Little Owl

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Behind the Scenes

""Oh, no! I know that whistle!"/"It's the goods train!""

— Top Hat and Eddie (High Tide)

Little Owl
Background Information
First appearance	Sunshine (cameo) (TUGS)
Last appearance	Bigg Freeze (cameo) (TUGS)
Overview
Name	Little Owl
Nicknames	The Goods Engine
Gender	Male
Nationality	German (Unmodified original model) American (built)
Technical Details
Vehicle	Locomotive
Power type	Steam
Fuel type	Coal
Configuration	0-6-0T
Wheels	6
Company	Dock Railway
Owner(s)	Dock Railway

Little Owl (also known as The Goods Engine) is a tank engine who works on the Dock Railway in Bigg City Port. He is based on the New York Dock Railway engines.

Biography

Little Owl's main appearance was in the episode High Tide, who was hurrying towards a broken bridge. Luckily, Lord Stinker had an idea (which was to have Top Hat push him under the bridge). He caught Little Owl, and no serious damage was done.

The early Railhead draft (while leaving him mute) establishes him as a hard worker; his introduction at the Coal Yard implies he'd been working all night long (with Jack the Grappler and Snatcher saying he doesn't rest much) (shifting a lot from city to dock without complaining). He also has no time to watch a near collision of Top Hat, O.J., and Frank and Eddie (as goes to move empty wagons after unloading loaded coal cars onto the car ferries).

Basis

Little Owl is based on New York Dock Railway numbers 6 and 7, a pair of 0-6-0 tank engines built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

Livery

Little Owl is a greyish brown with white lining.

Appearances

Episodes

• Sunshine (cameo)
• High Tide (not named, does not speak)
• High Winds (cameo)
• Up River (cameo)
• Bigg Freeze (cameo)

Audio Files

​​​​Little Owl's whistle is Puffa's whistle but pitched down.

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Trivia

• The early Railhead draft of High Tide implies he was possibly intended to be a tender engine; he's listed as filling up his tender instead of a bunker.
• Little Owl (like Puffa) uses screwlink couplers and buffers (despite the series being set in the United States).
• According to an interview with modelmaker Jeremy King, David Mitton wasn't fond of Little Owl (most likely due to the model's lack of realism). Puffa was built later as a quick replacement for him.
• The sound of Little Owl's brakes were originally from the Gerry Anderson television series "The Secret Service" episode "Last Train to Bufflers Halt".

Gallery

Television Series

Little Owl and Hercules in Sunshine

Little Owl in High Tide

Little Owl in High Winds (to the left of the crane)

Little Owl in Up River

Promotional Material

Miscellaneous

Basis

Unmodified original model

Little Owl and Puffa's model in Shepperton Studios, during making Series 3 of Thomas & Friends (back left)

External pages

• SIF Interview with Jeremy King[1]
• Name Confirmation[2]

Bigg City Port

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* Television Series only | ** Annuals only | --- Cut

Up River

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* Television Series only | ** Annuals only

Dock Railway

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