Terence The Tractor

Terence the Tractor is a fictional anthropomorphic crawler tractor from The Railway Series of children's books by the Rev. W. Awdry, and the spin-off TV series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Terence first appeared in the Railway Series story 'Thomas, Terence and the Snow' from the book Tank Engine Thomas Again (1949). In this story, he is portrayed with a widow's peak – the guise that would be used as the basis for the TV series character.

Terence was teased about his caterpillar tracks by Thomas the Tank Engine when they both met each other for the first time. He laughs the joke off and gets back to business. He is slow but good enough – he can go anywhere, because of his caterpillar tracks. He becomes good friends with Thomas after Terence helps Thomas out of a snow drift. (view photo).

Terence's second appearance in The Railway Series comes in Christopher Awdry's book Toby, Trucks and Trouble. In the story "Toby Takes the Road", Terence had been brought in to help shunt trucks in Ffarquhar Yard while Percy was away dealing with the incident at the harbour involving Bulstrode. In the illustration showing Terence, Clive Spong depicted Terence with a rectangular face and no widow's peak. This detail was reproduced on all the illustrator's subsequent pictures of Terence in related publications.

Terence is the only named character in The Railway Series to have caterpillar tracks, although a nameless orange crane with caterpillar tracks is seen in C. Awdry's 'Washout'.