Gordon is an express engine who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only surviving brother. Gordon is also one of the fastest and strongest engines on the Island of Sodor, whose main task is to pull the Wild Nor' Wester, the railway's express Train. At times, this leads him to feel superior.

Gordon is mainly used for passenger duties, but has occasionally pulled goods trains, to his chagrin.. He is also known to haul special services such as royal trains.

Biography

Gordon has been, to date, the fastest engine on Sodor, but has sometimes had accidents caused by him trying to show off; In the fifth series, his brakes were not working and he could not stop, resulting in him crashing through the Kirk Ronan Station wall. Also, in the sixth series, he ignored a sign telling him to go slow while pulling trucks, resulting in him tumbling into a field. Though he has proven to not be too big for his wheels and to be useful instead; when Spencer first arrived on Sodor, Gordon gave him advice about taking on water before going to Maron Station. Unfortunately, Spencer refused to listen to Gordon's advice, ran out of water on Gordon's Hill and Gordon had to pull him from there. In the tenth series, he, along with Edward, criticised Rocky when he first arrived on Sodor and called him "new-fangled nonsense". Afterwards, when he crashed into Edward's pipes, which had fallen off his flatbeds, he derailed. Rocky came and lifted him back onto the rails and cleared the pipes, proving how useful he is.

Gordon once tried taking a shortcut in order to beat Stanley to Great Waterton, but accidentally crashed into Ben's log flatbeds. Luckily, Gordon was able to save Stanley from crashing into them on the track below. When Gordon was given the task of taking the Lion of Sodor to the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's Summer House with Ferdinand, Gordon ignored his advice about going slowly over the Fenland, with the result of the statue falling into the muddy marsh. After the statue was cleaned, Gordon let Ferdinand be his front engine and they delivered the statue safely to the summer house. They have since then been good friends. One day, Gordon accidentally broke his buffer beam after colliding with a truck at the Dieselworks and Den and Dart gave him a yellow and black hazard buffer beam (similar to Den's). Gordon however refused to wear it until he later found that he can still be really useful as what Thomas said. One winter, he and with the rest of the Steam Team had to find places to sleep when the turntable at Tidmouth Sheds was frozen. Gordon decided to sleep there, in the one accessible berth, resulting in him getting stuck in there the next morning and remaining there for the rest of the day. He has since become a more sensible engine.

Once, he was waiting at Kellsthorpe Road Station while a workman was painting a telephone box on the other platform. But the man accidentally kicked his paint can onto the track next to Gordon, just as Connor raced through the station, splattering red paint all over Gordon. When Henry saw red spots all over Gordon, he assumed the blue engine had chicken pox. Later, as he was filling up with water, he told Philip to get on with his work and keep out of his way. He explained to Philip that he pulls the express and is very fast. As Gordon returned to Knapford with the express, Philip reversed back to the station as Gordon braked hard and told him that he nearly caused an accident. As he was resting in the yard, Philip challenged Gordon to a race and started to race away, but Gordon went back to resting instead of racing him. That night, Gordon was not very happy and decided to show Philip how fast he could go the next day and told him to have another race.

In the twentieth series, Gordon was not ready to leave the sheds as his firebox had not been cleaned out the night before. This led to Henry pulling the express in his place and Gordon being made to pull Henry's goods trains (to Gordon's annoyance). After some time of pulling goods trains, Gordon soon had to deal with some Troublesome Trucks. This ended up with Gordon having enough and went to the shed to sulk. This led to Sir Topham Hatt scolding him for not completing his jobs and made him pull the Flying Kipper in Henry's place (or Henry would continue pulling the express instead of Gordon). Henry and Thomas teased him about it not being an easy job, but Gordon was determined to prove them wrong and left the sheds to pull the Flying Kipper. As he returned to the sheds next morning, the Fat Controller praised him for successfully delivering the Kipper on time and told him that he could now go back to being the express engine again much to Gordon's delight. When the other engines noticed how smelly he was after pulling the Flying Kipper, he quickly went to the washdown whilst the other engines laughed.

In The Great Race, Gordon introduced Thomas to his brother, the Flying Scotsman, at Vicarstown and later teased Thomas for wanting to compete in the Great Railway Show, believing that he is too small to compete. Gordon was selected by the Fat Controller to participate in the Great Race and was temporarily streamlined for the event. However, he refused to undergo the final safety checks which led to the workmen forgetting to attach his safety valve. Thomas brought it to the Mainland and tried to warn Gordon, but he competed in the race without it and his boiler exploded when he refused to heed Thomas and Flying Scotsman's warnings. Gordon had to drop out of the race as a result. After the Great Railway Show was over and all of the foreign engines (except for Ashima) had gone home, Gordon met up with Flying Scotsman, who admitted that his opinion on Sudrian engines has improved significantly since the race.

In the twenty-first series, he and Spencer loved to race to see who is the fastest. However, their boasting about led to Gordon saying that he is an important engine, as he started at Platform 1. Spencer then went to platform one and made Gordon move to Platform 2, where Spencer was supposed to be going to. Then, Thomas and Philip shunted Gordon and Spencer's coaches to them. Unfortunately, the coaches ended up for the wrong engines as the two were on the wrong platforms. This led to a mix up and the two both set off without realising that they had the wrong coaches. After they raced along the main line, Gordon stopped at Wellsworth with Spencer's Coaches while Spencer thundered down with the express and he realised that Spencer got the wrong express coaches and chased after him all the way to Callan Castle. This upset the passengers because of how they missed their stops and they did not realise that they had the wrong coaches that they shunted on the platform for the first place. There, Gordon and Spencer took the passengers to the right stations and returned to Knapford and apologised to each other as they watched the fireworks all together. Gordon also teased Philip about his number 68 painted on his sides and after sixty-eight sheep ran onto the track, Philip saved him from the sheep blocking the main line.

Teasing Thomas into derailing a train of tar tankers, Gordon got his comeuppance when Thomas was told to take fish wagons to Vicarstown. As it would make him late for Branch Line work, the little blue engine coupled them behind Gordon's coaches, as he was heading there anyways. Gordon was oblivious to them for the entire trip, right up until he got a greeting from Flying Scotsman, whose tip sent Gordon screaming Thomas' name to the sky. He still cared for Thomas though, and welcomed him back with Nia a few days later.

Gordon was very upset when Edward moved from Tidmouth to Wellsworth Sheds, even more so when Henry decided to move to Vicarstown Sheds. He was so upset about all the changes happening on the railway that he threw a tantrum in front of Thomas, Annie, Clarabel, Nia, Paxton and the Fat Controller. This ended up with the Fat Controller sending him to his shed for his behaviour. However, Nia was able to calm Gordon down when she told him that change can be good and that all her old friends are still her friends, just as much as Edward and Henry are with Gordon. Despite bonding with Nia, Gordon was not very pleased to hear of another engine taking over Henry's berth in the sheds, which later turned out to be Rebecca. However, he later became good friends with her, after she retorted Flying Scotsman's teasing of him about being the 'little brother'.

After Rebecca coated herself in honey and produce, Gordon found himself with an uncontrollable urge to laugh. He kept it suppressed and hidden to keep his reputation until Sir Topham Hatt told him it was alright.

Thomas and the Magic Railroad

In the film, Gordon complained to Thomas, who was late. Thomas retorted that Gordon was being bossy and told him that he had to find Mr. Conductor, who was coming to visit Sodor to look after the North Western Railway while Sir Topham Hatt was taking a holiday. He thought Mr. Conductor was not needed until Diesel 10 sped through past Thomas and Gordon at Killaban. Later, he, James and Thomas argued about who should have taken Mr. Conductor and retorted that James is a big engine and Thomas is a small blue engine. At a meeting between the steam engines (minus Percy), he insists that he is immune to Diesel 10's bullying due to his size, but Toby reminds him that Diesel 10 is a threat to even Gordon. He has no further dialogue in the movie (except for a brief chuckle when Diesel 10 is covered in coal), but throughout the rest of the film he appears pulling the express on the main line.

Personality

Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous, arrogant, stubborn, prideful and self-important, with a good reason too; he is the fastest steam engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. But despite his pompousness, he is goodhearted, always willing to forgive and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. Though he is also vengeful and will plot retribution if he feels he has been sufficiently slighted, as mentioned before he is happy to forgive especially after he has either had his retribution or the individual has received some other comeuppance. He also has a great hatred of goods trains and believes that he should only pull coaches. Because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the important passenger jobs and either he sulks when he does not get what he wants, or gets jealous of engines who do get what they want.

Gordon is rude and egotistical more often than not, especially towards smaller engines like Thomas or Percy. Despite this, he has helped them on a few occasions and does not necessarily dislike them. However one incident temporarily ended his acquaintanceship with Thomas. He can also be rude to older and more weaker engines like Edward, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon readily acknowledged that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine. However, Gordon still sometimes doubts Edward is still reliable, such as the time he did not believe Edward could win a race against Spencer as he is only a "back engine" and a "waste of steam" and even outright saying he is worthless and calling for him to be scrapped. He soon stopped belittling Edward for good after being tricked by Thomas; he learnt his lesson and apologised to Edward, saying that he promised not to call him old or unreliable anymore. Despite the way that he mistreats Edward sometimes, deep down, Gordon cares a great deal about Edward and the other engines on the railway. This was especially shown when he was very upset after he learnt that Edward and Henry moved out of Tidmouth Sheds to sleep elsewhere for their own reasons, thus indicating how much he missed them. He appears to have a hard time accepting change, but with help from his friends (and Nia), he is able to pull through it.

Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the engines some advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful or honest, though, as James, Percy and Sir Handel have discovered. This side resurfaced once Rebecca joined the North Western Railway, but this time, Gordon realised himself that he was wrong to do so, especially when he ended up smashing through a set of buffers. With Edward gone, Gordon has often found himself acting as the other engines' father figure. His pompous attitude often makes this a difficult role, but he eventually matured enough to give some meaningful advice which actually helps others.

Since the twentieth series, Gordon has developed a tendency to pin his own faults on others. This was shown when he blamed Henry over having to do his jobs for the day and vice-versa, even though his lateness was what led to the change in the first place. When he and the rest of the Steam Team got in trouble for refusing to leave the shed at night, believing there was a ghost train about (which was actually Henry with a coat of luminous paint), he once again blamed Henry unfairly for the predicament.

Despite being labelled as one of Sir Topham Hatt's more sensible engines, he can act senseless if prompted, which is quite often. Because of his reputation, he has a fear of being found out, and often tries to refrain from acting less than serious. Much like James, Gordon can be highly opinionated on an engine's character; he remained mistrustful of Sonny due to his role in Kenji's runaway and the theft of the plans for Ruth's Hover-Car in spite of Sonny having switched sides, due to the well-tank engine being owned by the crooks in the first place. Eventually he learnt from Thomas that he did not mean to be involved, but he still refused to believe that Sonny left the lifestyle of a thief until much later. Gordon is also very posh and egotistical, claiming engines wearing decorations for the best dressed contest make him look ridiculous and Thomas to be undignified wearing a monkey costume, while others saw him as funny-looking. Despite this, he does have moral standards, as he chose to give Henry his special coal back instead of using it to break his own record.

Technical Details

Basis

According to The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Gordon was built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire. Once the first batch of A1 Pacifics appeared in 1922 Gordon would have more than likely have been reclassified A1/1 indicating he is a slight deviation from the "standard" A1 design.

Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number and was never put into regular traffic; he was only ever used on test runs. Owing to various problems, Gordon was rebuilt in 1939 at Crewe. Sir Topham Hatt and Sir William Stanier worked together to rectify these problems - everything under the running board is of Stanier's design while the running board itself is that of Sir Topham Hatt's. His middle piston and conjugated valve gear were removed, and his eight wheel tender was replaced with one of lower capacity for Sudrian trains. In both the Railway Series and television series, Gordon is depicted with a Fowler tender, though in the latter, his tender is differently design from those of Edward and James, as it features a cutout in the back that accommodates his filler cap.

His valve gear is similar to that of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Pacifics in the illustrations, but in the television series, he and Henry share the same valve gear.

According to his Meet the Contenders video, Gordon is an LNER A3 Pacific in the television series, just like Flying Scotsman and his other siblings. This however is incorrect. In this case, Gordon would be based on Flying Scotsman.

As the "Shooting Star", Gordon's appearance is based on a streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad K4 (Hank's basis), more specifically #3768.

Trivia

• Gordon shares his name with a human character on Sesame Street.