Henry

Henry is a large green tender engine who works on the Main Line. He was originally a failed prototype engine, and needed special Welsh coal to operate properly. Following an accident when pulling The Flying Kipper, Henry was given a new shape.

Personality
Henry is generally well-behaved, but is occasionally arrogant and vain. Henry is at heart a very hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work. His illness almost always has something to do with his boiler.

Basis
Henry's history is unusual. The Fat Controller had intended to buy a Robinson Atlantic of the Great Central Railway, but was swindled and instead received Henry. According to men who worked on Henry pre-rebuild, he had a superficial likeness to Gordon, but the aesthetics were as far as this went. Although Henry's exact origins are difficult to trace, it is generally thought that he was built by an unknown rival locomotive builder to Sir Nigel Gresley, whose spy stole the wrong drawings for Gresley's upcoming A1 pacifics, resulting in Henry. Henry in this shape developed performance issues from flaws in the design, compounded by his stay in the tunnel. Henry was a bad steamer; with good-quality coal, he could get enough heat to make plenty of steam, but when there was a poor lot delivered, his undersized firebox could not hold enough coal to make a proper fire. On advice from Henry's fireman, the Fat Controller ordered high-grade Welsh Coal, which made an appreciable difference in Henry's performance. When Henry suffered an accident and severe damage in the winter of 1935, the opportunity was taken to send him to Crewe, where he was rebuilt into a London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0. After "The Eight Famous Engines", Henry's Stanier tender was replaced by a standard Fowler tender. Eighteen members of the class have survived into preservation. Several members of this class survived until the end of steam on British Railways in 1968. Three class members, 44781, 44871 and 45110 were used to haul the Fifteen Guinea Special on August 11, 1968. 44871 and 45110 have survived into preservation whereas sister engine 44781 was purchased for use in the film, The Virgin Soldiers, and was scrapped after being used in a train scene disguised as a Malayan Railway L class locomotive (donning the number 531.03).

Livery
Henry is painted in NWR apple green with red and yellow lining. His number 3 is painted on the sides of his cab in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow.