Games - Henry the Green Engine

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	Games - Henry the Green Engine

Henry the Green Engine is a fictional anthropomorphic 4-6-0 steam locomotive 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.

Henry lives on the fictitious Island of Sodor with many other locomotives, including Thomas the Tank Engine, Gordon the Big Engine and Percy the Small Engine. He is engine number 3 on the railway.

Henry's first adventure was in The Sad Story of Henry, which was story three of The Railway Series book Three Railway Engines. In this story he refused to come out of a tunnel due to fears that the rain would spoil his paint. As punishment by the Fat Controller
he was bricked up in the tunnel until he had to help Gordon the Big Engine
after a burst safety valve.

Henry was originally a failed prototype engine, who as the result of a small firebox was often ill and a poor steamer. The Fat Controller gave him special Welsh coal, which helped. But worse was to come- Henry had an accident while pulling the fast fish train known as The Flying Kipper. The Fat Controller sent Henry to the works at Crewe, where they rebuilt him into his present shape, where he was given a new firebox making him similar in specification to an London, Midland and Scottish Railway 5MT "Black Five" steam engine. This cured his illness completely.

Henry now works on the main line. He can pull coaches and trucks equally easily, and sometimes even pulls the Express when Gordon is not available. He is still the engine responsible for the Flying Kipper, and in the television series he also brings the post from the Mainland.

He likes to tell people about the famous time when he managed to pull two failed diesels and their trains when he himself had a failed regulator (in the story 'Super Rescue'), but the other engines are always there to bring him down to earth if he gets too big for his wheels.

He has been in the television series from the start, and in recent seasons has been identified as part of the Steam Team, the eight central characters.

Henry's Rebuild

Behind the scenes, Rev. W. Awdry had a great deal of trouble with the illustrators' depiction of Henry. He was unhappy with the way C. Reginald Dalby had portrayed the character, as he looked almost identical to Gordon. To make things worse, the character was inconsistently portrayed, often having several different appearances within the space of a single story.

Awdry's original idea had been to write Henry out of the series, hence the character's illness. But by the sixth book, 'Henry the Green Engine', he had decided against such a drastic measure. He instead decided to have the character rebuilt into a Class 5MT which, being a real locomotive, would effectively force Dalby to be consistent.

There is a certain amount of debate as to the nature of Henry's rebuild, caused by the book 'The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways'. This book, written to flesh out the Railway Series universe, claims that the pre-rebuild and post-rebuild Henry are actually two completely separate beings. But in the story 'Percy Takes the Plunge', set after the rebuild, Henry recalls the events of 'The Sad Story of Henry'. As both sources may be considered equally canonical, the question of whether there have been two Henries or one will likely remain unanswered.

The same book featured a certain amount of retcon to explain Henry's old shape in the first place. The explanation devised was that he was an experimental locomotive built according to plans stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley. Owing to a mistake, the wrong plans were taken and the locomotive built was so riddled with faults that the only person who could be persuaded to buy it was the Fat Controller (then the Fat Director), who was desperate for any locomotive he could get. The name of the thief is never revealed. The Fat Controller claims that he wanted an Atlantic (a locomotive with a 4-4-2 wheel arrangement). This latter point is worth noting, as William Middleton, the very first Railway Series artist, portrayed Henry as this type of engine.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Henry the Green Engine ]

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