C.Syde's Fictional Locomotive Characters

Although I don't really like the Thomas and Friends series anymore as a whole, due to being grown up, I still have happy memories of when I was still into the series. And I still like the engine prototypes the characters are based on.

In addition to the many characters of Thomas and Friends that I was fascinated by, one of my childhood hobbies was creating lots of my own fictional engine characters. Although most of them were one time appearance characters.

I made a story about them or I drew them, but that was it. A lot of them were forgotten over the years as a result. However I still have some scrapbooks of some of them, or copies of stories about them, so some of them are still remembered, even if they only made one appearance.

But here's a list of my "inner circle" of fictional engine characters. Some of these engine characters I created as a child, and some of them I created when I had already officially grown out of Thomas and Friends but wanted to reawaken the happy memories and times that I had enjoyed as a child.

I discovered the Fletcher Jennings Class C, LB&SCR E2 Class, LNER Class A4, Bagnall 0-4-0ST, British Rail Class 08, BR Class 42 "Warship", Midlander 4wDM, and British Rail Class 17 because certain engines of Thomas and Friends - Skarloey, Thomas, Spencer, Bill and Ben, Diesel, 'Arry and Bert, and Splatter and Dodge, Rusty, Diesel 10, and Derek - are based on these classes.

Although I have officially grown out of Thomas and Friends, I still haven't completely abandoned it permanently. This is partly due to my interest in characters, and my interest in locomotives. The rest of the classes that are featured here I discovered in 2010 while reading through this book of locomotives. Enjoy! :D

Honny
Honny and his twin brother Ponny are the earliest fictional Thomas the Tank Engine characters that I can remember creating. They were created in 2002 when I was 6 or 7 if I remember correctly, and most of the fictional characters I created were one-time appearance characters back then, so it explains why Honny is one of the only characters I can remember from that long ago. It also explains why Honny has such a childish name. I never would have called him that if I had created him and his twin brother today.

Honny and Ponny are a duo of cheeky and troublesome tank engines who liked to play tricks on this well behaved crane. But they both meant well, really. And in spite of their troublesome ways, Honny and Ponny appeared to be friends, or became friends with the crane. I can't remember what the crane's name was. But his name definitely began with a "J". I think he might have been named Jayden, but I'm not sure.

I have yet to decide what basis Honny and his twin are, as I have yet to find a basis that looks remotely similar enough to Honny. But what I do know is they are both 0-6-0 side tank locomotives, not unlike Thomas or Jinty, and no bigger than either of them. Though unlike Thomas, Honny and Ponny don't have rounded wheel arches. When I was very young, I paid no attention to how many wheels I drew on the engines. Although I probably don't still have the pictures, I do remember Honny and Ponny having ten wheels in one picture, and twelve wheels in another. Not very accurate, but I was probably too young to notice or give a damn about these inconsistencies.

Both twins are painted red, with black wheels, and have given numbers. Honny is 99 and Ponny is 100. I used two sources of inspiration for Honny and Ponny. Obviously I got some inspiration from Bill and Ben. I also got some inspiration from Iggy and Ziggy, two crows who battled Huckleberry Hound in order to eat his corn.

Although the twins are identical, Honny's cheeks aren't usually as expressive and defined as Ponny's cheeks are when they smile. This is a trait that I adapted from Bill and Ben. In the earlier episodes, Ben usually wore a face mask that made his cheeks prominent on his face, whereas Bill didn't wear that face mask nearly as often. On close examination, Honny's grin may appear larger than Ponny's, though it is most likely due to the facial expressions they have.

Ponny
Ponny and his twin brother Honny are the earliest fictional Thomas the Tank Engine characters that I can remember creating. They were created in 2002 when I was 6 or 7 if I remember correctly, and most of the fictional characters I created were one-time appearance characters back then, so it explains why Ponny is one of the only characters I can remember from that long ago. It also explains why Ponny has such a childish name. I never would have called him that if I had created him and his twin brother today.

Ponny and Honny are a duo of cheeky and troublesome tank engines who liked to play tricks on this well behaved crane. But they both meant well, really. And in spite of their troublesome ways, Ponny and Honny appeared to be friends, or became friends with the crane. I can't remember what the crane's name was. But his name definitely began with a "J". I think he might have been named Jayden, but I'm not sure.

I have yet to decide what basis Ponny and his twin are, as I have yet to find a basis that looks remotely similar enough to Ponny. But what I do know is they are both 0-6-0 side tank locomotives, not unlike Thomas or Jinty, and no bigger than either of them. Though unlike Thomas, Ponny and Honny don't have rounded wheel arches. When I was very young, I paid no attention to how many wheels I drew on the engines. Although I probably don't still have the pictures, I do remember Ponny and Honny having ten wheels in one picture, and twelve wheels in another. Not very accurate, but I was probably too young to notice or give a damn about these inconsistencies.

Both twins are painted red, with black wheels, and have given numbers. Ponny is 100 and Honny is 99. I used two sources of inspiration for Ponny and Honny. Obviously I got some inspiration from Bill and Ben. I also got some inspiration from Iggy and Ziggy, two crows who battled Huckleberry Hound in order to eat his corn.

Although the twins are identical, Ponny's cheeks are usually more expressive and defined than Honny's cheeks are when they smile. This is a trait that I adapted from Bill and Ben. In the earlier episodes, Ben usually wore a face mask that made his cheeks prominent on his face, whereas Bill didn't wear that face mask nearly as often. On close examination, Ponny's grin may appear smaller than Honny's, though it is most likely due to the facial expressions they have.

Wilbur
Wilbur was a fictional Thomas the Tank Engine character that I created in April 2004. Though he only made two appearances in 2004. By the time I brought him back in 2010, I probably forgot exactly how I drew him the first time, though a lot had changed in 2004 and 2010, so it probably didn't matter. I'm pretty sure he was always a 0-6-0 tank engine, and he was definitely meant to be a side tank locomotive. I don't even think I gave him a number the first time, back in 2004. In 2010, I gave him the number 1.

In 2017 I decided on Wilbur being a LMS 3F "Jinty", although there are some differences between Wilbur and the other engines of his basis. A notable difference is that Wilbur is depicted as having an extra dome which is smaller than the first dome. He is also shorter than most of the engines of his basis, as he is no bigger than Thomas. Wilbur was inspired by Wilbert the Forest Engine, although he is a side tank engine, whereas Wilbert is a saddle tank engine. But the two of them are painted in blue livery with red lining and a black footplate, though Wilbur is painted a darker shade of blue than Wilbert.

Not that much is known about Wilbur's personality, as he has yet to be given a defined backstory. Although from what I can remember thinking of him, he was kind, sensible, and outgoing. In a story I wrote in 2004, Wilbur was capable of reaching the speed of 60 miles an hour. Though at the time, I didn't realise that certain other types of side tank locomotives were capable of reaching that speed. It is unknown if other engines of Wilbur's class can reach 60 miles an hour, but if they can reach a higher speed, then Wilbur would certainly be capable of doing so as well.