Edward

Edward is a mixed-traffic engine. He runs his own branch line with BoCo. Edward is one of the oldest engines on Sodor and is occasionally made fun of for his old age. Edward is very wise and positive and spreads his knowledge and positive attitude towards the other engines.

Bio in the shorts
Edward lost patients by Sharon Miller

Persona
Edward is kindhearted and always keen to help a friend in need. The small engines trust him to lend a listening ear and sympathetic advice. He is a hard worker too, and always does his best to finish a job.

Sadly, the big engines often see Edward as old-fashioned and slow. While it is true he is the oldest engine on the North Western Railway - it must be noted he helped build it - he has proved time and time again that he is more than capable of working as hard as any engine, but he is a more clever and wiser engine, too.

Since The Great Festival Adventure, Edward's persona changed slightly. Despite his reputation of being kind and friendly, Edward has acted cheeky. Edward also acted with a lack of confidence in himself in that he keeps secrets from the other engines and the Fat Controller, when he was once leaking steam and likewise when he was told to pull the post train whilst Percy was being repaired. Sometimes, Edward even shared the same personality as James, such as when he decided to show off his special waterwheel and laughed at Thomas when he was wearing a funny funnel.

However, since the seventeenth season, Edward has been portrayed with his original personality.

Basis
The Reverend W. Awdry stated that Edward is based on a heavily modified Sharp, Stewart and Co. "Larger Seagull", supplied to the Furness Railway in 1896.

Sodor "historian" Martin Clutterbuck notes that Edward bears a close resemblance to a LNER D3/4 "Glen" (NBR Reid Class K) 4-4-0 from the London and North Eastern Railway. At any rate, the Reverend W. Awdry used an engine of this class to represent Edward on his model railway.

Visible Crovan's Gate modifications are: making the rear splasher flush with the cab, new cab windows as opposed to cutaways, and new cab lookouts as opposed to the original round ones.

Appearances
Season 1 (shorts) : The truth about The Steam Team

Voices

 * Edward Tophat