Gordon

Gordon is a big blue express engine. He is Flying Scotsman's only remaining brother and Mallard, Green Arrow, Spencer, Ryan and The Flying Thistle's cousin. When Gordon was streamlined to compete in the Great Railway Show, he ran under the name The Shooting Star.

Bio
Gordon was built experimentally by Sir Nigel Gresley for the Great Northern Railway at Doncaster Works in 1922 as the first A1 Pacific, which would become the prototype to the final A1 design. When Gresley was finished using Gordon for designing his A1 Pacifics, he sold Gordon, along with a spare boiler and firebox, to the North Western Railway.

During Gordon's early years on the railway, he often looked down on the smaller engines like Edward and Thomas. However, he would soon find he needed help from Edward to be his banker after he got stuck on a hill with a train of trucks. He also needed Edward and Henry to pull his passenger train after he broke his safety valve in front of Henry's Tunnel.

Gordon often found Thomas very annoying for whistling rudely at him, so he taught him a lesson by bringing him along his express train before he could be uncoupled. Thomas usually fetched the coaches for him, however, after Thomas left the yard when he was given a branch line, Gordon, along with Henry and James, soon found that they had to fetch their own coaches. After the big engines had several mishaps, one of which involved Gordon having to pull his train backwards, Gordon proposed that they all go on strike, where they would only pull their coaches if another engine fetched them. Edward was the only engine left and since he was a tender engine and that Gordon proposed that tender engine do not shunt, they started to discriminate against Edward until the Fat Controller decided to leave them in the shed until they learned how silly they were.

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.

Appearances
The Unaired Pilot

Gordon Goes Foreign