henry and James, Gordon is usually the one who directs the conversation and makes the decisions, making him the leader of sorts of the three big engines. He is always quick to place the blame of any errors on someone else, though while his pride prevents it quite often, Gordon will give credit where it is due, especially after moments of guilt.

or "unreliable" anymore. Despite the way that he sometimes mistreats Edward, deep down, Gordon cares a great deal about him and the other engines on the railway. This was especially shown when he was very upset after he learnt that Edward and Henry moved out of Tidmouth Sheds to sleep elsewhere for their own reasons, thus indicating how much he missed them. He appears to have a hard time accepting change, but with help from his friends (and Nia), he can pull through it.

Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the engines some advice, though mostly Thomas, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful or honest, though, as James, Percy and Sir Handel have discovered. This side resurfaced once Rebecca joined the North Western Railway. But this time, Gordon realised that he was wrong to do so, especially when he ended up smashing through a set of buffers. With Edward gone, Gordon has often found himself acting as the other engines' father figure. His pompous attitude often makes this a difficult role, but he eventually matured enough to give some meaningful advice that helps others. Ever since the tenth series, there have been moments where he’s not minded pulling goods trains such as when Sir Topham Hatt asked him to take coal trucks to all the stations when a snowstorm occurred on Sodor (including when Rebecca arrived).

Since the twentieth series, Gordon has developed a tendency to pin blame on others. This was shown when he blamed Henry for having to do his jobs for the day and vice-versa, even though his lateness was what led to the change in the first place. When he and the rest of the Steam Team got in trouble for refusing to leave the shed at night, believing there was a ghost train about (which was actually Henry with a coat of luminous paint), he once again blamed Henry unfairly for the predicament.

Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous, arrogant, stubborn, prideful and self-important, with a good reason too; he is the fastest steam engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. But despite his pompousness and every-now-and-then hostility, he is still goodhearted, always willing to forgive, and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. Though he is also vengeful and will plot retribution if he feels he has been sufficiently slighted, as mentioned before he is happy to forgive especially after he has either had his retribution or the individual has received some other comeuppance. He also has a great hatred of goods trains and believes that he should only pull coaches. Because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the important passenger jobs, and either sulks when he does not get what he wants or gets jealous of engines who do.

Gordon is sometimes shown acting rude and egotistical more often than not, especially towards smaller engines like Thomas or Percy. Despite this, he has helped them on a few occasions and still truly cares about them. However, one incident temporarily ended his acquaintanceship with Thomas. He can also be rude and judgmental towards other engines that have great recognition, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon readily acknowledged that (despite being old) Edward is still a very useful engine. However, Gordon still sometimes doubts Edward is still reliable; he did not believe Edward could win a race against Spencer as he is only a "back engine" and a "waste of steam" and even outright saying he was worthless and calling for him to be preserved and retired, especially behind his tender. He soon stopped belittling Edward for good after being tricked by Thomas; he learnt his lesson and apologised to Edward, saying that he promised not to call him "old"

One year on May Day, Gordon ridiculed Thomas, James, Percy and Murdoch having a Best Dressed Engine competition, not wanting to look silly with decorations. While pulling the Express, a banner blew off of the side of a bridge and onto Gordon's face and stayed there until he reached Knapford. Despite him not intending for it to be decoration, he was declared winner of the competition.

When Spencer first visited Sodor, Gordon warned him to take on water, however was ignored. Spencer later had to be rescued by Gordon and taken to Maron after running out of water on the hill. From this point onwards, Gordon and Spencer developed somewhat of a rivalry.

During one winter, Gordon was asked to teach Percy to pull passenger trains. Gordon soon became boastful and spent more time showing off than teaching Percy, leading him to eventually slide through Kellsthorpe Road and into a snowdrift in a siding.

At one point, Gordon's firebox rattled when it cooled down at night. After being teased for it by the other engines, Gordon decided to make demands of the other engines to make them respect him, including that they whistle whenever they see him as a mark of respect. After Emily opted not to whistle in protest to Gordon's demands, he became so cross that he missed a red signal and crashed into a train of jam tankers. Gordon was later taken to the Works to be cleaned out and, while there, had the rattling in his firebox seen to. Upon his return, the other engines were grateful to have him back and they all reconciled.

One spring, Gordon accidentally took on special coal meant for Henry just before attempting a record run with the Express. After seeing Henry struggling later in the day, Gordon forfeited the run just outside of Knapford to go back and help Henry by swapping tenders. Despite not finishing the run, Gordon still held the previous record and was happy to have helped his friend.

Later, when Diesel arrived on trial and was having trouble moving some old trucks, he accused Duck by making rumours about him giving Gordon a bad nickname, "Galloping Sausage". As a result, Gordon, Henry and James began to turn against Duck by forbidding him from the shed. However, when the truth came out that Duck had not made the nicknames, they began to feel very silly about jumping to conclusions before knowing the true story.

Later on, Gordon complained about BoCo - the new diesel - going on the main line, because the diesel only works on Edward's Branch Line. He claimed that the Fat Controller would never agree and states that branch lines are vulgar. That night, Gordon's crew mistakenly believed that the passenger with a green hat was the guard waving his green flag. As a result, Gordon left with the majority of the passengers, the luggage and the guard stranded on the platform. Everyone was surprised, but the surprise quickly gave way to anger. This made Gordon so embarrassed, he brought his train back down to the big station as Edward was already late with his train. But the signalman at the junction was not told about the change. Because of this, Edward was sent to the main line and Gordon was sent down to Edward's branch line. He spent the night at Brendam and was teased by Bill and Ben of being a lot of old iron that should be scrapped. BoCo stopped them and Gordon gained respect for him.

During City of Truro's visit, Gordon heard that the famous engine had reached 100 miles an hour and believed that he could reach that speed. This resulted in him losing his dome on the viaduct. Not long afterwards, Gordon felt devastated to hear that steam engines were being scrapped on the Mainland. He also notched his brother at Brendam, though Gordon did not know who he was at the time.

During its construction, Gordon took a special test train to Kirk Ronan, however was unimpressed by the lack of a view from the station. On a second run - after he returned from b

When he first arrived on Sodor, Gordon often looked down on Thomas, as well as Edward. However, he would soon find he needed help from Edward to be his banker after he got stuck on a hill with a train of trucks.[20] He also needed Edward and Henry to pull his passenger train after he broke his safety valve.[21]

Gordon often found Thomas very annoying for whistling rudely at him, so he taught him a lesson by dragging him along with his express train before he could be uncoupled. Thomas usually fetched the coaches for him, but then Thomas left the yard when he was given a branch line and Gordon, along with Henry and James, became infuriated when they soon found that they had to fetch their coaches. After the big engines had several mishaps, Gordon proposed that they go on strike; they would only pull their coaches if another engine fetched them. Edward was enlisted as a station pilot but as Gordon proposed that tender engines do not shunt, they discriminated against Edward until the Fat Controller had decided shut them up in their sheds.

After Gordon, Henry and James realised how silly they were, the Fat Controller decided to let them out, reminding them to behave and bought a tank engine named Percy to fetch their coaches. Gordon almost had a run-in accident with Percy who had carelessly stood on the Main Line. After Percy ran away backwards and stopped in a pile of dirt, Gordon helped him out. Gordon was still pompous and arrogant, and insulted Henry for the way he whistled. However, he ate his own words when his whistle jammed and he went running down the main line, whistling continuously. He could not stop until two fitters hammered his whistle valve in place.

When Thomas hid his snowplough one winter, Emily had to do Thomas' work for him, including ploughing the tracks and later running his branch line. She later rescued Thomas after he got stuck in a snowdrift while trying to recover his snowplough.[19]

During one foggy day, Thomas told Emily about the Flatbeds of Fear, but Emily did not believe in it and said there had to be a sensible explanation. After taking the train on from Henry, she began to believe in it after hearing the whistling noises for herself, until Thomas informed her that it was just one of Salty's tall tales.[20]

When the other engines tried to clear the tracks of snow for Connor to deliver the last train for Christmas, Emily struggled at a deep drift near the Vicarstown Bridge. Fortunately, Hiro helped by charging the drift from the other side, allowing Connor to pass through.[21]

One of Emily's most exciting jobs was taking a giant model of a globe to the Sodor Animal Park. While attempting to show it off, however, she lost the globe, leading her to have to chase it all the way to Brendam Docks.[22]

After Emily was informed by Paxton about a rumour that Toby was to be scrapped (initiated by a misunderstanding after he ran out of coal at a scrapyard), Henrietta overheard this and knew it was not true. Emily took her to find Toby and once they found him safe, Emily gave him some of her coal to allow him to return home.[23]

After being helped to the Sodor Steamworks by Caitlin, Emily became fascinated with her being able to go at such high speeds and wondered what it would be like to be fast, becoming depressed when she could not do so. Emily eventually regained her self-confidence after managing to save Caitlin when she became a runaway after her brakes broke on a steep hill.[24]

While pulling the Express for the first time, Emily was determined to keep to Gordon's timing, but became impatient and ran out of water.[14]

Following a storm on Sodor, Emily was tasked with bringing timber to repair a barn at McColl Farm. Throughout the day, she bossed around others who were helping to clear up the storm's damage. But after a confrontation with Elizabeth and some advice from Thomas, she learned to be more polite and delivered the timber on time.[15]

When Thomas had to stay at Knapford Sheds temporarily, Emily did not like his company at first as she did not want him to disturb her sleep. Later, however, she learned how comfortable it is to have the company of friends, missing Thomas when he did not return to the sheds one night. Originally disappointed once Tidmouth Sheds was rebuilt, she was delighted to find that the shed had gained a seventh berth and she was transferred there to be with her new shed mates.[16]

Emily was once asked to collect a set of special coaches to be awarded to Gordon. These were stolen by Diesel in retaliation to her having not listened to him earlier, leading her to chase him around the Island, only being able to catch him when Sir Topham Hatt intervened. After finding out that Diesel had wanted to tell her about him having broken a record for shunting trucks, Emily made amends by gifting Diesel a new motor and apologising for ignoring him.[17]

On Whiff's first day on Sodor, Emily was asked to help him collect rubbish trucks. She initially avoided him due to being laughed at by the other engines, but apologised after she realised she did need his help to move some trucks out of Spencer's way.[18]

When Emily was new to Sodor, she borrowed Annie and Clarabel without Thomas' knowledge, to the shock of the other engines. The matter was resolved after she saved Oliver from a nasty accident and she was rewarded with two new coaches.[8]

Emily proved to be kind-hearted, as she was the only engine concerned about Henry when he was ill due to leaky tubes and stuck up for Salty when Thomas and Percy were teasing him.[9][10] She also came up with the suggestion that Bulgy could help the farmer deliver his vegetables around the island, after his passenger services went wrong due to some chickens sleeping in his luggage racks.[11]

One winter, Emily decided she would "help" Thomas by telling him what he was doing wrong. This offended Thomas, resulting in him ignoring Emily when she told him to wear his snowplough. Emily later helped Thomas when he became stuck in a snowdrift, but was scolded for not having told Thomas that it was Sir Topham Hatt's orders.[12]

During summer, she was assigned to make runs to the Flour Mill. She soon met up with James, who had been assigned to the Black Loch run and told her that there was a monster in the Loch. After having difficulty with the Troublesome Trucks at the Flour Mill and accidentally shunting some of them into a pond, she was reassigned to the Black Loch run, where she discovered the "monster" was just a family of seals. She then continued to run the line to Black Loch for the rest of the Summer.[13]

Emily is a kind, caring, helpful and intelligent engine, who acts as a sisterly figure to other engines. She is sensitive to the feelings of others and is quick to apologise if she wrongs someone, whether knowingly or not. She will stand up for other engines if they are being teased or treated unfairly and is unafraid to speak her mind, even to authority figures.

Emily often acts as a level-headed voice of reason, particularly when the other engines jump to conclusions or when a friend needs moral support. She is also a very competent, clever, adaptable and quick-thinking engine, and as such is often relied upon for advice, a trait which eventually led her to becoming the railway's official "safety engine".

Between the eighth and twelfth series, Emily had occasional habits of acting bossy, rude, and impatient; these traits are usually unintentional on her part and come from a place of concern for the well-being of others. She does, however, have occasions where she can be quite vain or overconfident, usually as a result of feeling she knows best, though once brought back down to earth she is always sure to make amends. Her original personality later returned in the thirteenth series.

From the eighteenth series onwards, Emily has been prone to feelings of inadequacy or jealousy, often longing for more excitement in her life when she hears of others' adventures, or for the same talents as them. Thus, making her a character that the audience can sympathise with.

Emily is based on a Great Northern Railway (GNR) 1003 Series Stirling Single 4-2-2.

Designed by Patrick Stirling in 1870 with 8ft 1in driving wheels and outside cylinders, these engines were specifically built for high-speed expresses between London and York. A total of fifty-three engines were built at Doncaster between 1870 and 1895, unofficially divided into three series based on their dimensions: the twenty-seven No. 1 Series engines between 4/1870 and 4/1880, the twenty 662 Series engines between 2/1881 and 12/1893 and the six 1003 Series engines between 11/1894 and 4/1895. George Frederick Bird labelled these series G, G2 and G3 respectively in his book The Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway, 1847-1910 (albeit with some inconsistencies). Under Henry Ivatt's classification scheme in 1900, the 1003 Series were classified A1, the 662 Series and No. 1 Series (which by now had all been rebuilt to the 662 Series' dimensions) were classified A2 and the eight engines rebuilt with a domed boiler were classified A3.

Emily is of the 1003 Series, or Class A1, which feature an updated Stirling boiler, larger cylinders and most notably an upgraded cab. The last of the Stirling Singles, No. 1006, was withdrawn on 14 February 1916.

The only surviving member of all classes, the pioneer No. 1, is on display at the National Railway Museum. The engine in preservation carried a small capacity Stirling tender, which was given in its first restoration in 1909. A derelict original Stirling Single tender used as a water and sludge carrier was later found in Peterborough and, after restoration, was paired with the engine in 2014.

Emily's basis Emily's basis Preserved GNR Stirling Single No. 1 Preserved GNR Stirling Single No. 1 Livery

Emily is painted emerald green with yellow lining on her cab, tender and splashers and brass fittings. Her valences and the back section of her running board are painted chocolate brown, while the top of the front section of her running board