Gerald, better known by his nickname "Gator", is a large green tank engine who resembles an alligator, and is close friends with Percy.
Biography[]
Although Gator's real name is Gerald, he is known as Gator due to his resemblance to an alligator. He longs to travel and is excited about going to sea. He works on a railway in a faraway land, which runs up into the high mountains and into a village. Once, Gator had to cross the bridge leading into the village but became scared because of the bridge's massive height. In the end, Gator decided that he had to be brave and crossed over the bridge safely.
Gator once visited Sodor. He was pulling a train and because it was foggy, Percy - who saw Gator - mistook him for a monster. Percy ran back towards Brendam Docks, scaring everyone else there into thinking Gator was a monster. After he introduced himself, he explained that he was not going to stay on Sodor; he was waiting for a ship. He told Percy all about being brave, making good friends with him.
Gator ended up missing his ship, so he decided to pass the time by collecting a train from Duck's Branch Line and bringing it back to the docks after Oliver - who was pulling it - broke down. His lamp was broken and he could not see, concerning Oliver's brake van Toad. During his journey, he met James at a junction. James - who did not know Gator yet - was frightened and puffed away as fast as he could, resulting in him derailing into a pond. When Gator nearly crashed due to being nearly blind in the dark, Toad decided to loan him one of his own lamps. With help from the spare lamp, they arrived at the docks on time.
Two nights later, Gator was heading to the docks to catch his ship and was surprised to see Percy being loaded onto it too. Percy explained that he wanted to work with Gator and run away from his fears. Gator, however, told him that this was not being brave, leaving Percy to reconsider his decision. As the ship left, Thomas rushed into the docks and urged Cranky to stop the ship as he believed that Percy was on-board. Cranky stopped the ship, but he was nearly pulled off the docks and forced it to turn around. To Thomas' shock, Percy was not in fact on the ship. Due to the mishap, the ship was delayed yet again. The next day, Gator was finally able to leave after bidding an emotional farewell to Percy. As the ship sailed away, the two engines knew they had each made a good friend and thought that they would never see each other again.
For a long time afterwards, Percy was still sad about Gator leaving and kept thinking about him. He was told to throw himself into his work in order to drive Gator out of his mind. When some trucks ran away from Percy and got lost in a mine, Percy remembered Gator's advice about being brave. Percy was able to rescue the trucks and realised that thinking about Gator can also make him feel happy.
One Christmas, Gator returned to Sodor. Unfortunately, there was a shipment of rock salt that needed to be delivered and the dock manager did not know where it needed to go as the writing on his paper was smudged up. Gator was asked to go all around Sodor in search of the place where the rock salt needed to be delivered. Along the way, he wanted to greet Percy. But having failed to find him, it made him think that Percy had forgotten all about him. Eventually, Gator and Percy finally found each other when Percy accidentally bumped the trucks, covering Gator in rock salt.
Appearance[]
Gator is a big tank engine that's painted two-tone green with gold lining and a red stripe, running board and buffer beams. He has a brass nameplate on the sides of his bunker.
Personality[]
Gator is incredibly brave and longs to travel, while retaining a calm, grounded personality. He longs to travel out at sea and works up in the high mountains, but also has a slight fear of heights.
Relationship with Percy[]
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Trivia[]
- Gator's look was first revealed in an online memory game on Tracks4Thomas.com in late 2013.
- In the first trailer for Tale of the Brave, Gator's CGI model had a few differences from his final one. These include:
- Coloured rivets around his water cap.
- White, thin lining on his front end, compared to the final having thicker gold lining.
- Gator's real name in the Dutch narration is Gerard.
- Gator's whistle sound on the Tale of the Brave mini-site sounds different from his standard whistle sound.
- His whistle sound is actually Charlie's, but seven steps lower-pitched.
- Gator has been modified to work on Sodor, such as having buffers, a brake pipe and loose couplings.
- It is currently unknown why Gator was brought to Sodor in his debut, why he left and why he returned in Long Lost Friend.
- Despite the fact that his real name is "Gerald" and that "Gator" is only a nickname, his nameplates still read "Gator".
- Like Diesel 10 and a few other characters, Gator remained in future merchandise lines long after his final appearance in the television series.
- Gator is the second engine to prefer being called by an animal nickname, the first being Duck.
- Gator will meet Winnie the Pooh, Ash Ketchum, Littlefoot, Simba, Tai, Mickey Mouse and their friends in Pooh's Adventures of Thomas & Friends: Tale of the Brave. Tigger refers to him as "Gator boy", which he likes that nickname very much.
- Gator will meet Team Robot in Team Robot's Misadventures Of Thomas & Friends: Tale of the Brave.
- Gator will make a fantasy cameo appearance in Thomas' Adventures of Fantasia.
- Gator will be mentioned by Percy in Thomas the Tank Engine Visits The Haunted Mansion.
- Gator's best friend is Chocolate Sun.
Gallery[]
