Mavis

Mavis is a privately-owned diesel shunter who works for the Ffarquhar Quarry Company, based at Ffarquhar Quarry. In the television series, she also works at the Sodor Slate Quarry.

Personality
When Mavis first came to Sodor, she was naïve, arrogant and did not take advice very well. She was mostly interested in her own ideas but was brought down to earth after her embarrassing incident at the Ffarquhar crossing. Still, she wanted to see more of the line and schemed to have the trucks push her past the level crossing beyond the quarry - this inadvertently resulted in a near accident for Toby. After rescuing him, Mavis resolved to change her ways for good. She is now more capable of keeping the trucks in line and more willing to take advice.

Unlike many Diesels, Mavis shows respect for the steam engines and unlike most engines, hauling trucks makes her feel important. She is a reliable, honest, and hard-working engine. Over the course of time, Mavis has matured and acts as a motherly figure to the other engines. As a result, she keeps a stern attitude with the troublesome trucks and holds zero patience towards troublesome antics like those from Diesel. Although Mavis means well, she can at times feel cooped up in the quarry, but always cheers up at the chance to stretch her wheels.

Mavis, particularly in her early appearances, has also been shown to have a perfectionist side as well, keeping order in the quarry and rearranging the trucks constantly. However, this seems to have waned somewhat recently.

Basis
Mavis is a based on a British Rail (BR) Class 04 0-6-0 diesel locomotive. She is more specifically based on the BR Class 04's that worked on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, as they were fitted with additional cowcatchers and side plates so they could run near public roads. Twenty of these locomotives are preserved, including one "tramway" example.

Livery
Mavis is painted black with yellow hazard stripes on her front and rear. Her name is painted on the sides of her cab in white and "THE FFARQUHAR QUARRY CO LTD", is painted on her side plates, also in white. In the television series, a dot was added next to "CO" and "LTD"

Appearances

 * Season 1 - The Trouble With Trucks

Trivia

 * The Australian Engine and The American Diesels share the exact same horn sound as Mavis' current one from the fifteenth series onwards and it is the same one used for Diesel from Misty Island Rescue to the fourteenth series.
 * Awdry's model of Mavis was actually made in 1962. It was not until ten years later in 1972 that Mavis debuted in the Railway Series itself.
 * Mavis was the last character Wilbert Awdry created before he retired from writing the Railway Series.
 * Mavis' television series model is currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan and is wearing her concerned face mask.
 * Mavis' cross face mask is now owned by Twitter user TomsProps.
 * In the Railway Series, Mavis' brake pipe is on the right side, but in the television series, her brake pipe is on the left side.
 * At The Train Shed, Mavis wore one of Toby's face masks.
 * Mavis used to be one of the characters to appear in every series of the television series since her introduction until the twenty-second series, in which she did not appear in any episodes or any of the following series.
 * Mavis has had six different horn sounds over some years:
 * In the third series, she had a two-toned horn sound, similar to BoCo, but at some steps higher-pitched.
 * In the fourth series, she had the same horn sound as Class 40.
 * In the sixth series, she had Derek's horn sound.
 * In the seventh series, she had Daisy's original horn sound from the second series.
 * From Calling All Engines! to the sixteenth series episode, Thomas and the Sounds of Sodor, as well as some games and merchandise, she gained a new horn sound.
 * In the fifteenth series, she gained a new horn sound, which is the same one Diesel used from Misty Island Rescue to the fourteenth series, as well as some merchandise and games.
 * In the game, Engines Working Together and on the Diesel's Locomotion Mayhem ride at Drayton Manor Theme Park, she incorrectly had Diesel's normal horn sound; however, her horn sound from Calling All Engines! can be heard when Every Cloud has a Sliver Lining still plays there.
 * Her horn sound from Calling All Engines! would later be reused for Norman in Day of the Diesels only.
 * Mavis' current horn sound is actually a stock recording of an "American" Nathan K3LA diesel, which is used in others pieces of media, such as Chuggington and the Tom and Jerry Show episode, "Road Trippin'."
 * Mavis had a total of seven facial expressions during the model series era, all of which were used on-screen. Her weary face is not on her sixth and twelfth series face reference sheets, but it is on her fourth series one. However, her weary face was either lost or destroyed during or after filming of Thomas and the Magic Railroad before her sad face was sculpted during production of the eighth series.