Duck

Duck is a Great-Western pannier tank who works on the North Western Railway

Personality
Duck is cheerful, busy, mature and tends to bustle about. He is very proud of his noble Great Western heritage, often claiming that "there are two ways of doing things: the Great Western way, or the wrong way", occasionally to the annoyance of other engines. He strongly admires City of Truro and enjoyed talking "Great Western" with him when he visited the North Western Railway. He is also shown to be kind to others, but the one engine he finds the most difficult to be kind to is Devious Diesel, especially after Diesel spread rumours about him giving nicknames to the bigger engines.

Duck is often welcoming of newcomers, even most diesels as long as they are not rude. He will often support the underdog, stick up for his friends and help others see the error of their ways. However, occasionally he does have the "Tank Engine sense" of teasing the bigger engines such as Gordon. Duck is also known to have a rivalry with James, but he has earned the respect of the bigger engines and has firm friendships with Edward, Percy, Oliver, Toad, BoCo and the Scottish twins.

Basis
Duck is based on a Great Western Railway 57xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine with added sand boxes. Duck's Great Western number, 5741, was that of a real 57xx, one of the first fifty 57xx Class (Nos. 5700-5749) built by the North British Locomotive Co. on 31st March, 1929 and scrapped at Swindon on 31st May, 1958. However, according to Sodor: Reading Between the Lines, "...through this might not, in fact, be the number with which he was allocated when built...". 863 of these engines were built by various manufacturers over a twenty-one year period, making it the most produced class of British tank engine. Sixteen of these engines survive in preservation. However in Percy the Small Engine and The Eight Famous Engines, Duck was incorrectly illustrated as a Great Western Railway 64xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine. On top of that, none of the 57xx's were autofitted to work with autocoaches.

Livery
Duck is painted in the North Western Railway's livery of unlined apple green with a green safety valve cover and black wheels. His number (8) is painted on the sides of his cab in yellow, upon a black background with a yellow border.

Appearances

 * The Prologue