Duck (T&F)

For other uses, see Duck.

Montague, affectionately known as "Duck" because of his supposed "waddle", is a little green Great Western pannier tank engine who lives and works on the Island of Sodor, and is the North Western Railway's number 8 engine. He runs his own branch line along with Oliver and his three slip coaches.

Biography

Prior to coming to the North Western Railway, Duck worked at Paddington and on the Sunshine Line of the Great Western Railway. During these days, he had his own trio of slip coaches affectionately known as the "Slippies", which he used to take passengers to their destinations.^[7]

Duck reprised his roles from The Railway Series from when he first came to Sodor to when he developed a rivalry with Diesel and Bulgy. Although Percy left the yard and went to work at the harbour, Duck often helped him. The workload eventually got too heavy for them alone, so the Fat Controller brought Diesel to help. Duck and Percy were furious and went on strike until the Fat Controller made them work again. Diesel did not stay for long though, as he pushed some trucks into the sea and was sent home in disgrace. Duck and Percy gladly did the work alone. Sometime later, a regatta was being held at the harbour, which inspired Duck to sail to faraway lands. When a man in the regatta hurt his hand, Duck brought him to Bertie, who then took him to hospital.

Duck has had many adventures, many of which were the same as The Railway Series, such as: helping Stepney take the Express to Crovan's Gate after Class 40 broke down, supporting Oliver when he took on S.C. Ruffey and the other trucks, going to the Big City with the engines after they received a letter from a little girl and helping Henry with the Flying Kipper up Gordon's Hill, but crashing into it after the tail lamp fell off.

Later, Duck was trapped at the docks with the big engines and Cranky during a storm. A tramp steamer crashed into the shed, causing it and Cranky to topple over, trapping the engines. Thomas and Percy rescued Cranky, who then rescued the other engines. Afterwards, George refused to let Duck clear a truck from the Main Line, resulting in Gordon crashing into it.

When Donald and Douglas had a fall out, Donald worked with Duck for a while, but the way Duck did work was not how Donald was used to Douglas doing it. One day, Donald had an accident when he crashed through the buffers tender first and derailed, so Duck went to find Douglas to rescue him. When Duck, Thomas and Percy were sent to work at the Sodor Ironworks for the night, Duck assured Percy that everyone gets afraid sometimes when Thomas constantly teased him over Edward's made-up ghost engine. To teach Thomas a lesson, Duck offered Thomas to stay and finish the job, where Thomas did have a frightening experience. Duck once tried to rescue Farmer McColl's sheep during a terrible snow storm, but was unable to due to a large snow pile that was too tall and thick for his snowplough to get through. When Edward worked with Stepney, Duck had to take his trucks, but they only gave him a hard time when they held him back on Gordon's Hill and got him stuck. Even Gordon could not help him with both pulling his express train and pushing Duck's heavy trucks put together, so Edward had to come and help the two sets of trains.

Duck was present when James was accidentally sprayed with quarry dust by Percy, and moaned with the other engines on James' boasting on being reddier than ever. Duck was also involved in an accident with Arthur after the trucks dragged him down Gordon's Hill and collided with his goods train. When Oliver had an accident by crashing into a giant snowman, Duck was sent to rescue him.

Duck later told Emily that the tracks up ahead were muddy and had to be avoided. Thomas once ordered him to move by blowing his whistle and shouting, only for the water tower (which Rocky was lowering on his flatbed) to be smashed. When Gordon was taking passengers to Great Waterton before Stanley, Duck offered Gordon advice on directions, but the big blue tender engine believed that he knew the island well, only for him to get lost and Duck was able to give the big blue tender engine directions. Thomas once hid behind his goods train to avoid Percy.

When Henry and Hiro were taking a heavy goods train to the Docks, he told them that they have seem to have taken on bad coal that arrived that day and he was off to pick up some fresh coal to replace it. When Harold broke down at Callan Castle, Duck was asked to take him to the Sodor Search and Rescue Centre for repairs, with Thomas as his back engine. However, Thomas wanted Harold to see the sights of Sodor, so he tricked Duck into going to Knapford. After this, Duck became cross with Thomas and refused to listen to him when Thomas tried to warn him about a narrow tunnel. This ended up damaging Harold's rotor blades and earning them a scolding from the Fat Controller. The two engines made up and switched places, with Thomas leading them to the Rescue Centre without encountering any more tunnels. After this, Duck admitted that "The Thomas Way" was another valid way of doing things.

Duck once ran into a flood whilst working on his branch line and had to wait until James brought Rocky to help him. Unfortunately, Oliver and Percy ran into them due to a broken signal knocked down by Rocky's swinging crane arm and delayed Duck's rescue. During one hectic summer, the Fat Controller was not sure how to handle the number of passengers travelling on his railway. In the shed, Duck talked about the slip coaches which he had used on the Great Western Railway. The next morning, James lied to the Fat Controller and said the idea was his own, initially receiving praise only to cause trouble. Duck soon took control of the slip coaches and utilised them perfectly, with the coaches now appearing to be used year-round.

Duck helped with building the new Harwick Branch Line and was very excited yet surprised to see Donald and Douglas helping too. He later brought Rocky to lift Thomas out of the cavern that he had fallen into and sometime later attended the branch line's opening ceremony.

One day, when a storm struck the island, he and Oliver were responsible for taking people safely home. At Arlesburgh, the two met Skiff and warned him to get to safety. When Duck had finished his jobs, he headed for home with the slip coaches; however, neither they nor Oliver and Toad - who were travelling to Arlesburgh on the opposite track - were aware that a lightning strike had caused a tree to fall on the line. Thankfully, Skiff - who had been blown away by the storm - was able to warn them just in time. Later, as in The Railway Series, his whistle got clogged after his driver boiled an egg on it. Thomas and Rex teased him, and Mike said that engines should not make such noises, as engines without whistles are "not proper engines at all". Fortunately, Duck's whistle was cleaned out later that day.

Duck, along with all of the Fat Controller's engines, wanted to go to the Great Railway Show, but he was among the many engines that were not chosen.

After another big storm, Harwick School was damaged. Duck searched for a coach that he could use to pick up the students with, but none were available. He eventually stumbled across Dexter, an old branch line coach that had been left on a siding.

Duck alerted the Sodor Search and Rescue Centre when Percy mistakenly thought that Thomas had an accident. Later, he and the other engines began searching for Thomas, as well as Harold and Thomas himself, found Percy, who ended up being the one to have an accident instead.

When word was spread about a railway show for the little engines was to be held at Ulfstead Castle, Duck was informed and carried a flatbed with Bert on it.

Personality

Duck knows how to hold his own and tends to stand for no nonsense from any engines that might get ideas above their station and try to order him or others about; as a result of this and his strength, most tank engines look up to him. However, he has never got along particularly well with Thomas, partly due to the latter's cheeky antics. In spite of this, the two have shared a mutual respect since they ended up working together to help Harold.

However, his moral code is not perfect and he often favours fairness to kindness; he asserted to Percy that Thomas deserved his comeuppance for teasing him about being scared at the smelters. He enjoys running like clockwork, without problems or interruptions, making him a very efficient and loyal engine. He takes tremendous pride in the responsibilities bestowed upon him, particularly in his role of running his own branch line with Oliver, sometimes known as the "Little Western" as a result.

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.

Technical Details

Basis

Duck is based on a Great Western Railway (GWR) 57xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine with added sand boxes.

Livery

Duck is painted unlined NWR green with black wheels and valences. The initials "GWR" are painted on the sides of his pannier tanks in yellow and red. His number (8) is painted on the sides of his cab in yellow, on a rectangular black background with a yellow outline. He has red bufferbeams.

Originally, Duck had a white running board similar to most of the other steam engines in the early television series, however since his return in the seventeenth series, it has been repainted black. Additionally, upon his return, he was also given black window frames.

Appearances

Official Description

Audio Files

Themes

Whistle

Duck has his whistle out of tune due to his driver boiling an egg on it.

Trivia

• In some international dubs, Duck's name was changed:
  • In the Greek dub from the second to fifth series, Duck is female and called "Jackie". As of the seventeenth series, Duck has reverted back to his original gender and name.
  • In the French dub, Duck's name changed over the seasons. Prior to Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, he was nicknamed 'Duck' instead of 'Canard', the French word for 'Duck'. He is not nicknamed Duck anymore during the special Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure and during the twentieth series. Instead, he is referred to by his real name 'Montague', the original French form 'Montaigu'. Also, the real name of Duck during the first five seasons was "Duckémilien" instead of 'Montaigu', a play on words between Duck and the French name Émilien. His true name would change during the CGI era, where he was referred to as 'Montaigue'.
  • In the Finnish dub, Duck is called "Ankkanen" from the fifth series onwards, including the second series episode, Duck takes Charge.
  • In the second Polish dub narrated by Stefan Knothe, he is called 'Kaczor', which is Polish for 'Duck'.
  • In the Turkish dub, prior to the seventeenth series, Duck was called 'Ördek', which is Turkish for 'Duck'. Since the seventeenth series, he is referred to by his real name with the exception of the twenty-second series episode School of Duck, where he is called "Quack-Quack".
  • In the Russian dub of the second series episodes: Duck Takes Charge, The Runaway, Pop Goes the Diesel, and Dirty Work, Duck was called 'Utenok', which is Russian for 'Duckling'. Since the episode A Close Shave, he is referred to by his real name.
  • In the Serbian dub, he is called 'Patak', which is the Serbian term for 'duck'.
  • In the Croatian dub, he is called 'Darko'.
• According to SiF's interview with Sam Barlow, Duck was originally considered to be part of the Steam Team. However, he was dropped in favour of Emily so as to give a female character a more prominent role. As such, he was completely absent from the series for four years.
  • Nonetheless, the leaked pitch bible for HiT's 2004 retool of the series indicates that the writers were not directly barred from utilising Duck as a supporting character in their scripts (at least initially), implying that an amalgam of budgetary limitations at Shepperton Studios (which, by reducing funding for engine model repairs amidst the series' accelerated production schedule in the 2000s, may have limited the number of characters to film per series) and relative disinterest in the character on the HiT writing staff's part may have contributed to his lengthy absence.
• Duck has been the most recurring returnee character from the seventeenth series onwards, having made at least one appearance per series since his return.
• In the CGI series, Duck gained different brake pipe outlets compared to his model. They were still based on Märklin outlets, but they lacked the additional moulded-on brake pipes which were present on his model.
• In 2024, Duck was featured in a question on the British game show, The Chase. The question being: "In the 'Thomas the Tank Engine' stories, Montague the Engine has what nickname due to his supposed waddle?" Duck was answer C, with answers A and B being "Goose" and "Penguin", respectively.^[8]
• Duck is currently the only character in the Motorized range to not have been made for Trackmaster Revolution.

Quotes

See also

• Duck in The Railway Series
• Duck in All Engines Go

References