Catherine/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Catherine is a fictional narrow gauge mountain coach created by the Rev. W. Awdry. She works with Culdee and belongs to the is the Culdee Fell Railway. She is the only known named mountain coach in The Railway Series.

In the main book series, Catherine only appears in Mountain Engines - published 1964. However, her last illustrated appearance was in the Famous Engines, and was last mentioned in Sodor: Reading Between the Lines published in 2005. According to Christopher Awdry, 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 Catherine:

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 1998 to 2015, Catherine has appeared in various Thomas & Friends magazines, merchandise ranges and other media.