Eric/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Eric is a fictional narrow gauge mountain locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is the No. 8 engine on the Culdee Fell Railway.

Eric was first mentioned in Mountain Engines and was last mentioned in Sodor: Reading Between the Lines - published in 1964 and 2005 respectively. His only illustrated appearances were in Famous Engines and Railway Map of the Island of Sodor. 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.

Front of Eric:

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.

Eric has not appeared in or been mentioned by name in any official Thomas & Friends media. However, his existence is implied on 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.