James

James is a mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the North Western Railway, usually working along the the Main Line. He can be vain and sometimes boastful, but means well and is a hard worker.

Trivia

 * A large scale working replica of James was built by BBC Visual Effects for a tour in 2003, along with Thomas, Percy, Harold and Jack. The battery powered locomotive is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of Records as the largest model railway engine ever built, at 2.64 x 1.5 x 6.52 metres.
 * James is named after James Furze, a friend of the son of the man who published the second book in the Railway Series.
 * James was illustrated into The Three Railway Engines as the red engine who tried to push Henry out of the tunnel. However, children began sending letters to Awdry asking why James was painted red prior to the events of Thomas the Tank Engine. Awdry then decided to make the Red Engine a new character altogether.
 * In the first season, James was formally introduced in Thomas and the Breakdown Train, which was said to have been his first day on the railway. However, he had appeared in every prior episode as a background character. This may have been done to populate the sets, similar to how the Märklin Engine was used in later episodes.
 * James has been painted in more liveries than any other engine in the television series, with a total of four.
 * Andrew Brenner has said in an interview that James is one of his favourite characters, along with Toby, Bill and Ben.
 * In Toby's New Whistle, James revealed that he once had a three-chime steam whistle.
 * Although he is now has the same voice actor in both dubs, James speaks with a different accent in each; he speaks with an American accent in the US dub, but speaks with an English accent in the UK dub. He is the second character in the show to be in this situation, the first being Belle.