The Characters
Linus
Linus and Henry, care for one and all!
The titular "Brave Locomotive" who serves as one of the finest locomotives for the Von Kapital Railway...at least until he's replaced by the much larger and more powerful Samson.
- The Ace: Before Samson arrives, it's implied that he was the best engine that Von Kapital Railway had on the roster.
- Back from the Dead: He's shot in the steam dome (and presumably the safety valve) and suffers a boiler explosion when he narrowly rescues Samson and his train from certain doom, killing the little engine in the process. Fortunately, everyone at the railroad pieces him back together.
- Cool Train: Like his inspirations, he's a small, but mighty steam locomotive that heroically risks his life to save others.
- Determinator: Despite getting shot in the steam dome, he does everything in his power to rescue Henry, the Von Kapitals, and Samson from the broken trestle. It tragically costs him his life in the process.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the short, Linus is assigned his own historic branch line and continues to make runs with Henry.
- Expy: Of three of fiction's most famous steam locomotives:
- He borrows from Thomas the Tank Engine in being assigned to a small branch line all to his own (after he saves Samson and his train). His cab is British styled in that it's entirely steel (not a wooden box with a steel roof), has two rounded windows and contoured side walls as opposed to sliding square windows all around, and his whistle is mounted on the front of his cab, above his firebox. Linus pulls a small train that's as anthropomorphic as he is.
- He has a similar color scheme and Determinator attitude as Tillie. Both of them also had to break the rules to do the right thing. For Linus, he had to escape the slavery and break his chains to rescue Henry, Samson, Baron, and the passengers. For Tillie's case, she had to sneak out of the yard while Tower is asleep since he refused to send her to rescue the birthday train.
- He's a 2-4-0 steam locomotive with a baseball-cap shaped headlamp like Casey Junior, is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse who can haul trains up steep grades like the little circus locomotive, and was rendered obsolete for not being a more powerful and modern engine like in The Story of Casey Jr. before he rescues an entire train from a broken bridge.
- Foreshadowing: When he's reassigned to the logging lines, he comes upon a fleet of dead steam locomotives. The one at the end has his smokestack blown out and apparently suffered a boiler explosion. Upon closer inspection, it looks just like Linus— and that's exactly how Linus ends up after he saves Samson.
- Friend to All Living Things: Linus stops immediately upon seeing a tortoise cross the tracks and lets it pass.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He rescues the entire stranded train from the broken bridge, but his boiler explodes in the process.
- Just Train Wrong: Linus should have easily dragged the fat slave driver off his lumber flatbed after intentionally uncoupling from it but is held back by human effort alone. Granted, Linus had been mistreated to the point where he barely had the strength to pull the lumber, but how did that slave driver not get dragged away?
- Made a Slave: After Samson arrives on the scene, Linus is assigned to work the logging lines, but his new bosses treat him as little more than a slave. They whip him to keep him from slacking off and the owner has a gun ready to shoot him if he tries to run away.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Small though he may be, he's able to puff his way up a steep hill (with a little assistance from Henry) without any trouble. He later saves Samson's entire train from a broken bridge despite being shot in the steam dome.
Henry McCloud
So Henry sets to work (plop, plop), shoveling that cooooal!
Linus' engineer and partner on the railroad.
- The Ace: He's regarded very highly as the Von Kapital Railway's best engineer, and Baron Von Kapital doesn't hesitate to put him in charge of Samson. When disaster strikes, Henry is able to whistle for help, then works with Katrina to shovel coal in Linus' firebox like lightning to get everyone out of danger.
- A Boy and His X: Or in this case, an engineer and his locomotive. A newspaper article explicitly describes Linus taking to Henry like a dog, and the two are steadfastly loyal to one another.
- Determinator: Nothing can really stop this guy from getting where he needs to go, whether it be a ridiculously steep grade, his reassignment to a different locomotive, or even a collapsing trestle bridge.
- Happily Married: Henry's wife comforts him after he's reassigned as Samson's engineer. Years later, the two are in Linus' cab, and he gives her a smooch on the cheek.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The poor guy is left heartbroken when he accepts a job reassignment contract drive Samson and is mournfully seen in his house as he ponders his decision. While his wife tries to comfort him, Henry's first day on working on Samson is just him having tea with Von Kapital in the cab, visibly uncomfortable at his new job. Well, as Samson's automatic stoker means Henry doesn't have to shovel coal, there's not much for him to do during the passenger express run apart from drinking tea with his boss.
- Nerves of Steel: When Samson proves too heavy for the trestle over Colonna Canyon and breaks the structure, Henry manages to whistle for help, keeping his cool as Linus gets everyone off.
- Nice Guy: He and Linus both have a good heart and care for one and all.
Baron Von Kapital
Listen, my boy, and I will tell you about my new venture...
The owner of the Von Kapital Railways and a man with a bold vision of the future.
- Benevolent Boss: He doesn't look all that benevolent, but he does treat his employees quite well and genuinely rewards Linus and Henry for their heroic actions. He was well-loved enough that after he died at 96 years of age, a statue of him was built in his honor.
- Didn't Think This Through: He invests in replacing Linus with Samson to push his railway into the future, but all that money goes towards the growth of Colonnaville and not the infrastructure needed to support Samson's massive weight. This bites him when the trestle gives way after several runs, and after the disaster, immediately begins rebuilding the line with a concrete bridge.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While it was cruel to reassign Linus, he's not wrong that Samson is a far more suited replacement to the express run to Colonnaville than Linus is, since the 4-8-4 can handle several hundred trips per day instead of just the one round trip it took Linus and Henry all day to make.
- Memorial Statue: One is erected along the branch line in his honor decades later.
- Mundane Utility: How does he use his newest locomotive? To heat his tea, of course!
- Nice Guy: Von Kapital may look like the typical Railroad Baron of his era, but he's very gentlemanly and honorable.
- Old Money: He's described in a newspaper article as a financier who helped build his fortune through westward expansion thanks to his steadfast support for Lincoln during the Civil War.
- Pet the Dog:
- Though Von Kapital does consign Linus to the logging lines, he doesn't hesitate to let Henry be Samson's driver. He's seen happily sipping tea with Henry in the cab during Samson's first runs, proud of the accomplishment.
- After Linus dies saving everyone from the broken trestle, Von Kapital spares no expense in rebuilding the little locomotive, fully cooperates with the federal investigators, and promises to rebuild the trestle with a stronger structure to never let an accident like this happen again.
- Railroad Baron: A somewhat ruthless financier, but a more reputable, honorable, and benevolent example of this trope than most, he envisions expanding his empire with the newest technology, but nonetheless treats his employees quite well.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite being a Railroad Baron, he's a far more gentlemanly example than the trope usually plays out. He allows Henry to keep his route by reassigning him to Samson rather than firing him, and he wholeheartedly rewards Linus and Henry for saving everyone from the broken trestle by rebuilding the destroyed locomotive and assigning him to his own branch line.
- Undying Loyalty: He fully backed Lincoln during the Civil War, and remained steadfast to his convictions. Said convictions paid off when the Union faction won the war.
- Villain Song: Well, not so much a villain, but it still plays out like this trope with "The Baron's Proposal" when he brings Samson into the fold.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Von Kapital's only antagonist action was removing Linus from the passenger run in favor of Samson, but he's still a Benevolent Boss to his staff.
- Visionary Villain: He's not really a villain, but his idea of expanding his railroad empire by obtaining a massive locomotive to handle his trains did result in Linus winding up in slavery under the loggers, and Von Kapital's failure to invest in new infrastructure almost caused his new toy to fall off a broken bridge, nearly taking him and everyone with it in the process.
Katrina Von Kapital
No train is a failure who has friends.
Baron Von Kapital's daughter and the heir to his railroad empire.
- Daddy's Girl: She's almost never seen without her father. The only scene where she isn't around him is during the first set of express trips to Colonnaville.
- Hidden Depths: At first, the short makes it seem like she's just a typical rich girl. But when the trestle collapses, she's just as quick to help Henry shovel coal into Linus's firebox to get him going and personally helps rebuild the locomotive. A newspaper article also shows she's pushing for a more diverse hiring process (the fact that Von Kapital is raising her to run the business after he dies is indicative that both father and daughter are very progressive and far ahead of their era).
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Downplayed. She is the heiress to his railroad empire and has a keen eye for the business, but she's much more mechanically inclined than her daddy and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. The moment the opportunity comes for her to help save the day, she pitches in by shoveling coal at lightning speed to get Linus moving.
- Ms. Fanservice: She is a very beautiful and lovely "Railroad Princess". While her period-correct outfit doesn't show much skin, it certainly emphasizes her curvy figure.
- Nice Girl: Katrina is very kind, demure, sweet, and when the going gets tough, she helps Henry McCloud to power Linus enough to save Samson from falling to his doom.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: She's nicknamed "The Railroad Princess" by the press, and unlike her father, she doesn't hesitate to get her hands dirty to save everyone's necks during the trestle disaster.
- Spoiled Sweet: Despite being a wealthy heiress, she demonstrates this trope by unhesitatingly helping Henry to power Linus enough to save Samson from falling off the trestle, and later pitches in herself to rebuild Linus.
- Wrench Wench: It's implied that she personally helped to rebuild Linus when she's shown with a wrench in her hand after the locomotive wakes up from his rebuilding.
Samson
Presenting, Samson!
A brutish 4-8-4 locomotive who's assigned to replace Linus on the run to Colonnaville.
- The Ace: Described as a product of the 1895 World's Fair, he instantly proves his mettle to the railway by transforming the entire town of Colonnaville from one station into an entire city within a day. As for that pesky grade Linus had to chug over... Samson just barrels through the mountain and makes a tunnel out of it.
- The Atoner: To make up for destroying the original trestle, Samson volunteers to work the logging lines. It's mentioned he was very grateful that Linus saved him.
- Badass in Distress: Stout, powerful, and blazingly fast as he may be, it's not enough to stop him from getting stuck on a broken trestle and results in Linus killing himself just to rescue everyone.
- Big Eater: As a powerful locomotive, he consumes a fair amount of coal. Since it would be too costly (and undoubtedly laborious) to keep shoveling the old-fashioned way, he's equipped with an automatic stoker.
- The Big Guy: The newest and most powerful locomotive on the Von Kapital Railway, and undoubtedly the biggest of them all.
- Cool Train: He's a giant 4-8-4 who can clip through the Von Kapital Railway system like lightning, and singlehandedly transforms Colonnaville from a ghost locale into a bustling city within a short period of time.
- Dungeon Bypass: Before Samson came along, Linus had to traverse up a steep grade to get to Colonnaville. Samson straight up barrels through the mountain to create a shorter route, all with his own brute strength.
- Face of a Thug: He looks menacing enough, but he's genuinely grateful for Linus saving his skin back at the bridge and didn't have any hard feelings towards replacing him in the first place.
- Foil: As far as trains go, Samson is the exact opposite of Linus in every way, being bigger, faster, more powerful, and a far more intimidating-looking brute who handles the very same passenger run in a more efficient way than his predecessor. Ultimately, Linus is the one who has to save Samson from himself when the massive Northern Type's weight buckles a trestle underneath him and nearly sends the passenger liner plummeting to its doom.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Not really so much evil as he just looks nasty, but he has an old-style cigar in his mouth until the bridge collapse. As shown in a picture, he needs an entire crew to light it for him.
- Just Train Wrong:
- The short takes place in 1895, but Samson's wheel arrangement, the 4-8-4 "Northern" type, wasn't introduced until Northern Pacific and the American Locomotive Company constructed the first one in 1926.note In all fairness, he is Von Kapital's Super Prototype.
- The rods on his wheels are in the wrong order. In real life, the rods would be pinned to the primary driving wheel in this order: Side Rod (connecting the wheels of all driving axles), Main Rod (connecting the piston rod to the driven axle of choice), Valve Eccentric Crank, and Valve Eccentric Rod.
- Samson's tender is attached to the underside of his frame by a knuckle coupler, which would violate quite a few guidelines of locomotive design. Given that he's a prototype, one could assume that the ease of uncoupling Samson's tender for maintenance outweighed the potential snag of having the tender coupling accidentally snap open during runs.
- Lightning Bruiser: Not only is he massive, but he can move his way through the entire network in mere seconds, whereas it took Linus and Henry a full day to pull a round trip to Colonnaville and back. Deconstructed, since Von Kapital forgot to upgrade the bridge and he winds up nearly falling off it when it breaks.
- Meaningful Name: He shares the name of the strong and mighty Samson of Biblical fame, which even a newspaper article points out. He also winds up in a position of weakness like Samson (though it's not due to the source of his strength; it's because of the effect his strength has on the environment), but unlike his namesake, lives to tell about it.
- Non-Standard Character Design: He looks a lot more realistic compared to Linus, with the few anthropomorphic features he does have being his mouth and cigar. Even his eyes don't look all that cartoony, being yellow-colored classification lamps shaped in an intimidating fashion.
- Not So Stoic: He keeps his cool all the way up until he nearly falls off the bridge, at which point he enters into a panic mode.
- Obliviously Evil: The tortoise that Linus stopped for ends up getting barreled over by Samson, though the locomotive is so busy at work that he doesn't even notice the damage he caused.
- Perpetual Frowner: Aside from his visible fear during the bridge incident, he always has the same big ol' frown on his face.
- Super Prototype: He's the first of what Von Kapital intends to be the future of his railways, being a massive 4-8-4 built for lightning speeds and a much greater pulling capacity.
- Track Trouble: As Samson makes what turns out to be his final run over the Colonnaville Canyon trestle, his massive weight and the dynamic hammering forces made by the balance weights in his driving wheels causes the structure to buckle under him. He gets stuck and can't back himself off the line, forcing Linus to rush down and rescue everyone. Linus is able to save Samson at the cost of his own life, though Samson ends up derailing off the main line while his tender and train remain on the rails.
- Villainy-Free Villain: He doesn't commit any acts of evil per se so much as he just gets Linus demoted to lesser duties, and only looks evil because of how powerful he is. After the trestle incident, Samson proves he's no bad guy by working the logging lines to make up for damaging the structure and shows nothing but gratitude to Linus for saving him.
The Forestry Railway Owner
And what will become of Linus?
The closest thing to an antagonist the short has, he's a ruthless slave driver who's sent locomotives to their deaths.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Definitely evil, as he's a ruthless railroad owner who shoots any disobedient locomotives and smokes with a traditional cigarette.
- Hate Sink: A cruel slaver who works the locomotives under his "care" until they're nothing but rusting corpses, he is a thoroughly contemptible individual.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: He hits Linus clear in the steam dome from a good distance away. With a pistol.
- Karma Houdini: Despite his horrendous treatment of Linus and all the other locomotives on the logging line, he's never shown facing consequences for his actions. Though considering Samson volunteered to work those lines, and Samson looks like one tough customer, it doesn't seem like karma will avoid him for long.
- Lack of Empathy: He does not care for any of the locomotives who were worked to death by slave drivers.
- Lean and Mean: Tall, thin, and a slave driver who would shoot any locomotive that wouldn't work his way.
- Shoot the Dog:
- There are several steam locomotive corpses rusting away in the woods, with the hint that this guy didn't exactly treat his engines well (or even bothered to put in for some basic maintenance).
- He hits Linus in the steam dome when the locomotive runs away to save Samson from the falling trestle. It doesn't kill him immediately, but Linus dies from a boiler explosion when he narrowly pulls the entire train to safety.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Every locomotive that was sent to his logging line is left as a rusting corpse, forced to work to death hauling heavy loads of logs under cruel slave drivers, given no care as to their maintenance or well-being. Anybody that tries to run off, he shoots them. When Linus dares to do so to rescue Samson's train, the Forestry Railway Owner manages to hit him clear in the steam dome which leads to a boiler explosion that kills Linus when he narrowly succeeds.
Fat Lumberyard Driver
No one knows...
A fat driver who enslaves locomotives, whipping them whenever they stop or go too slow.
- Artistic License – Physics: When Linus tried to escape by uncoupling from the lumber flatbed, the worker didn't fall off the flatbed and get dragged even though he was holding the restraining chain (the very same chain that was clamped around Linus's steam dome at that time). Had this animated short been realistic, that worker would have been dragged away.
- Fat Bastard: He is a very rude overweight worker who likes to whip locomotives and doesn't care about keeping locomotives maintained.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After Linus heard Henry was in trouble, the fat worker tried to force Linus to continue with lumber work. The engine was able to escape.
- Lack of Empathy: He doesn't care about Linus working in depression, he enjoys bossing him around.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Unlike the Forestry Owner, the Lumberyard Driver actually DOES get his comeuppance. After Linus got tired of the fat driver giving him a lot of abuse, the blue engine broke his chains that smack the Fat Bastard in the face causing him to fall into a sinister locomotive who takes him into the tunnel.
- Never Bareheaded: His hat covers his eyes.
- Slasher Smile: He uses this after whipping Linus a second time onscreen.
Scarlet McCloud
...
Henry's wife.
- Brawn Hilda: A very muscular and heavyset yet attractive young Scandinavian woman who has this build.
- Flat Character: The short doesn't offer her much in the way of personality besides helping to comfort her husband.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Her given name is found in a newspaper article.
- Happily Married: She offers comfort to her husband when he's forced to bid his partner farewell, and is still shown being with him on the job decades later.
- Most Common Superpower: Because of being a Brawn Hilda, Scarlet's chest is pretty big.
- Ms. Fanservice: Just like Katrina Von Kapital, she's very beautiful, pretty, cute and buxom.
- Nice Girl: Kind, sweet, compassionate and loves her husband very much.
- Pink Means Feminine: Scarlet wears a pink nightgown up until the finale.
- Prim and Proper Bun: She normally wears her hair in that style.
