Draft:Edward the Blue Engine

Edward was the first character created for The Railway Series in 1943. The inspiration for the character came from the Rev. W. Awdry watching trains on the Great Western Railway as a child. He said in interviews with Brian Sibley that to him, the noise of the locomotives' exhaust almost sounded like dialogue. For instance, the larger engines having trouble climbing the hills would appear to be saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it," and the smaller engines helping them would sound like they were saying, "I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!" This was the direct inspiration for the second story in The Three Railway Engines, 'Edward and Gordon'. The first story was 'Edward's Day Out', which was an introduction to the character.

The Rev. W. Awdry has said that Edward is based on a heavily modified Sharp, Stewart & Co. "Larger Seagull" locomotive supplied to the Furness Railway in 1896, but this is a piece of retcon created for the book The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways. Martin Clutterbuck notes that Edward bears a closer resemblance to certain Scottish locomotives of the North British Railway, notably the D34.^[2] Edward's double cabside windows are though a distinctively North Eastern feature, along with the shaped spectacle windows of the D21. It is likely that Awdry chose the Furness Railway locomotive because the Furness Railway was the closest mainland railway to Sodor.

The Furness origin for Edward is once again brought up in book 41 Thomas and Victoria, as Edward and Victoria are both from that area. Awdry used a model of a LMS Class 2P 4-4-0 to represent Edward on his model railway.

Edward is the one of the eight engines in the Steam Team, and is one of just twelve characters to appear in every series.

In recent episodes of the TV series, Edward has been portrayed as a bank engine, to help engines up Gordon's Hill – a reminiscent nod to the Season 1 story "Edward and Gordon".

In Season 10, Edward appears almost as cheeky and inexperienced as Thomas was in the first season, putting him completely out of character. This is especially evident in the episode "Edward Strikes Out", where he went as far as to call the new arrival Rocky "new-fangled nonsense", which caused some controversy among some long-time fans. However, in the more recent series, Edward has reverted to his original persona.

Edward didn't appear in Thomas and the Magic Railroad^[3] as there was not enough screen time and opportunity to utilise him in a way that added any real value to the film. However, he did appear in the specials Calling All Engines, The Great Discovery, Hero of the Rails, Misty Island Rescue, Day of the Diesels, Blue Mountain Mystery, King of the Railway, Tale of the Brave, The Adventure Begins, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, The Great Race, Journey Beyond Sodor, and Big World! Big Adventures!. Edward is now voiced by William Hope in the US, (who also voices Toby) and Keith Wickham in the UK, (who also voices Henry, Gordon, Harvey, Salty, Stafford, Bertie, Harold, The Fat Controller and other characters).