Oliver came to the Island of Sodor in 1967. He escaped from being scrapped. The Fat Controller said that he was perfect for The Little Western and let him stay.
Bio
When Oliver first came to the railway, he was supposed to meet all the engines but, he was held up. Duck did not like this and started to complain. He met Oliver at Tidmouth Hault and told him off for being late without giving Oliver a chance to explain. Later, Oliver was taking a passenger train and saw Duck on the sand and helped him. At the sheds at Callan, Oliver and Duck reconciled and Oliver explained why he was late. He had to rescue two injured workmen and Percy and Toby from a rock slide. He also pulled the mail train after James furiously had an accident with his drawbar and the job was completely offered to him as a main job.
Oliver was in On the Run and Escape, where he was telling Alice about his story of escaping scrap. He also appeared in Christmas Delivery, where he was helping a young woman to get to her husband for Christmas. He listened to the story of the Scottish twins' arrival on the island, meeting Alice over British Railways and some opinions of Sir Charles Topham Hatt, told James about Bear after the GWR tank engine met him in 1967 and spoke to Barry at Knapford station in 1985. After appearing in four episodes of Season 5, he appeared in the special Winds of Change where he and Gordon talked to Shane about their age which the Class 67 diesel was rudely remarking it as "unlawful". Oliver also appeared in two episodes of the first season of Sodor: The Modern Years, both of his appearances were cameos in the episodes, The Missing Engine and Homecoming.
Basis
Oliver is based on a GWR 1400 class locomotive. He was built in August 1934 and later rebuilt in 1959.
Oliver's number comes from a real 14xx, No. 1436, which was built at Swindon Works in August 1934 as No. 4836 and worked in the West of England, West Midlands and West London until it was withdrawn in October 1958. It was scrapped at Morkot Ltd, Caerphilly on the 1st of October, 1958.
Appearances
Episodes
- Season 1 - Great Western, Little Western and Night Run
- Season 2 - Galloping Sausage (mentioned)
- Season 3 - Search Engines (cameo), Bluebells and Batsmen (cameo), Comfort Zone, Gordon's Promise (mentioned), On the Run, Escape and Christmas Delivery
- Season 4 - Decisions, Douglas the Brave, One Good Deed and Post and Prejudice
- Barry the Rescue Engine - Back on Track
- Season 5 - Doubts, Ruffled Feathers, Darkest Hour and Desperate Times
- Season 1 STMY - The Missing Engine (not named, does not speak), Rough Start (cameo), Homecoming (cameo) and Cold Reception (cameo)
- Season 2 STMY - Swan Song (cameo), Food for Thought (mentioned), Runaway (cameo), Percy's Post, The Thin Clergyman, Troublesome Trucks, The Devious Way (does not speak) and Endgame (does not speak)
- Couriers and Concerns - The Troublesome Van (cameo) and Bumps in the Night (does not speak)
- Little Western Lineage
Cancelled Episodes
Specials
- Bad Apple (cameo)
- Winds of Change
Books
Voice Actors
- WildNorWester (Season 1 - Season 4)
- Jinty1798 (Season 5 - STMY: Season 2)
- LittleWesternerProductions (STMY: Rowan the Garratt Engine onwards)
Trivia
- In Season 1, Oliver's SI3D 2006 model was used, since it was the best model available at the time. At the beginning of Season 3, WildNorWester debuted a scratchbuilt model, which has been updated over time, including being "baked".
- Oliver's model was the first one to be baked out of the engines during November and was the first released baked engine on WildNorWester's website.
- Oliver has received his RWS colors in Season 1 of Sodor: The Modern Years.
- After Oliver's voice actor Jinty1798 stood down from voicing Bear and Oliver in Sodor the Modern Years a competition was held to find a replacement voice actor and it was confirmed on 5th Aug 2022 that LittleWesternerProductions would take over as Oliver's voice actor.