Other Characters in TUGS

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This article is based on a section of fictional characters from the 1988 children's series: TUGS from the producers of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

Contents 1 Garbage Corporation 2 Quarry Master 3 Sally Seaplane 4 Puffa 5 The Goods Engine 6 The Buoys

[edit] Garbage Corporation

The owner of the Garbage Corporation yard. Organises the 'Municipal Garbage Corporation' float for the annual regatta. He appears in a famous scene from Regatta. He is voiced by Timothy Bateson.

[edit] Quarry Master

The owner of the rock quarry. Appears briefly in Warrior. He is voiced by John Baddeley.

[edit] Sally Seaplane

Sally is a sea plane, friend of the Star Fleet who have the contract to provide her fuel. Sunshine appears to have a slight crush on her. She appears only briefly in a selected number of episodes and spoke only in Sunshine.

Sally's technical definition is a 'Flying Boat' because her main source of buoyancy, like a ship, comes from her hull/fuselage with small floats on each wing to stablise her, unlike the other form of seaplane - the 'floatplane' which uses a normal aircraft fuselage with large floats slung underneath to support it on water. If we expand on this she can be termed an 'Amphibious Flying Boat' because she has fold-up landing gear on her fuslage, allowing her to land on runways as well as water.

Sally's tail-number is S-ALLY, a fictional sequence that would not be assigned to a real plane - any civil aircraft registered in the United States has a tail-number beginning with the letter 'N'.

[edit] Puffa

Puffa is a steam locomotive who works on the dockside railway at Bigg City Port. Used for a variety of tasks within the port and at the docks up river, he is a trusted friend of the Star Fleet and Warrior in particular. He has two named appearances in Up River and Munitions, and an unnamed cameo in High Tide. Other trains seen around Bigg City have the same whistle-sound and feature similar styling as Puffa. In Munitions, the character was warned by Ten Cents, OJ, Zorran, Zak and Zebedee to escape from a dockside fire. In the episode Up River, he raced down river from the logging camps inland to warn Top Hat, Warrior & OJ that a broken log jam was headed toward them, propelled by an explosion of dynamite, kudos to Billy Shoepack. He is voiced by John Baddeley. In Salty's Lighthouse he was called Stanley in one episode and Chooch in another.

Puffa is seemingly based on no particular prototype but has characteristics common to many switcher/shunter locomotives including a short wheelbase and over sized cylinders for his diminutive size - he also features many US features including an American-style whistle, oil-burning headlight, diamond smokestack and a cowcatcher. He, like cranes, speaks through loudhailers. His other features however suggest he was modified from a model locomotive of German outline, which seems likely as the German model makers Marklin supplied components for the model locomotives in TUGS sister show, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. On that show, the model had its beginnings as an extra locomotive to pull trains and was never seen on camera. It soon gained modifications to look more American and became Puffa. After TUGS was cancelled, the model was cut up and its parts were distributed around many of the Thomas sets and used as scrap metal.

[edit] The Goods Engine

A locomotive other than Puffa appeared in Tugs was a tank engine which made several cameo appearances, most notably in 'High Tide' where it was identified as 'the goods engine'. Like Puffa, it's parts were later recycled to serve as props for rusty, old steam engines seen at scrap yards in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

The goods engine superficially resembles an 0-6-0 US Army tank engine, but is actually a model made from 'splicing' together various parts from other locomotives and scratchbuilding a few parts (most notably, the side tanks). The model has many un-American features such as buffers and stovepipe chimney, which were not modified as was Puffa to disguise the Goods Engines as a machine of American pattern.

The model was re-used as Rosie for Thomas The Tank Engine.

[edit] The Buoys

There are several bell buoy's to be found across Bigg City Port, most of them yellow. Notably, one appeared very briefly in Pirate, having been 'silenced' by the pirates in order to make their escape. Also, in the episode Jinxed, a "Wreck" Buoy appeared very briefly, as well as when Ten Cents hoots his whistle to test the Jinx, a nearby marker buoy sinks. This was the only appearance of these two buoys.