Molly

This article is about the character. You may be looking for the Story Library book.

Molly is a powerful, yellow mixed-traffic tender engine who lives on the Island of Sodor and primarily works on the Main Line of the North Western Railway.

Biography

When Molly first came to the railway, Emily laughed at her for having to haul "empties" to the Coaling Plant. Molly's feelings were hurt, so Thomas came up with an idea. He had workmen decorate Molly's trucks with lanterns and cover them with tarpaulins, to make them look special to the other engines. The wind, however, blew off a tarpaulin in front of Gordon, Percy and Emily. Molly ran away, embarrassed until she learned that engines at the depot needed her empty trucks to carry coal. When Molly arrived at the depot, Edward, Henry and James were grateful to see her; but Gordon was irritated when he had to wait at a signal for Molly's and Thomas' trains to pass.^[4]

When Emily had to work with Whiff, Molly was one of a number of engines who laughed at him.^[5] Later, Molly helped James with the removal of pipes on the line during a busy winter and advised Thomas to slow down when transporting a sailing boat for the Mayor of Sodor.^[6][7]

In The Great Discovery, Molly received news from Bill and Ben that Stanley had found Thomas. She later attended the Sodor Day celebrations at Great Waterton.^[8]

Personality

Molly is a powerful engine, who is proud of her strength and is happy to put it to use as one of Sodor's bigger engines. She often works pulling empty trucks to the Coaling Plant. Being a sensitive and self-conscious engine, she often worries about fading into the background. Sometimes, taking "empties" (empty trucks/cars) makes her feel less important and sad, but in the end, she will usually see that it is a vital part of operations and an important task after all.

Molly has a peacekeeper attitude, tends to be rather sensible, and is looked upon as a "big sister" by some of the other engines. Because of her sensitivity, she can be easily embarrassed or upset by conflict, and will steam away to avoid it, but she will usually have the courage to do what she thinks is right. Molly likes to be as good as everyone else and wants the other engines to think the best of her.

Technical Details

Basis

Molly is based on a Great Eastern Railway (GER) D56 Class "Claud Hamilton", classified as D15 by the London and North Eastern Railway, with a Belpaire firebox, sandboxes on her wheel splashers, and the smaller 'water-cart' tender. Claud Hamiltons under the classes S46/D14, D56/D15, and H88/D16 were built at Stratford Works from 1900 to 1923. Under the LNER, most members of the class were rebuilt into the Gresley designed D16/3 sub-class. Members of this class pulled the Royal Train from Wolverton to the Sandringham Estate for several decades. The last D15 was withdrawn in 1952, while the last rebuilt Claud was withdrawn in 1960. None are preserved, though there are plans to construct a replica of D16/2 No. 8783 which is to be named Phoenix.

The original 8783 - which is also a GER D56 class - makes a cameo appearance in the book Toby, Trucks and Trouble from The Railway Series.

Livery

Molly is painted bright yellow with red and gold boiler bands, bronze borders around her splashers, sandboxes and tender, and red lining on her tender and around her cab side windows. Her buffer beams, valences and footsteps are all red, while her running board is light grey with yellow trim around the edges. Her cab roof, the lids of her tender toolboxes and the rims of her leading and driving wheels are painted white. Her smokebox and tender wheels are plain black.

Appearances

Official Description

Audio Files

Theme

Whistle

Molly's whistle is a slightly modified version of Douglas' fourth series whistle at two steps lower-pitched, and also Thomas' whistle at an octave lower in pitch.

Trivia

• Molly was originally given a much larger face - with four known different expressions being sculpted for her at this size - however was later given the smaller face she has in episodes.
  • Despite never appearing on-screen, her prototype happy face appeared in promotional shots, the Official Website, and in some Thomas & Friends magazine stories.
  • The face was also used on her Take Along card and all merchandise lines except for the Capsule Plarail line, bath toy, Switch-on keychain, Motor Road and Rail, My First Thomas, and TrackMaster. Some of her merchandise's face covers the whole smokebox but is designed like her standard face.
  • Three of her original faces are now owned by ThomasTankMerch on Twitter, including two that were never shown in public until then.
• Although Molly's tender wheels are black, most merchandise ranges have them in yellow, excluding Motor Road and Rail and TrackMaster.
  • Additionally, her Take Along tender has six wheels but her Take-n-Play tender has only four wheels.
• Molly's Take Along, Capsule Plarail, and My First Thomas toys as well as several magazine stories depict her with black buffers.
• In the Finnish dub, Molly had two Finnish names. In the ninth series, she was called "Mona". However, in the eleventh series and the Great Discovery, she’s called "Mina".

Quote

References