Duck

Montague, affectionately known as "Duck" because of his supposed waddle, is a green pannier tank engine. Duck runs his own branch line with Oliver. He holds great pride in being Great Western and this results in him having a strong work ethic. This can, however, be a cause for friction with the other engines, when he insists that his way is the only right way to do things.

In The Railway Series, Duck has two Great Western autocoaches named Alice and Mirabel. In the television series, he has three Great Western Slip Coaches.

Personality
Duck knows how to hold his own and tends to stand for no nonsense from any engines that might get ideas above their station and try to order him or others about; as a result of this and his strength, most tank engines look up to him. However, although he and Thomas are friends, they occasionally have not always got on well due to the latter’s cheeky antics but the two later shared a mutual respect since they ended up working together to help Harold and have always had a great friendship with each other.

However, his moral code is not perfect and often favours fairness to kindness; he asserted to Percy that Thomas deserved his comeuppance for teasing him about being scared at the smelters. He enjoys running like clockwork, without problems or interruptions, making him a very efficient and loyal engine. He takes tremendous pride in the responsibilities bestowed upon him, particularly in his role of running his own branch line with Oliver, sometimes known as the "Little Western" as a result.

Duck is cheerful, busy, mature and tends to bustle about. He is very proud of his noble Great Western heritage, often claiming that "there are two ways of doing things: the Great Western way, or the wrong way", occasionally to the annoyance of other engines. He strongly admires City of Truro and enjoyed talking "Great Western" with him when he visited the North Western Railway. He is also shown to be kind to others, but the one engine he finds the most difficult to be kind to is Devious Diesel, especially after Diesel spread rumours about him giving nicknames to the bigger engines.

Duck is often welcoming of newcomers, even most diesels as long as they are not rude. He will often support the underdog, stick up for his friends and help others see the error of their ways. However, occasionally he does have the "Tank Engine sense" of teasing the bigger engines such as Gordon. Duck is also known to have a rivalry with James, but he has earned the respect of the bigger engines and has firm friendships with Edward, Percy, Oliver, Toad, BoCo and the Scottish twins.

Basis
Duck is based on a Great Western Railway (GWR) 57xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine with added sand boxes. Duck's Great Western number, 5741, was that of a real 57xx, one of the first fifty 57xx Class (Nos. 5700-5749) built by the North British Locomotive Company on 31 March, 1929, and scrapped at Swindon on 31st May, 1958. However, according to Sodor: Reading Between the Lines, "...through this might not, in fact, be the number with which he was allocated when built...". 863 of these engines were built by various manufacturers over a twenty-one year period, making it the most produced class of British tank engine. Sixteen of these engines survive in preservation. However in Percy the Small Engine and The Eight Famous Engines, Duck was incorrectly illustrated as a Great Western Railway 64xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine. On top of that, none of the 57xx's were autofitted to work with autocoaches.

Livery
In the Railway Series, Duck is painted in the GWR Brunswick green with yellow lining livery. He has black wheels, splashers, and pipes. The initials "GWR" are painted on the sides of his pannier tanks in yellow and red. He had brass GWR number plates on the sides of his cab with his number (5741) painted on them as well as a brass safety valve cover. In some illustrations of The Railway Series, Duck has a golden builder's plate on the side of his cab. Despite his appearance on arrival, it is said in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways that Duck was in the British Railways (BR) livery which would make sense for 1955. It is highly likely that he would have had the BR Lion and Wheel crest during this period. The Swindon trained Sir Topham Hatt soon allowed him to revert to his original GWR livery though, possibly at the same time he was given above running plate sand boxes. It is worth pointing out his number plate is not necessarily the one formerly assigned to him during his building.

In the television series, Duck is painted in the North Western Railway unlined apple green livery. He has a green safety valve cover and black wheels. His number (8) is painted on the sides of his cab in yellow, upon a black background with a yellow border.

Appearances

 * Season 1 - The Trouble With Trucks (does not speak)

Trivia

 * In the Greek dub from the second to fifth series, Duck is female and is called "Jackie". As of the seventeenth series, Duck has reverted back to his original gender and name.
 * In the French dub, prior to Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, Duck was called 'Duck' instead of 'Canard', the French word for 'Duck'. However, since Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, he is referred to by his real name.
 * In the second Polish dub narrated by Stefan Knothe, he is called 'Kaczor', which is Polish for 'Duck'.
 * Duck's model used to be on display at Nitrogen Studios.
 * Duck has sandboxes, while most of the engines of his class do not. However, they were absent in Percy the Small Engine and Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine.
 * According to SiF's interview with Sam Barlow, Duck was originally considered to be part of the Steam Team. However, he was dropped in favour of Emily so as to give a female character a more prominent role.
 * Duck has been the most reoccurring returnee character from the seventeenth series onward, having made at least one appearance per series since his return into the CGI series.
 * Duck's whistle sound was reused for a few different engines, most of them erroneously:
 * Gordon in the fourth series, some scenes in the fifth series episodes Gordon and the Gremlin and Bye George!, and the eighth series episode Thomas to the Rescue.
 * Donald in the fourth, eleventh series and the game "Engines Working Together."
 * Douglas in the UK version of the fourth series episode Thomas and Stepney, one scene in the same series episode Toad Stands By, the eleventh series, the game "Engines Working Together" and in the mobile app, Read and Play!.
 * Oliver in the sixth series episodes The World's Strongest Engine and Percy's Chocolate Crunch.
 * Peter Sam in some pages of Don't Bother Victor in the mobile app Read and Play!.
 * Victor in Victor the Shiny Red Engine and one page of Little Engines Easy Reading: Don't Bother Victor in the mobile app, Read and Play!.
 * James in one scene in the twenty-fourth series episode Emily's Best Friend.
 * Duck’s whistle sound was also used in higher pitches at times for several other characters, such as Trevor, George and James.
 * In the CGI series, Duck gained different brake pipe outlets compared to his model. They were still based on Märklin outlets, but they lacked the additional molded-on brake pipes which were present on his model.
 * Duck had a total of sixteen facial expressions during the model series era.