| This article is about the engine. You may be looking for the episode. |
Gordon is a big blue express engine who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only remaining brother. When Gordon was streamlined to compete in the Great Railway Show, he ran under the name The Shooting Star.
Bio[]
Gordon has, to date, been the fastest engine on Sodor, but has sometimes had accidents, due to him trying to show off. In the fifth season, his brakes were not working and he could not stop, resulting in him crashing through the Kirk Ronan Station wall. Also, in the sixth season, he ignored Salty's advice about going slow while pulling trucks, resulting in him speeding down a rickety old branch line and tumbling into a field. Though he has proven to not be too big for his wheels and to be useful instead, like when Spencer first arrived on Sodor, he gave him advice about taking on water before going to Maron Station; in result, he ran out of water on Gordon's Hill and Gordon had to pull him from there. In the tenth season, he, along with Edward, criticised Rocky when he first arrived on Sodor and called him "new-fangled nonsense." Afterwards, when he crashed into Edward's pipes, which had fallen off his flatbeds, he derailed. In result, Rocky came and lifted him back onto the rails and cleared the pipes, proving how useful he is.
Gordon once tried taking a shortcut in order to beat Stanley to Great Waterton, but accidentally crashed into Ben's logs, but luckily, saved Stanley from crashing into them on the track below. When Gordon was given the task of taking the Lion of Sodor to the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's Summer House with Ferdinand, he ignored his advice about going slowly over the Fenland, with the result of the statue falling into the muddy marsh. After the statue was cleaned, Gordon let Ferdinand be his front engine and they delivered the statue safely to the summer house. They have since then been good friends. One day, Gordon accidentally broke his buffer beam after colliding with a truck at the Dieselworks and Den and Dart gave Gordon a yellow and hazard buffer beam (similar to Den's), but Gordon refused to wear it until he later found that he can still be really useful as what Thomas said. One winter he, along with the rest of the Steam Team, had to find places to sleep, when the turntable at Tidmouth Sheds was frozen, so he decided to sleep there, in the one accessible berth, resulting in him getting stuck in there the next morning and remaining there for the rest of the day. He has since become a more sensible engine.
Once, he was waiting at Kellsthorpe Road Station while a workman was painting a telephone box on the other platform. But the man accidentally kicked his paint can onto the track next to Gordon, just as Connor raced through the station, splattering red paint all over Gordon. When Henry saw red spots all over Gordon, he assumed the blue engine had chicken pox. Later, as he was filling up with water, he told Philip to get on with his work and keep out of his way. He explained to Philip that he pulls the express and is very fast. As Gordon returned to Knapford with the express, Philip reversed back to the station as Gordon braked hard and told him that he nearly caused an accident. As he was resting in the yard, Philip challenged Gordon to a race and started to race away, but Gordon went back to resting instead of racing him. That night, Gordon was not very happy and decided to show Philip how fast he can go tomorrow and told him to have another race.
In Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, Gordon called Thomas a silly little engine, making Thomas upset. Thomas wanted to take revenge, but ended up running Gordon's express coaches off the rails. Due to this incident, Thomas was sent away. Later, while he was pulling the express, Thomas nearly collided with him while chasing Sailor John and Skiff.
In the twentieth season, he was not ready to leave the sheds as his firebox had not been cleaned out in the morning. As Henry was pulling the express, Gordon arrived into Knapford to fetch his train, but the Fat Controller scolded Gordon for coming in late and told him that he had been assigned to a goods train for the rest of the day. Gordon was grumpy as he arrived at Brendam Docks with his goods train. Salty, Porter and Cranky greeted him. Gordon was given a train of coal. When he returned to Knapford, he asked the Fat Controller if he could pull the express again, but he was told to go to the Blue Mountain Quarry instead. As he arrived at the quarry, Gordon was still in a bad mood as he collected a train of stone. As he began to leave, the trucks put their brakes on and then released them, causing Gordon to jump the points and hit a buffer stop. Finally fed up with his work, he ordered to be uncoupled so he could go back to the sheds. That night, the Fat Controller scolded him again for not doing all his jobs that day and ordered him to pull the Flying Kipper as punishment. Henry and Thomas teased him about it not being an easy job, but Gordon was determined to prove them wrong and left the sheds to pull the Flying Kipper. As he returned to the sheds next morning, the Fat Controller praised him for successfully delivering the Kipper on time and told him that he could now go back to being the express engine again much to Gordon's delight. When the other engines noticed how smelly he was after pulling the Flying Kipper, he quickly went to the washdown whilst the other engines laughed.
In The Great Race, Gordon introduced Thomas to his brother, the Flying Scotsman, at Vicarstown and later teased Thomas for wanting to compete in the Great Railway Show, believing that he is too small to compete. Gordon was selected by the Fat Controller to participate in the Great Race and was temporarily streamlined for the event. However, Gordon refused to undergo the final safety checks and as a result, the workmen forgot to attach his safety valve. Thomas brought the new safety valve to the Mainland and tried to warn Gordon, but he competed in the race without it and his boiler exploded when he refused to heed Thomas and Flying Scotsman's warnings. Gordon had to drop out of the race as a result. After the Great Railway Show was over and all of the foreign engines (bar Ashima) had gone home, Gordon met up with Flying Scotsman, who admitted that his opinion on Sudrian engines has improved significantly since the race.
In the twenty-first season, he and Spencer love to have a race who is the fastest. However, Spencer was on platform one that he was on platform one before, instead he going on platform two. Then, Thomas and Philip shunted their coaches to him and Spencer for wrong platform mixed up and sets off without realize that they had a wrong coaches. After they raced along the main line, he stops at Wellsworth with Spencer's Coaches while Spencer thundered down with the express and he realise that Spencer got the wrong express coaches and chase after him all the way to Callan Castle of upsetting passengers is missing their stops and they didn't realise that they had a wrong coaches that they shunted on the platform for the first place. Then, he and Spencer takes the passengers to the right stations and returned to Knapford, and apologised to each other as they watched the fireworks all together.
Persona[]
Gordon is the fastest and most powerful engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. He is goodhearted, always willing to forgive and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble.
Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous and self-important, with good reason too; he is the fastest engine on Sodor. His philosophy "tender engines don't shunt" meant that he looked down on tank engines and tender engines who do shunt, but after being locked in the shed with Henry and James after going on strike and before the seventeenth season, he seemed to have abandoned this philosophy.
Because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the important passenger jobs and either sulks when he does not or gets jealous of engines who do. Sometimes, Gordon acts as a bully, particularly towards Edward, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon had to acknowledge that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine. However, sometimes Gordon still doubts Edward is still reliable, such as the time he did not believe Edward could win a race against Spencer because he's only "a back engine" and "a waste of steam." He would soon stop belittling Edward after being tricked by Thomas; he learned his lesson and apologized to Edward saying that he promised not call him old or unreliable anymore.
Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the younger engines advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful, though, as James and Sir Handel have discovered.
As of the twentieth season, Gordon seems to have developed a tendency of pinning his own faults on others, as shown when he blamed Henry over having to do his jobs for the day and vice-versa, or when he and the rest of the Steam Team got in trouble for refusing to leave the shed at night, believing there was a ghost train (which was actually Henry with a coat of luminous paint) - again, Gordon blamed Henry for the predicament.
Basis[]
According to The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Gordon was built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire. Once the first batch of A1 Pacifics appeared in 1922 Gordon would have more than likely have been reclassified A1/1 - the '/1' indicating he is slightly different to the rest of the class.
Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number and was never put into regular traffic, he was only ever used on test runs. Owing to various problems Gordon was rebuilt in 1939 at Crewe. Sir Topham Hatt and Sir William Stanier worked together to rectify these problems - everything under the running board is of Stanier's design while the running board itself is that of Sir Topham Hatt's. In both the Railway Series and television series, Gordon is depicted with a Fowler tender
As "The Shooting Star", Gordon's appearance is based on a streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad K4 (Hank's class), specifically #3768.
Livery[]
Gordon is painted in the North Western Railway's sky blue livery with red and yellow lining. The number "4" is painted on his tender sides in yellow. Before arriving on Sodor, he was painted in the Great Northern Railway's Apple Green livery with white and black lining.
In the Railway Series, he carries two builder's plates on the sides of his cab.
In the sixteenth season episode, Bust My Buffers!, Gordon received a yellow and black hazard stripe painted bufferbeam akin to Den's. In The Great Race, in his streamlined form, he is painted in the North Western Railway's sky blue livery with silver, red and dark blue lining. His number is still painted on his tender in yellow, smaller and surrounded by a dark blue circle.
| Sudrian Crystal Railway | Locomotives | Belle | |
|---|---|---|
| Rolling Stock | Aquamarine | Blue | Blue Pearl | Dexter | Holly Blue | Rickety | Victoria | Zircon | |
| Non-Rail Characters | Algy | Brenda | Butch | Captain | Kelly | Lorry 4 | |
| Skarloey Railway | Locomotives | Mighty Mac | Sir Handel |
| Rolling Stock | Blue Coaches | |
| Arlesdale Railway | Locomotives | Allison | Bert | Sigrid of Arlesdale |
| Keystone Railway | Locomotives | Blue Diamond (Keystone Railway) | Blue Pearl (Keystone Railway) | Blue Quantum Quartz | Blue Sapphire (Keystone Railway) | Blue Topaz | Euclase | Goldstone | Lapis Lazuli (Keystone Railway) | |
| Rolling Stock | Angelite | Ammolite | Aqua Aura Quartz | Laguna Agate | |
| BNSF Railway | Locomotives | |
| The Mainland | Locomotives | Ariadne | The Class 40 | Connor | Fletcher | Frankie | Franklin | Mallard | Richard | Seth | Wilbert |
| Non Rail Characters | Beresford | |
| Brazil | Locomotives | Gabriela | Gustavo |
| Rolling Stock | Gustavo's Coaches | |
| China | Locomotives | Hong-Mei |
| France | Locomotives | Étienne |
| Germany | Locomotives | Frieda |
| Greece | Locomotives | Athena | Zeus |
| Rolling Stock | Hades | |
| India | Locomotives | Rajiv |
| Italy | Locomotives | Lorenzo |
| Poland | Locomotives | Aldona |
| Russia | Locomotives | Ivan |
| Scotland | Locomotives | Liam |
| Sweden | Locomotives | Fredrik |