Whiff (T&F)

For other uses, see Whiff.

Whiff is a grubby green tank engine who wears glasses. He works at the waste dump with Scruff.

Biography

When Whiff first came to the railway, Emily was asked to help him out. Emily was under the impression that he would be more intriguing and that the task would be more exciting, but was disappointed when she learned that Whiff worked with rubbish. Although the two were mocked by other engines wherever they went, Whiff maintained a cheery expression and seemed either not to notice or care. Emily tried to shun being seen with him, but Whiff found her almost everywhere she went. When Emily finally escaped from Whiff, she saw a very cross Spencer blocked by a long line of rubbish trucks. When none of the other engines helped, she saw Whiff who she apologised to and together they cleared Spencer's line.^[3]

Whiff was present at the celebration of Sodor Day at the newly reopened Great Waterton station.^[4]

One day, Whiff was meant to take away a truck of old cans from a siding to his rubbish dump. Toby - who was looking for something special to present to the Fat Controller - mistook the distant truck at first for something valuable. Later, Whiff brought the Fat Controller to Toby, who had run out of water and discovered a sign belonging to the old Sodor Tramways.^[5]

Later, with help from Percy, he unblocked the tunnel to Misty Island and saved Thomas, Bash, Dash and Ferdinand.^[6]

Whiff now runs his dump with help from Scruff.^[7] One day, Scruff's "scruncher" was broken and Whiff stayed with him at the Sodor Steamworks until he was mended. This left the rubbish dump without anyone to run it, so Gordon was put in charge for the day.^[8]

Whiff requires help from time to time with his rubbish trains. Once, Thomas was supposed to help Whiff with his train, but only succeeded in crashing into the trucks at Wellsworth as Thomas was trying to stay clean for the Duchess of Boxford. In the end, Whiff took the Duchess whilst Thomas cleared up the mess and took the rubbish train.^[9] Later on, Whiff tried to be as grand as Spencer by hauling heavy loads. He helped Emily and Edward by taking some of their loads, but only neglected his own job of clearing the railway of the rubbish trucks. After delivering the respective loads, Whiff carried out his work and proved once again to be really useful.^[10]

One Christmas, Whiff and Scruff helped cover Thomas in rubbish so he could play a trick on Diesel for pretends to be the 'Ghost of Christmas Future' and later attended the Earl of Sodor's Christmas lunch.^[11]

When Bradford arrived on Sodor, Whiff used him as his brake van to take dirty trucks filled with waste. However, Bradford refused to move as the trucks needed to be cleaned, causing Whiff to be late.^[12]

Personality

Whiff is cheerful and optimistic. He enjoys his job of collecting rubbish. He either does not seem to care what the other engines think about him or is oblivious to their opinions because he never gets upset or feels underappreciated to the engines that demean him. Despite that, he is friendly and always does his job well at the Waste Dump. Whiff has been shown to be incredibly kindhearted and rather meek, disliking confrontation despite others' cruel treatment of him because of his job at the waste dump. He is somewhat naïve, as he did not realise why the other engines tried to avoid him so much. However, in Misty Island Rescue, he is shown to know a bit about Sudrian history, since he knew about the tunnel connecting Misty Island to Sodor.

According to Whiff's television series designer, Whiff can also be described as "nerdy".

Technical Details

Basis

Whiff is based on the North Eastern Railway's 2-2-4T No. 66, named "Aerolite". Aerolite was built in 1869 to replace a destroyed Kitson locomotive of the same name and to haul the Mechanical Engineer's saloon coach, which is also preserved on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. It was rebuilt extensively several times during its career. It was classified X1 by the LNER in 1923 and was retired in 1933, being preserved at York the following year. It can be found today at the National Railway Museum in York.

Livery

Whiff is painted in a dark green livery with black and yellow lining (which is very weathered) and green wheels. He has red numberplates on his bunker. He wears large silver-framed spectacles on his smokebox.

Appearances

Official Description

Audio Files

Whistle

Whiff’s whistle is Trevor's original, but heavily distorted.

Trivia

• Whiff is the first and only engine to wear an eyewear in the television series. However, if Railway Series characters were counted, Whiff would be the second character, the first being the Sodor Chain Load Undercut. Darcy would be the third character with eyewear.
• Whiff's physical model had two holes in his footplate to accommodate a lamp and two holes in his front bufferbeam to accommodate a brakepipe. Despite this, Whiff never had a lamp and brakepipe between the eleventh and twelfth series.
• Whiff is the only character introduced in the eleventh series to have appeared in full CGI. Not counting Billy, whose only planned appearance was replaced with Charlie's.
• Whiff has the same number as his basis, Aerolite.
• Whiff shares both of his English voice actors with Edward.
• In the German dub of the show, Whiff is called "Mief", which is an informal word and has the same meaning as "bad smell".
• According to Whiff's designer, Whiff can be described as "nerdy". Despite this, he does not usually act this way, although he does wear glasses, a stereotypical nerd feature. This description of being "nerdy" might suit his All Engines Go personality more.

Quote

References