Percy (RWS)/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Percy is a fictional standard gauge saddle tank locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is the No. 6 engine on the North Western Railway.

He first appeared in The Railway Series book, Troublesome Engines, which was published in 1950. His last appearance was in Thomas and his Friends, published in 2011.

Front of Percy:

Green Caterpillar
The Reverend W. Awdry and C. Reginald Dalby did not get along very well. Awdry considered Dalby's drawings "toy-like"; this relationship was worsened by the creation of Percy. When Percy the Small Engine was published, Awdry wrote to Dalby, criticising his illustrations and claiming Percy resembled "a green caterpillar with red stripes". This was too much for Dalby and he promptly resigned. However, the insult was not forgotten: Thomas called Percy "a green caterpillar with red stripes" in Tramway Engines as well as the televised second series episode, Woolly Bear.

Arrival
It is debated as to what year Percy arrived. The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways states that Percy was made the station pilot at Tidmouth in 1949, somewhat implying that he arrived on Sodor in that year. However, Henry is said to have been rebuilt in 1935 and Percy makes several appearances before Henry's overhaul. This suggests that either Henry was rebuilt later on or that Percy arrived before 1935. A post on SiF states that Christopher Awdry affirmed the arrival date in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways to be incorrect and that Percy came to Sodor before 1935.

Awdry's models
The Reverend originally only made one model of Percy for use on his Ffarquhar Branch and Knapford Layouts. Due to this model's tendency to stall at model exhibitions, however, a second, 'Spare Percy' was eventually also made.

P.R.Wickham's model
Edmund Ward had comissioned P.R. Wickham to produce models based on Engines 1-6 around the early 1950's, and were featured in an article titled "The Locomotive Family" featured in the March 1953 issue of Model Maker Magazine. These models were made in 7mm scale and were unpowered due to the lack of motors, although they did prove to be guides for the illustrators to work with, and the designs were based on C. Reginald Dalby's original illustrations.