Duck the Great Western Engine
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Duck the Great Western Engine is a fictional steam engine from The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry and the television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He is a green 0-6-0 Pannier Tank and lives and works on the Island of Sodor, where he has his own branch line between Tidmouth and Arlesburgh (nicknamed 'The Little Western').
In the TV Series, when he arrived on Sodor, Duck was given the number 8, however in the Railway Series, Duck retains his original number of 5741.
Duck is not actually his real name. When he first arrived, he explained that his name was Montague, but he was usually called Duck because everyone said he waddled. But although he claimed this was not true, he preferred Duck to Montague, and now that is what everyone calls him.
Duck first arrived to help in the Yard after Percy was moved to Thomas' branch line. Despite an incident when a devious engine called Diesel spread lies about him, the Fat Controller realised what a useful engine he had in Duck, and eventually gave him a branch line of his very own.
He works on this branch line with fellow Great Western engine Oliver, but sometimes helps on other lines. He makes friends easily, and the Fat Controller says that he makes everything run like clockwork. "There are two ways of doing things," Duck says, "the Great Western Way or the wrong way."
He has made few appearances in recent seasons, and none since Season 7. However, he remains popular with fans.
In the Railway Series, Duck first appeared in the book Percy the Small Engine (1956).
Origins
The nickname "Duck" comes from Rev. W. V. Awdry's OO scale model railway. He had bought a GWR Pannier tank engine manufactured by Gaiety as a spare engine for his model railway, but one of the wheels was not quite concentric, and the model had a pronounced waddle, earning the nickname "Duck" which stuck long after new wheels had been fitted.
Duck is based on the 57xx class built by the Great Western Railway and still carries the colours of the GWR. These engines were designed to shunt and to work branch lines, and many were still working beyond the end of steam on British Railways. Several are preserved on steam railways up and down the United Kingdom, where they have proved as useful and versatile as Duck himself.
In the biographical work The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, Rev. W. Awdry recalls seeing pannier tanks at work on the Great Western Railway at Box in Wiltshire, where he lived as a child. These would not have been 57xx tanks, but might have been an early influence nonetheless.
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