Percy the Small Engine

Percy the Small Engine is a fictional anthropomorphic steam tank engine from The Railway Series of children's books written by the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry. He also appears in the spin-off television series Thomas & Friends.
Percy lives on the Island of Sodor with many other locomotives, including Thomas the Tank Engine, Gordon the Big Engine and Henry the Green Engine. He is the smallest, youngest and probably cheekiest, of the principal steam engine characters. He carries the number 6 on his bunker.
The Fat Controller brought him to Sodor when there was an engine strike due to a shortage of shunting engines. The bigger engines initially tried to bully him, but Percy soon showed that he was more than capable of standing up for himself. After a few years of shunting at the Big Station, the Fat Controller promoted him to goods traffic on Thomas' branch line. When not pulling trucks, he can be seen pulling the post train or even taking Annie and Clarabel when Thomas is busy. Percy's best friends are Thomas and Toby. He is also known to have a great respect for Edward ever since his first appearance.
He is reasonably experienced, but can still occasionally be a little naive and overconfident, as well as cheeky. In that sense, he is the perfect foil for Thomas - who can be just as headstrong.
Percy's first appearance in The Railway Series was in book no. 5, , originally published in 1950. He was given his own title with book no. 11, .
Illustration controversy
Like Henry the Green Engine, Percy was the source of much friction between Rev. W. Awdry and C. Reginald Dalby, the third illustrator of The Railway Series. Awdry complained that Percy did not look like a real locomotive, an issue that had caused contention between the two men on several occasions and concerning several characters. In the case of Percy, it was particularly infuriating, as Awdry had built a model of the engine in order that the artist could use it as a reference.
All this came to a head when the book Percy the Small Engine, centering on the eponymous character, was written. Awdry wrote to Dalby a letter requesting that he should make Percy look less like "a green caterpillar with red stripes". The sentence was this:
"I beg, pray, and exhort you not to make Percy look like a green caterpillar with red stripes!" Insulted by this, Dalby resigned from the Railway Series.
Subsequent illustrators modified the design to make Percy look more like a typical industrial locomotive. The television series, however, utilised the original design.
The phrase "a green caterpillar with red stripes" resurfaces in the later story , in which Thomas uses it as an insult to Percy and amends were made between Awdry and Dalby.
He does bear a resemblance to several designs of 0-4-0 tank locomotive built by the Avonside Engine Company such as GWR No. 1340 Trojan, and so Awdry stated that Percy had probably begun as one of these, but had been extensively rebuilt - "fitters at Crovan's Gate have found components made by Hunslet and other manufacturers".
* Keith Wickham (UK: "Hero of the Rails" - "Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure")
* Nigel Pilkington (UK: series 19 onwards)
* Martin Sherman (US: "Hero of the Rails" - series 18)
* Christopher Ragland (US: series 19 onwards)
* Rob Rackstraw (Thomas' Magical Birthday Wishes and Learn with Thomas)
* Chisato Nakajima (Japan: series 1 - 8)
* Chie Kojiro (Japan: "" onwards)
Percy in Thomas and the Magic Railroad
Percy is first seen in the film when Henry reveals the legend of the lost engine, where he suggests that they start searching for her. He overhears Mr. Conductor talking in his sleep about magic buffers and concludes that they lead to the Magic Railroad. He tells Thomas about the buffers, but is overheard by Diesel 10.
When the location of the buffers is located indirectly by Thomas, Percy is ordered to guard them, only to later find Splatter and Dodge near the buffers, so he warns Thomas and Mr. Conductor in time for them to help Lily return to her grandfather.
Percy was voiced by Linda Ballantyne in the movie.
Heritage railways replicas
Strasburg Rail Road, in the United States, announced the introduction of a Percy replica for the American Day Out with Thomas events on September 13, 2014. One Narrow Gauge model and one Standard Gauge model were made, and much like with many of the other Thomas replicas in the United States, he is a dummy engine and so cannot operate without another locomotive pushing him.
The Oigawa Railway also has a replica of Percy, built out of a former JNR Steam Locomotive that no longer operates on the railway. The replica sits on display at Senzu Station alongside a JNR Class 9600 engine that is dressed up as Hiro.

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