Sir Handel

Sir Handel, named after the Skarloey Railway's first owner Sir Handel Brown I - originally named Falcon, after the works where he was built - is a narrow gauge saddle tank engine.

Bio
Falcon was built at Falcon Works in Loughbrough, England in 1904 for the Mid-Sodor Railway as an 0-4-0ST, which caused him to bounce. He was delivered by a sea to Arlesburgh to replace a locomotive which was scrapped shortly afterwards. He returned to Loughbrough in 1910 to have trailing wheels fitted as a cure for his unsteadiness in running.

When the Mid-Sodor Railway closed in 1947, he and Stuart were sold to the Aluminium Works at Peel Godred for an expansion project. They worked there until 1951, at which time both engines were sheeted at the projects close for almost a year. They were purchased for a total of fifty pounds by the Skarloey Railway in 1952, overhauled and repainted at Crovan's Gate Works and renamed Sir Handel and Peter Sam respectively.

Sir Handel was not very well-behaved when he first came to the Skarloey Railway, as shown when he insulted the coaches by calling them "cattle trucks", which resulted in them holding him back on a hill and bumping him off the rails when he had to stop for some sheep that stayed on the line, and when he derailed himself on purpose when his driver planned for him to fetch trucks from the quarry. This led the Thin Controller to discipline him by leaving him in the shed until he was ready to behave. He also pretended to be ill to avoid going to the quarry, as advised by Gordon, which only led to Peter Sam to have an accident with trucks at the incline after they mistook him for Sir Handel, and to avoid getting televised by the BBC television producers, but the Thin Controller arranged for him to be taken apart instead in order to show the producers how an engine works.

Sir Handel did not cope well wit the worn track on the railway and would often derail- sometimes deliberately, so he was given a pair of special wheels with broad tyres to cure this problem, dubbed "steamroller wheels" by the other engines. Skarloey later had Sir Handel meet his matches with a bad-tempered steamroller named George to teach him some sense, which resulted in him having an accident when George rammed his front roller into his train. Despite this, Sir Handel still took belief that he sent George packing, but he stopped talking about it after some children heard about his situation with George teased him about it.

In 1982, Sir Handel visited the Talyllyn Railway to help tide over a locomotive crisis while Sir Haydn was being repaired. Sir Handel had plenty of adventures there, like pulling a wedding train and having to wear an eye-patch after colliding with a tree at Nant Gwernol. He spent two years in Wales before returning to Sodor in 1984 to take his share of the summer traffic.

When Peter Sam was brought back from the Talyllyn Railway early during a visit in 1995, Sir Handel became jealous and as a protest, deliberately knocked out his firebars. He was sent to the shed and began to fear that he would never come out after weeks went by and no came to see him. When the Thin Controller came in one day Sir Handel confessed and asked for a second chance. Sir Handel got his firebars later that day - no one bothered him that they has only just arrived.

In 1998, Sir Handel insulted the trucks and called him "slate coaches", and they having to go backwards-forwards for a third chance. then, he crashed over cab in the wheels and smushed. when Bertram was found, Sir Handel was sold to the Aluminium works again.

He returned to the Skarloey Railway a second time in 2006 when he was repainted and repaired when Bertram, Mighty Mac and Smudger are renumbered from 11 to 14. he was restored the same year.