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Bear, formely D7101, is one of the Railway Series characters that never made into the TV Adaption, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. He is a loyal and friendly Diesel that loves working with steam engines. He is always willing to help and make friends on the railway.
Biography
7101 came on loan to Sodor with another diesel called D199, who was blatantly rude and arrogant and bad-mouthed the steam engines until 7101 and Duck shut him up. The next day, 7101's injector failed while pulling the "Limited". Henry, who was already towing 199 and had failed himself while pulling some oil-tankers, came to help; 7101 was still able to move by himself with some help from Henry. To the passengers' delight, Flying Scotsman took their train, while Henry helped 7101 home. The engines pursuaded Sir Topham Hatt to let 7101 stay on, which he agreed to, and renamed him Bear because of the growling sounds his engine usually makes.
Personality
Bear is one of the more polite, charming, respectful, useful diesels. He is a loyal, friendly, and sympathetic sort, but he is extremely noisy and obstreperous, as he often makes unusual growling noises much to the disturbance of the other engines; thus earning the name "Bear". The Fat Controller was impressed with BoCo and Bear; he called them "versatile" because they could pull both coaches and trucks. BoCo and Bear usually defend the steam engines when a visiting diesel boasts about how superior they are, and vice versa, as the steam engines often use BoCo and Bear as examples of diesels that are not rude and nasty.
Basis
Bear is based on a British Rail (BR) Class 35 "Hymek" Bo-Bo. one-hundred and one members of this class were built from 1961 to 1964. They were known as "Hymeks" because of their Mekydro-design hydraulic transmission units. They were withdrawn between 1971 and 1975, a short life caused by British Railways designating diesel-hydraulic engines non-standard following the withdrawal of steam. Four "Hymeks" have been preserved by heritage railways, such as the East Lancashire Railway in North West England.
Bear's original number, 7101, is an in-joke: the Class 35s was only numbered up to 7100. As Beyer, Peacock and Company was the only company to build the Class 35, all were built in numerical order. Therefore it is safe to say Bear was built after D7100, who entered service on 5 February, 1964.
Livery
When he first arrived on Sodor, Bear was painted in the BR Rail Blue with yellow window surroundings livery. He also had yellow warning panels on his front and back end.
When he became part of the North Western Railway, Bear was painted in the BR Deep Bronze green with a narrow band of lime along the bottom of his sides and cream window surroundings livery. His yellow warning panels on his front and back end became smaller. His rooftop is painted grey. His number was painted on the sides of his cab in white (D7101) on his original livery and (D3) on his current livery.
Trivia
- Bear is the only Main Line engine created by the Rev. W. Awdry featured in The Railway Series, who was not introduced in Thomas & Friends.
- Awdry had a Hornby Railways Class 35 model that was used as illustrators' reference. The model was unmodified, painted in BR Blue, and had the number D7063 as purchased. Unlike the BoCo model, which was also unmodified, this was not specifically identified by Awdry as Bear with writing on the box. The model is currently in the Awdry Study at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Tywyn, Wales.
- Both Bear's Hornby model and Ertl toy depicted him in his original Rail Blue livery.
- On the Tidmouth Grand Tour, Bear has a grey face rather than his yellow one, most likely to match the other engines.
- In the Japanese translation of The Railway Series, Bear is named "くま" (Kuma), the Japanese word for "bear".
- Bear/D7101's rear cab has a headcode reading "AC 47" on both his ERTL and Hornby models.
