Daisy the Diesel Rail-Car
Encyclopedia : D : DA : DAI : Daisy the Diesel Rail-Car
Daisy is a fictional character from The Railway Series, by the Rev. W. Awdry. She is a diesel railcar built specially for service on the Ffarqhuar branch line following an accident that meant Thomas the Tank Engine had to be withdrawn from service due to extensive damage to his front-end. Daisy was introduced into the series in the 1961 volume Branch Line Engines.
Daisy is based on the British Rail Class 101 of diesel multiple unit, built by Metro-Cammell at Birmingham 1956 to 1959. Diesel engines like Daisy were becoming popular sights on branch lines during the early 60's, and therefore it can be implied that Daisy's introduction into the series is a reflection of the contemporary state of railways at the time. Some of the stories involving Daisy reflect problems that were faced by railway staff when it came to dealing with 'highly sprung' diesel engines in the earlier phases of their usurpment of steam.
Branch Line Engines
Daisy: When Daisy first arrived on the Ffarquhar branch line, she made herself highly unpopular not just with Percy and Toby, but with her passengers and station staff too. TheFat Controller gave the engines instructions to make Daisy feel 'welcome and comfortable'. They were anxious at first, and tried their best. But Daisy swiftly began to show her true colours. Whilst appearing to be a chic and graceful engine, she was in fact 'highly strung' and over-blown with conceit. She refused to share the other engines' shed, and finally settled on the carriage shed next-door, though she insisted that Annie, Clarabel and Henrietta were removed first.
On her first day of service, Daisy blew a fuse in anger when she discovered that she would have to pull a milk van to the dairy, something that Thomas did on a regular basis. Daisy refused to pull even one van, claiming that 'pulling' would damage her 'swerves'. She claimed that this was an order given to her by her fitter, a lie that her crew, the station staff and even the passengers couldn't quite get around. But they saw no point in arguing with her, and Daisy realised that she would be able to get away with whichever duties she pleased.
Bulls' Eyes: Daisy laughs at Toby when he warns her to be careful of animals on the line, telling him that "animals always run if you toot and look them in the eye". Unfortunately, a bull called Champion escapes that day, and Daisy discovers that it isn't as easy as she thinks.
Percy's Predicament: The Fat Controller is angry with Daisy for her laziness and lying. However, after Percy has an accident, Daisy shows she is sorry by helping out and is allowed to stay. The book ends by noting that she is now a hard worker.
Television Counterpart
Daisy was introduced into the second 1986 series of the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series, but only featured in 2 episodes as a dominant character in adaptations of two stories from Branch Line Engines; Daisy and Percy's Predicament. She made a sudden re-appearance later in 1995 for the fourth series, but only featured in one story when Bull's-Eyes was finally adapted. Daisy did not appear again until 2005, in which she had a cameo in the feature-length Thomas & Friends special, Calling All Engines.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.