Sammy the Shunter

Sammy the Shunter is a fictional steam locomotive character created by Eileen Gibb, featuring in a series of children's books published in the 1940s and 1950s.
Description
Sammy the Shunter is a 2-4-2T locomotive, painted red with green wheels and a yellow dome who lives in the fictional town of Sleeping Sunbury in England. The various books tell of Sammy's adventures all over the world.
Characters
* Sammy is the main character throughout the books. He is a friendly 2-4-2T steam shunter painted red with green wheels, yellow buffers, blue running plates and yellow lining with his nameplate on his sides in yellow. In the first book, Sammy used to be a rusty colour and had a number 109846 before being repainted.
* Mr. Buffin is Sammy's driver. He is a kind old man who is seen with Sammy on his adventures. It is mentioned in "Sammy Gets Streamlined" that he was meant to drive the Flying Scotsman but things had gone wrong. Mr. Buffin has a fear of wild animals.
* Mr. Plum is the stationmaster of Sleeping Sunbury station. Mr. Plum is a strict man with a short temper who addressed Sammy by his number in the earlier books, but has a kinder side.
Books
Sammy the Shunter appears in various books.
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Sammy the Shunter also appears in the stories "The Holiday Train" and "Sammy on the Christmas Tree, featured in:-
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Successor
The stories of Thomas the Tank Engine superceded those of Sammy the Shunter, with many people attending Thomas events in America and the United Kingdom and leading one American museum director to and his staff to nickname Thomas "Thomas the bank engine" due to the amount of revenue generated.
Author
The author, Eileen Mabel Gibb wrote the Sammy series of books using the name Eileen Gibb as opposed to her married name of Holder. Gibb was born on 3 August 1911 to parents Benjamin and Mabel in Croydon, Surrey. During the Second World War Gibb was secretary to the art historian and National Gallery director Kenneth Clark, and this introduced her to a wide variety of friends in artistic and writing circles including Henry Moore, Stanley Spencer and Philip Larkin. Gibb married John Terrance Holder in 1942 and became a member of a family with an enthusiasm for railways, her father in-law John Alexander Holder being a brewer, founder director of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway and owner of Broome House, Broome, Worcestershire with its own miniature railway that was later to move to Beaulieu, Hampshire. Her husband worked for the railway publisher Ian Allan. Gibb had two children, her daughter commenting: ""I think this exposure to so much railway stuff must have fired mum's imagination to produce her stories". Other work including contribution to the magazine including Tubby the Odd-job Engine. Gibb ceased writing around 1969 but maintained an interest in artistic projects until her death in 2003.

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See Also

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