Culdee/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Culdee is a fictional narrow gauge mountain locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is the No. 4 engine on the Culdee Fell Railway.

In the fictional language of Sudric, "Culdee" translates as "Companion of God". The real life origin of the term comes from members of Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, and England in the Middle Ages who were called "Culdees", which means "client/companion of God".

Culdee has a prominent role in Mountain Engines - published 1964. This marks his only appearance in the main Railway Series books. 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.

Culdee has however appeared in various companion volumes. His last illustrated appearance was in the 1980 annual, and was last mentioned in Sodor: Reading Between the Lines published in 2005.

Front of Culdee:

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. However, since 1994, Culdee has made the most appearances than any other mountain engine in various Thomas & Friends magazines, merchandise ranges and other media.

Between 2010 to 2015, Culdee was featured on the Official Website, as a hidden character profile, which is now no longer accessible. 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 2014, Culdee's Take-n-Play box artwork featured a pseudo-CGI model of him, despite having not appeared in the television series.

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.