Sir Handel (No. 3) is named after the owner of the Skarloey Railway, Sir Handel Brown. He worked on the Mid Sodor Railway under the name Falcon. He is a pompous character who thinks that pulling trucks is beneath him, and will do anything to get out of jobs he does not want to do.
He was built in 1903 at the Falcon Works in Loughborough for the Mid Sodor Railway, when he was painted blue and carried the name 'Falcon'. After that line closed, he was sold to the Sodor Aluminium Company and then to the Skarloey Railway, which at the time was desperately short of locomotives. Sir Handel did not cope well with the neglected track on his new railway, and would often derail - sometimes deliberately. He was given special wheels with broad tyres to cure this problem, which were known as "steamroller wheels" by the other engines.
In the 1980s, he was invited to the Talyllyn Railway. This story actually had some basis in fact, as the Talyllyn Railway had paid tribute to the Railway Series by repainting their locomotive Sir Haydn to resemble Sir Handel. Sir Handel was actually based upon Sir Haydn.
In the recent TV series, Sir Handle has a kind and wise persenalltiy like Skarloy, Rhenaes and Duke.
Sir Handel first appeared in Four Little Engines.
Read more about this topic: Major Characters In The Railway Series, Skarloey Railway
Famous quotes containing the words sir and/or handel:
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All Nature was degraded;”
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