Gordon (JSS)

Gordon is a big blue express engine who works on the Main Line.

Bio
Gordon's history in Jacob's Sudrian Stories is largely the same as his television series counterpart.

He first appeared in Meet My Friends, where Jacob introduced him to the audience.

Persona
Gordon is the fastest and most powerful engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. He is goodhearted, always willing to forgive and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble.

Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous and self-important, with good reason too; he is the fastest engine on Sodor. His philosophy "tender engines don't shunt" meant that he looked down on tank engines and tender engines who do shunt, but after being locked in the shed with Henry and James after going on strike and before the seventeenth season, he seemed to have abandoned this philosophy.

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 or gets jealous of engines who do. Sometimes, Gordon acts as a bully, particularly towards Edward, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon had to acknowledge that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine. However, sometimes Gordon still doubts Edward is still reliable, such as the time he did not believe Edward could win a race against Spencer because he's only "a back engine" and "a waste of steam." He would soon stop belittling Edward after being tricked by Thomas; he learned his lesson and apologized to Edward saying that he promised not call him old or unreliable anymore.

Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the younger engines advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful, though, as James and Sir Handel have discovered.

As of the twentieth season, Gordon seems to have developed a tendency of pinning his own faults on others, as shown when he blamed Henry over having to do his jobs for the day and vice-versa, or 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 (which was actually Henry with a coat of luminous paint) - again, Gordon blamed Henry for the predicament.

Basis
According to The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Gordon was built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire. Once the first batch of A1 Pacifics appeared in 1922 Gordon would have more than likely have been reclassified A1/1 - the '/1' indicating he is slightly different to the rest of the class.

Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number and was never put into regular traffic, he was only ever used on test runs. Owing to various problems Gordon was rebuilt in 1939 at Crewe. Sir Topham Hatt and Sir William Stanier worked together to rectify these problems - everything under the running board is of Stanier's design while the running board itself is that of Sir Topham Hatt's. In both the Railway Series and television series, Gordon is depicted with a Fowler tender

As "The Shooting Star", Gordon's appearance is based on a streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad K4 (Hank's class), specifically #3768.

Livery
Gordon is painted in the North Western Railway's sky blue livery with red and yellow lining. The number "4" is painted on his tender sides in yellow. Before arriving on Sodor, he was painted in the Great Northern Railway's Apple Green livery with white and black lining.

Appearances

 * Meet My Friends