Godred was built at the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1895. He was arrogant from the start, and believed that should he have any trouble his automatic brakes would save him. Of course, barely a month after the railway's opening he came off the rails and was sent to the shed in disgrace. According to Culdee, he was subsequently cannibalised for his parts. However, the true nature of Godred's demise is debatable, as it was said the whole tale was made up; then again, all other canonical sources support Culdee's version of events, which only confounds things more.
Godred was careless, reckless, arrogant, and self-centered - Culdee believes this may have been because of the nature of his naming. Godred put too much faith in his automatic brakes, despite all the warnings, and paid the price.
Godred is based on the Snowdon Railway's L.A.D.A.S., who also suffered a similar fate.
L.A.D.A.S' accident was caused by subsidence of the track, leading to the pinion wheel disengaging - this was amended by fitting guard-bars to the rack-rail. Since the Culdee Fell Railway opened four years later, it seems likely that guard-bars would have been required by the Board of Trade from the outset, implying a different chain of events causing the derailment, somehow disengaging both the pinion wheels and the gripper fitted to the engine which connects with the guard-bars to prevent such an event.
The most likely explanation is that the Reverend W. Awdry wanted his fictional railway to mirror its real-life counterpart as closely as possible, but as this would involve the "death" of a character, he chose to end it as he did in order to avoid upsetting his readers.
Godred is painted purple with orange lining. In a magazine picture, he was painted red with yellow lining and buffers.
- 1997 - Culdee's Story (mentioned)
- Culdee: "We have no money to mend you." they said "So you'll go to the back of the shed." As time went on, Godred got smaller and smaller, until nothing was left.
- Duncan: What happened?
- Culdee: It's not nice to talk about.
- Duncan: But what happened?! Why isn't it nice?
- Culdee: (Mournfully) Our drivers used Godred's parts to mend us.
- ERTL (discontinued)
|Culdee Fell Railway|
|Godred • Ernest • Wilfred • Culdee • Shane Dooiney • Lord Harry/6/Patrick • Alaric • Eric|