Philip

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“	My name's Philip! Phi-lip. Like Philip! We can have a race if you like!	”
—Philip, "Toby and Philip", Amazing Adventures

Philip the Diesel Boxcab
Background Information
First appearance	Philip the Diesel Boxcab (SFS)
Creator(s)	Andrew Brenner Ian McCue
Overview
Name	Philip
Title	Philip the Diesel Boxcab
Nicknames	Little Philip Shorty
Gender	Male
Country	Island of Sodor United States (built)
Affiliation	Brendam Branch Line Edward
Technical Details
Basis	PRR Class A6 (modified)
Gauge	4'8½" (1,435 mm; standard gauge)
Power type	Diesel-electric
Fuel type	Diesel
Configuration	4w
Wheels	4
Top speed	68 mph
Builder(s)	Altoona Works
Year built	c.1930
Number	68
Railway	Pennsylvania Railroad (homeland) North Western Railway
Owner(s)	Sir Topham Hatt

Philip is a cheery little diesel boxcab. He works as a shunting engine at Knapford Station. He lives at Wellsworth Sheds.

Biography

Thomas & Friends

Philip came to the Island of Sodor as the new shunting engine at Knapford. During his first day of work, he was eager to impress Gordon by showing him how fast he was, but nothing he did was enough to impress him. He challenged Gordon to a race and took off out of the yard, racing all the way to Brendam Docks. However, he seemed oblivious to the fact that Gordon had not actually competed.

Philip continued to be proud of his speed and boasted about how many trucks he could pull. After taking a train of empty trucks to the quarry, he found James hanging over the top of a tunnel, having had an accident after trying to prove to Philip how many trucks he could pull instead. Just as James began to fall down, Philip caught him with the top of his cab roof in order to not let him fall. When James was rescued and sent to the Steamworks, Philip proudly told the engines of his rescue.

In the twentieth series, Philip was eager to make friends with Toby, thinking he was a diesel boxcab like himself, but the tram engine was overwhelmed by Philip's enthusiasm. The two of them briefly raced each other until Philip nearly collided with Thomas. Philip then learned how to be quiet from Toby, but he tends to still be enthusiastic from time to time.

In The Great Race, Philip was among the many engines who were eager for the Fat Controller to take them to the Great Railway Show. After Thomas' encounter with Ashima following the show's competitors' accidental arrival on Sodor, Philip insisted that the foreign engines were nothing but trouble and advised Thomas to avoid her.

Ultimately, Philip was not chosen to compete in the Great Railway Show, instead representing Sodor in the show as its mascot and flag carrier. At the show, a series of incidents occurred after he kept accidentally getting in the way of Vinnie, a North American engine, who soon lost patience with Philip and chased him briefly before getting covered in coal from a hopper where Carlos was taking on coal. Vinnie, infuriated, chased Philip around the railway show yard, eventually winding up in the middle of the shunting competition. Vinnie derailed two of Gina's flatbeds before trying to force the little shunter into a turntable well. Thomas and Ashima, both of whom were competing in the shunting competition, however, managed to couple up to the big tender engine and pull him clear of the points, allowing Philip to escape. After this, Thomas' coupling snapped, launching Vinnie off the tracks and into an electric pylon, which then fell on top of him. Philip then joined the other engines from Sodor to watch Thomas compete in the rest of the shunting competition, but one of the derailed flatbeds affected the result of the race, which led to Thomas forfeiting the race to save Ashima of her blocked track. Philip told the other Sudrian engines that he had warned Thomas that Ashima was trouble, only for the judges to give the victory to both Thomas and Ashima: Ashima for completing the challenge first and Thomas for his excellent sportsmanship. Philip later accompanied Sodor's team and Ashima back to Sodor.

In the twenty-first series, he got teased about the number 68 painted on his side and tried to discover why he had the number. After sixty-eight sheep ran onto the tracks and Philip saved them from a speeding Gordon, he decided that it is his lucky number. When Edward's shed at Tidmouth got destroyed by James, Edward stayed over at his shed at Wellsworth. While it was originally hard for Edward to deal with Philip's loud chattering, he eventually decided to move with Philip as his shed was close to his branch line.

In the twenty-second series he got fed up with the other engines pushing him around, so he refused to give way when he and James end up facing each other on the left side of the Fenland Track. However, James also refused to move and it ended up being a stalemate. However, several engines started stacking up behind them and the bridge became in danger of collapsing, leading to Philip deciding that sometimes the littlest engine can actually be the bigger one.

Stories From Sodor

Engine Friends

Like in the television series, Philip came to the Island of Sodor as the new shunting engine at Knapford. During his first day of work, he was eager to impress Gordon by showing him how fast he was, but nothing he did was enough to impress him. He challenged Gordon to a race and took off out of the yard, racing all the way to Brendam Docks. However, he seemed oblivious to the fact that Gordon had not actually competed.

Philip continued to be proud of his speed and boasted about how many trucks he could pull. After taking a train of empty trucks to the quarry, he found James hanging over the top of a tunnel, having had an accident after trying to prove to Philip how many trucks he could pull instead. Just as James began to fall down, Philip caught him with the top of his cab roof in order to not let him fall. When James was rescued and sent to the Steamworks, Philip proudly told the engines of his rescue.

Amazing Adventures

Like in the television series, Philip was eager to make friends with Toby, thinking he was a diesel boxcab like himself, but the tram engine was overwhelmed by Philip's enthusiasm. The two of them briefly raced each other until Philip nearly collided with Thomas. Philip then learned how to be quiet from Toby, but he tends to still be enthusiastic from time to time.

Season 12

Like in the television series, Philip got fed up with the other engines pushing him around, so he refused to give way when he and James end up facing each other on the left side of the Fenland Track. However, James also refused to move and it ended up being a stalemate. However, several engines started stacking up behind them and the bridge became in danger of collapsing, leading to Philip deciding that sometimes the littlest engine can actually be the bigger one.

Personality

Philip is a little diesel boxcab engine with a big personality. Philip is a comic character and a bit of a class clown. He is very eager and full of enthusiasm and he has an innocent, but very overblown sense of his own capabilities. Philip can be very funny, but some of the bigger engines have very little patience for the little boxcab, and find him annoying. Philip is strong, fast and likes to hurry about and can constantly boast about it. But Philip's confidence is as big if not bigger than anyone's and he is always willing to try and definitely believes in himself. His actions and attitude soon won him many new friends on Sodor, especially Thomas and Percy, but Gordon and James find his bragging a little hard to accept.

Despite this, Philip can be the exact opposite if he chooses to. He is shown being quiet and enjoying the scenery, just like Toby.

All in all, Philip reminds Edward of Thomas when he first came to Sodor.

Basis

Philip is loosely based on the Pennsylvania Railroad's diesel-electric Class A6 "Boxcab" switcher, but with the curved back end and extra door of the AGEIR (Alco, General-Electric and Ingersoll-Rand) prototype boxcab #8835, albeit with five windows instead of seven. To fit in with the other engines on Sodor, Philip also has bufferbeams added on each end with loose couplings and added buffers.

Philip's basis

The inspiration for Philip's back end

Livery

Philip is painted dark green on the bottom half of his body and yellow on the top half, with red bufferbeams and black wheels. He has the number 68 on his sides in black, surrounded by a white circle with a black outline.

Trivia

• Philip has been modified for use on Sodor. He has added buffers and loose couplings on both ends.
• Philip is the first American diesel engine to be introduced in the series and the first diesel boxcab introduced in the series.
• Philip is numbered 68 after being the 68th standard gauge engine introduced in the Television Series. It is also a possible reference to the year 1968, in which steam was finally withdrawn on British Railways and the New York Central and the Pennsylvania merged to become the Penn Central. 
  • It is also a reference to his top speed.

Quotes

“

See James? I told you I was very strong!

”

References

Green Characters

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North Western Railway

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The Little Strasburg Branch Line

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Brendam Branch Line

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International Characters

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✦ Changed location