Henry the Green Engine

Henry the Green Engine is an anthropomorphic 4-6-0 steam locomotive from The Railway Series books written by the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry, and the spin-off children's television series, Thomas & Friends.

Henry lives on the fictitious Island of Sodor with many other locomotives, including Thomas the Tank Engine. He is engine number 3 on the North Western Railway, and was one of the first engines to be described, appearing in the first book. Henry is a little smaller than Gordon the Big Engine, who also appeared in the first book.

Henry's first (mis-)adventure was in "The Sad Story of Henry", the third story in the Railway Series book The Three Railway Engines. In this story, he went into a tunnel and refused to come out due to fears that the rain would spoil his paint. As punishment, the Fat Controller ordered that he was bricked up in the tunnel until he was ready to come out. Weeks later, he was eventually let out to help Edward pull Gordon's express train, after Gordon burst a safety valve.

Green Engine Co

The Green Engine Co was a British engine company founded by Gustavus Green in Bexhill to sell engines of his design. He flourished especially as a designer of aeroplane engines during the first two decades of the 20th century. The engines were actually manufactured by the Aster Engineering Company.

History

The firm produced a range of water-cooled, mostly inline engines up to about 1915. Green's engines powered many pioneering British aircraft, including those of Alliott Verdon Roe (Avro founder), Samuel Cody and the Short Brothers. They had several advanced features in common; cast steel single-piece cylinders and cylinder heads, two valves per cylinder driven by an overhead camshaft, white metal crankshaft bearings and copper and rubber-sealed water jackets. Manufacture was at the Aster Engineering Company of Wembley. (Mention in H Penrose book The Pioneer Years says there was a factory in Twickenham)? When the Great War of 1914–18 broke out in Europe the company was known for its motorcycle engines and particularly associated with "pannier honeycomb" radiator design but was already involved in aero-engine design. In 1909 the Green C.4 had been the only motor to complete the tests for the Patrick Alexander Competition but was not awarded the prize of £1,000, rather controversially, because the rules called for a 35 horsepower engine while the C.4 only averaged 31.5 horsepower. The competition was re-run the following year for more powerful engines: this time Green's gained the prize with the D.4. Up to 1912 Green's were the only source of all-British aircraft engines capable of producing 60 h.p., and so the only choice when prizes were offered for all-British aircraft. The best known case is Moore-Brabazon's winning the £1,000 Daily Mail prize for a circular 1-mile flight by a British pilot in an all-British aeroplane in his Green D.4 powered Short Biplane No. 2 in 1910.