Shane Dooiney/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Shane Dooiney is a fictional narrow gauge mountain locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is the No. 5 engine on the Culdee Fell Railway.

Shane Dooiney is refered to as "No. 5" in the forward of Mountain Engines. His absence in the stories are explained by the author as "still away being mended". His name was not revealed until the publication of The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways. In the fictional language of is Sudric his name means "The Old Man". Shane Dooiney was last mentioned in Sodor: Reading Between the Lines, published in 2005.

Christopher Awdry has stated that the reason there are no more books about the Culdee Fell Railway is due to the safety precautions and limited traffic - meaning no more story opportunities.

Unusually for characters in the Railway Series, the Mountain Engines carry faces on the back as well as the front. The reason for this is while going up, the coaches keep a look out for the engines since the engines' front faces cannot see. While rolling down the mountain, the engines' front faces are still impaired by the coaches. So the rear faces provide the engines their only way to see where they are going.

Shane Dooiney is based on the Snowdon Mountain Railway No. 5 locomotive, Moel Siabod.

Television Series
Mountain Engines was the first book of the Railway Series not to have any of its stories televised. According to an interview with Robert Gauld-Galliers, this could be attributed to limited storylines, rack-and-pinion track, the engines' strange-angled body, and being not very merchandisable.

Shane Dooiney has not appeared in or been mentioned by name in any official Thomas & Friends media. However, his existence is implied on Godred, Wilfred, Culdee and Lord Harry’s merchandise bios.

In 2012, the Culdee Fell Railway was mentioned in a Blue Mountain Mystery promotional video about the differences between the narrow and standard gauge. In a 2015 interview, Sam Wilkinson stated the "Culdee Fell Railway have always been on the list to be created, ever since I joined, but these would always require a lot of time, resources, and money to create. Also there is no live-action reference so everything would have to be done from scratch". Sadly, this never came to fruition.