Flora

Flora is a bright yellow steam tram who works for Sodor Tramways in Great Waterton. She has her own tram car, which is her pride and joy.

Biography
Flora was new to the railway when Thomas first met her. The Fat Controller told Thomas to introduce Flora to Toby, as she was to lead an engine parade at Great Waterton with him. Thomas was worried that Toby would be upset that he was not leading the parade on his own and tried to detour Flora until Toby left for Great Waterton. Flora ran out of coal near Toby's shed and Toby saw the bright yellow tram for the first time. To Thomas' surprise, Toby was delighted to see her as he had actually been feeling nervous about heading the parade and was glad to see he would not be doing it by himself. Thomas lent Flora his coal and she and Toby went to Great Waterton in time for the parade - Flora also received her very own tram car right before the parade began.

Personality
Flora is a docile little steam tram working on the Island of Sodor. She mainly works the Great Waterton Tramway with her tram car, which is her pride and joy, that she uses to perform passenger duties. Although she is, at times, quiet or even timid, she often greets other engines with a sunny smile. She is always cheerful to work, but she can be concerned about speaking up right away if there's a problem. This happens when she keeps on agreeing with Thomas, despite him doing wrong things. She is happy to work on Sodor and is warmly fond of Toby, Sodor's other steam tram. They even led the first annual Great Waterton parade together, not long after meeting each other.

Basis
According to the Official Website, Flora is based on a 1904 Moseley Road Tramway steam tram from Birmingham, rebuilt into standard gauge from 3ft 6in gauge. Instead of buffers, she has three couplings upon her front and rear bufferbeam. Several different types of trams were supplied to the tramway and Flora appears to be a hybrid of a Falcon and a Kitson tram, though her build date would make her a Kitson tram. All Moseley Road steam trams were withdrawn on 31st December 1906 in favour of electric trams, with none surviving into preservation.

Livery
Flora is painted yellow with green and white lining, red cowcatchers and sideplates and green boards on her roof reading "SODOR TRAMWAYS" in white. She has red nameplates with her name in gold on her sides.

Appearances
Television Series=

Thomas & Friends

 * Series 12 - Tram Trouble and Toby's Special Surprise
 * -|Other Media=

Magazines

 * 2010 - Tram Trouble

Books

 * 2009 - Flora
 * 2010 - Movie Theater
 * 2011 - The Big Book of Engines
 * 2012 - Copy the Stickers Colouring Book

Official Description
2008-2009= From Official Media

From Official Website
 * -|2010-2021=

Trivia

 * According to her Story Library book, she is capable of travelling on both conventional standard gauge track and narrow gauge tramlines that run through Great Waterton. When she needs to change track, her crew replace her tram wheels with steel railway ones and vice versa. It is unknown if this was intended to be in the original episode.
 * Flora was the last character that was introduced, as well as the last female character before the complete switch to CGI. As such, she is the last character to be made into a physical model.
 * Flora was the second steam tram introduced in the series, after Toby.
 * Before she was introduced, Flora's bell sound was used for Lady in some games, as well as her ride at Drayton Manor Theme Park. It was also mistakenly reused for Toby in some games, Speakaboos, The Official Website and Thomas' Magical Birthday Wishes. Flora's bell sound is reused from Lady's bell sound.
 * Despite having an open cab, Flora was never seen with a driver or fireman.
 * Flora, along with Hank, Colin and Dennis are the only characters introduced in the HiT Entertainment model era without a Capsule Plarail toy.
 * Whilst most of Flora's screen-time featured her with a CGI face, only two out of three faces were used for her in long and medium shots.
 * Flora is the third engine introduced in the series to have makeup, the first being Daisy, and the second being Rosie.
 * Flora is the second female steam engine to be painted yellow, the other two being Molly and Rebecca. She is also the only one of these two who does not have a tender or have a round face.

Merchandise

 * Wooden Railway
 * TrackMaster
 * My Thomas Story Library
 * Take-n-Play