Percy the Small Engine
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Percy the Small Engine is a fictional living and talking steam engine from the children's television series, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, and The Railway Series books written by the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry.
Percy lives on the (fictitious) Island of Sodor with many other locomotives, including Thomas the Tank Engine, Gordon the Big Engine and Henry the Green Engine. He is the smallest and youngest of the principal steam engine characters, and also probably the cheekiest. He carries the number 6 on his bunker.
The Fat Controller brought him to Sodor when there was an engine strike due to a shortage of shunting engines. The bigger engines initially tried to bully him, but Percy soon showed that he was more than capable of standing up for himself. After a few years shunting at the Big Station, the Fat Controller promoted him to goods traffic on Thomas' branch line. When not pulling trucks, he can be seen shunting at the quarry, pulling the post train or even taking Annie and Clarabel when Thomas is busy. Percy's best friends are Thomas and Toby.
He is reasonably experienced, but can still occasionally be a little naive and overconfident. In that sense, he is the perfect foil for Thomas- who can be just as headstrong.
Percy's first appearance in The Railway Series was in book no.5, Troublesome Engines, originally published in 1950. In the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series, he made his debut in the first season, in an episode called "Trouble in the Shed" which originally aired in the mid-1980s.
He was voiced by Linda Ballantyne in the Thomas and the Magic Railroad film.
Illustration controversy
Like Henry the Green Engine, Percy was the source of much friction between Rev. W. Awdry and C. Reginald Dalby, the illustrator of The Railway Series. Awdry complained that Percy did not look like a real locomotive, an issue that had caused contention between the two men on several occasions and concerning several characters. In the case of Percy, it was particularly infuriating, as Awdry had built a model of the engine in order that the artist could use it as a reference.
All this came to a head when the book 'Percy the Small Engine', centring on the eponymous character, was written. Awdry sent Dalby a letter requesting that he should make Percy look less like "a green caterpillar with red stripes". Insulted by this, Dalby resigned from the Railway Series.
Subsequent illustrators modified the design to make Percy look more like a typical industrial locomotive. The television series, however, utilised the original design.
The phrase "a green caterpillar with red stripes" resurfaces in the later story 'Woolly Bear', in which Thomas uses it as an insult to Percy.
The Origins of Percy
Rev. W. Awdry considered it essential that his railway stories should be as realistic as possible. To this end, most of his locomotive characters were based upon real designs. In Percy's case, the character had been designed before that policy had come into effect. Therefore, he was forced to invent a reason for Percy looking as he does. Unfortunately, he drew something of a blank. Percy's history is largely unknown, as he does not match any real locomotive design. He does bear a resemblance to an Avonside 0-4-0 tank locomotive (Trojan and Kidwelly put together), and so Awdry stated that Percy had probably begun as one of these, but had been extensively rebuilt. Among the modifications were parts made by Hunslet of Leeds. Percy also resembles a Pug with his seemingly over-sized pistons, short round boiler and the general shape of his cab.
Trivia
- For the first few episodes that Percy appears in, his whistle valve has a triangular cone base, and a cylinder-shaped top like Gordon's whistle. Afterwards, the base is rounded, but the top is still flat. Finally, the top and base are both rounded. This is the current design.
- Percy is one of the engines who has had the most accidents in the series.
- In the recent series, Percy has been 'dumbed-down', not knowning the meanings to words like 'Inspector', 'Dignified', 'Retired', and even 'Museum'.
- Percy has a grand total of just over 40 television stories devoted to him; either alone, alongside another character or providing a significant role
- In "Diesel Does It Again" if you watch the beginning, you can see Percy accidentally had one of Thomas's faces.
- Percy's tired/bewildered/embarrassed face (the one that he wears as he sits on the crushed brake van in Percy's Predicament) originally belonged to Thomas.
External links
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