Terence the Tractor is a fictional anthropomorphiccrawler tractor from the children's book seriesThe Railway Series by the Rev. W. Awdry, and the spin-off TV seriesThomas and Friends. Terence first appeared in the Railway Series story 'Thomas, Terence and the Snow' from the book Tank Engine Thomas Again. In this story, he is portrayed with a widow's peak - the guise that would be used as the basis for the TV series character. Terence was teased about his caterpillar tracks by Thomas the Tank Engine when they both met each other for the first time. He laughs the joke off and gets back to business. He is slow but good enough - he can go anywhere, because of his caterpillar tracks. He becomes a good friend of Thomas after Terence helps Thomas out of a snow drift. Terence's second appearance in The Railway Series comes in Christopher Awdry's book Toby, Trucks and Trouble. In the story "Toby Takes the Road", Terence had been brought in to help shunt trucks in Ffarquhar Yard while Percy was away dealing with the incident at the harbour involving Bulstrode. In the illustration showing Terence, Clive Spong depicted Terence with a rectangular face and no widow's peak. This detail was reproduced on all the illustrator's subsequent pictures of Terence in related publications. his major appearance in Thomas & Friends was in Series 21, where Thomas rescued him after nearly sinking into a icy pond with a big tree. Terence is the only named character in The Railway Series to have caterpillar tracks, although a nameless orange crane with caterpillar tracks is seen in Christopher Awdry's 'Washout'.
Adventures/appearances
Throughout his life/appearances on Sodor, Terence has:
Rescued Thomas from a snowdrift
Helped rescue Mrs. Kyndley from her snowed-in house
Helped haul trees in the forest
Helped Bertie out of the mud
Helped a snowed-in village with Thomas, Percy and Harold
Helped Thomas out of a rockslide
Helped Elizabeth out of a snowdrift
Slipped down an embankment and into a pond
Dug up a pot in his field
Slipped and nearly sank in the cracked icy pond with a big tree until, Thomas rescued him
Behind the scenes
Terence was originally to be called 'Terry', according to a note on the first map of Sodor made by the Rev. W. Awdry: "Here Terry works." However, at some point before Tank Engine Thomas Again was published, this was changed to the more formal name. Despite the size of Terence's face, his face did not have animated eyes, until The Great Discovery. Although not specifically defined by any of the Awdrys, Martin Clutterbuck has identified Terence's most likely prototype as a Caterpillar Model Seventy - the largest, and last, design of petrol -powered tractors in Caterpillar's range - of about 1934-vintage.
