James

James is a mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the North Western Railway, usually working along the Main Line. He is the deuteragonist/anti-hero of the SC Shorts.

Biography on YouTube
James made his debut on Sammy Clark's YouTube channel in the video, "Annoying Thomas and Friends (Annoying Orange parody)", and his first appearance in the SC Shorts was in the fourth episode, "Chouder Cheesy Chester Cheez-its".

Biography in the SC Shorts
James first appeared in the episode, "Chouder Cheesy Chester Cheez-its". There, he, Thomas, Toby, and Spencer tried to open a box of Cheez-its, but ended up unsuccessful in the end. Luckily, with the help of James' Tender, Timmy, they managed to get the Cheez-its box opened.

One time, James was jealous of the Flying Scotsman having two tenders. So, he decided to be like him by stealing the tenders from Mike, Spencer, and Big City Engine. This resulted in Thomas scolding at James for what he's been doing, and threatened him that if he didn't return the tenders back to their respective engines, he would tell Sir Topham Hatt. James obeyed and returned the tenders back to their respective engines. He later on got captured by 'Arry and Bert for crashing into them on purpose earlier.

James once competed in a race against Toby, Spencer, Lightning McQueen, 451, and Joseph. During the race he stumbled upon a penny which turned out to be Toby's "lucky penny". After taking it, Toby started to chase James down at top speed. James almost got in first place but ended up in second place due to Toby crashing and surpassing him in the race.

After Thomas told James about the various stunts that he's been doing throughout the past few movies, James got the idea to try and be a stunt engine. He tried doing various and ridiculous stunts such as triggering Toby, ignoring danger signs, riding on top of Jack's bucket, etc.; all ending up with James getting hurt in the end. His last try at being a stunt engine was by jumping off of a cliff. And when he did, he managed to land on the rails perfectly without getting hurt. He then decided to give up on being a stunt engine after seeing how Thomas only had to say something to not get hurt after falling off of the cliff.

On the first day of December, it was E2 Hunting Season for 'Arry and Bert. And since Thomas was the last E2 Class tank engine in the world the two diesels went after him to scrap. However, Thomas tricked them into thinking that it was Class 28 Hunting Season, triggering James to show up and start arguing with him on what season it was. After tricking James into saying that it was Class 28 season, 'Arry and Bert captured James and left Thomas to laugh in triumph.

After overhearing Thomas talking about the palace in India making him feel like royalty, James started to boast to everyone about being a king or a prince. This drove everyone mad, especially Diesel. And after James made a racist remark to him, Diesel came up with a plan to get rid of James. He made a plan to have James think that he was the ancestor of a private engine who once roamed the Island with the Prince of Sodor. He then would lure him into a shed that had a bomb in there and then lock him up so he couldn't get out. This plan almost ended up working if it weren't for Thomas and his friends saving James and stopping Diesel. James soon learnt that being a prince wasn't as good as having friends by your side.

One time while Thomas was on another one of his "big world adventures" to India, James was given the task of doing Thomas' work while he was gone. He didn't have much fun doing it. While out on Thomas' Branch Line, Percy crashed into James and he ended up getting the blame pinned on him when Sir Topham Hatt arrived. Next, he had to take a freight train over to Vicarstown, and he wasn't too pleased about that because he doesn't like pulling freight cars. That night back at the sheds, Sir Topham Hatt gave James a different task to do tommorow, which was to carry big balloons. This didn't please James in the slightest.

After causing a bunch of problems out on the railway one day, Sir Topham Hatt punished James by giving him freight work to do the next day. James didn't like this and soon came with up with a devious plan to trick someone into doing his work while he faked being sick. He settled on Paxton and tricked him into thinking that he was sick and for Paxton to do his work while he went to go and rest. Paxton did so and James went back to Tidmouth Sheds to go and rest. By the end of the day, Paxton had completed all of James' duties, however he hadn't completed his own. Sir Topham Hatt was about to punish Paxton if it weren't for Thomas and Emily revealing to him that James faked being sick the whole time and had tricked Paxton into doing his work. As punishment, Sir Topham Hatt tortured James with his cancerous opera singing.

For Sir Topham Hatt’s birthday, the engines planned to throw him a surprise birthday party. And when settling on what place the engines should have the party at, James and Emily got into a disagreement which later led into a falling out. Diesel and Diesel 10 then got the idea to have the whole island turn on each other by having the engines biff and bash each other around with the thought that someone else had bashed into them, when really it was Diesel. James was one of these victims and was tricked by Diesel into thinking that Emily and Thomas had bumped into him and Gordon. This led into other engines getting tricked by Diesel which later led into a huge engine fight. Luckily, after putting the pieces together, Thomas soon learnt that it was Diesel who really caused the engine fight and then, he later settled things straight with his friends. This included James and Emily making up in the end for their behavior.

After subtly getting the idea from Thomas, James had the idea to throw a station party at Knapford Station. He threw it successfully, but in the end got punished by Sir Topham Hatt for throwing it. And later, he threatened that if he did anything as crazy as that party again, then he would send James off of Sodor.

Throughout the next few days, James would constantly harass and pull pranks on his friends night and day. The engines had enough of this and tried to settle this by sending James to Duck's Anger Management Class in hopes that it would improve James' behavior. There, a hopper car with rabies ran loose and attacked Duck. Luckily, James saved Duck and got the hopper car arrested. James later explained to Duck why he's been acting like a jerk to his friends throughout the last few days. He explained about how after the events of the station party, James would constantly get shamed by the other engines, saying how they got into trouble with Sir Topham Hatt because they attended to the party too. All of the criticism got to James so badly that he thought that the only way for him to forget about it was for him to be mean to his friends back. But it just ended up making James feel even worse about it. But luckily with the help Duck, James learned his lesson and apologized to his friends for his behavior.

After the many accidents to the steam engines on Sodor, Sir Topham Hatt sent Thomas to pick up some engine parts from the Docks and to take them to the Steamworks. While he was waiting for Mike to bring him his brakevan, Diesel placed in Hop in its place and imitated Mike's voice to trick Thomas into thinking it was Mike. Once Thomas came up to the top of Gordon's Hill, the cars started to push Thomas down it causing him to become a runaway. On his way Thomas passed by James. With quick thinking, James raced to Thomas' aid. He tried to couple up to the rear of Hop to try and slow Thomas down, but unfortunately, Hop uncoupled from the train and James was left behind in disbelief.

Sometime later, Sir Topham Hatt had to leave the island on urgent business and left Diesel in charge of the railway. And after finding out Diesel's devious plan to take over Sodor, Spencer and Flying Scotsman assembled Sodor's Finest, which consisted of: Flying Scotsman (leader), Spencer, Thomas, James, Percy, Duck, Paxton, Philip, and Diesel 10.

After escaping a mine full of dynamite, James got trapped inside. But when Thomas and his friends came back to the mines to save him, they noticed that someone had beaten them to get James out of there. They soon learnt from Spencer that James was apart of Diesel's plan. Apparently, Diesel had made a deal to help out Hop the hopper car get back at James for getting him arrested all those months ago. At the Shunting Yards, James was being held captured in an open crate being held up by Cranky. Once the tape gluing the two together gave away, James would fall into a batch of wet cement that would soon dry up and keep James stuck in there forever. Luckily, Thomas and his friends came to the rescue and saved James just before he could get stuck into the cement.

When Class 40 was given a second chance to work on Sir Topham Hatt’s Railway, James wasn't too thrilled about it, and remained suspicious of Class 40; thinking that he was up to something devious. However, his views on Class 40 changed when he had an accident with some freight cars and Class 40 was the engine to help him out when he was derailed. Following this, James finally accepted Class 40 and the two soon became good friends.

For Valentine's Day in 2021, James and Rosie both planned a double date with their lovers, Emily and Thomas. During James and Emily's date, the two of them witnessed Thomas revealing to Rosie that they couldn't be a couple because Thomas is asexual; meaning that he is incapable of liking either gender. Afterwards, Emily then revealed to James that she was asexual leaving James a little disappointed that they couldn't be a couple. But he did feel a little better afterwards when Emily explained the reason why she wasn't interested in him in that way, and said that the two of them could still be good friends.

Personality
James is very proud of his splendid red paintwork. He dislikes pulling freight cars and believes that he should only pull coaches. He is so self-centered that he thinks himself superior to the others and can be shallow, boastful, sexist, overconfident, arrogant, prideful, racist, naughty, and vain, particularly to those who appear old-fashioned, weak, slow, or dirty. In most cases, it takes scolding from others to make his dignity drop, and even then it is too late to prevent trouble. He has acted like this even before he was repainted red. However, on a number of occasions, he has found himself in need of help from those whom he has insulted and is, in the end, apologetic.

James has also been potrayed as a prankster, often tricking or scaring the other engines for fun or to get out of jobs he dislikes doing. Such as placing a sleepy Gordon in the middle of some freight cars, or throwing a lot of cars in Edward's face so he doesn't have to do work.

Trivia

 * James has the second most amount of appearances in the SC Shorts.
 * James has appeared in every SC Short from 2019 and 2020 and has spoken in every episode from both years, except for "Thomas Vs Duck" where he just makes a cameo appearance.
 * James revealed in the end of "There's Something Strange On Sodor Today" that he's bisexual, implying that he likes both genders.
 * Up until the end of "Double Date", James had a crush on Emily, despite her not being interested in him.
 * James' tender, Timmy, only ever spoke in one episode, "Chouder Cheesy Chester Cheez-its."
 * James' Wooden Railway models had gone through several aesthetic changes in the SC Shorts.
 * In "The Gay Race" James was given painted buffers, painted coupling, white dots on his pupils, and silver handrails.
 * In "James the Splendid Stupid Stuck-up Stunt Engine", he was given a white footplate.
 * In "Scarlet Fire" he was given painted lamp irons.
 * In "Thomas's Epic Thanksgiving Special Part 1", he was given golden handrails on his cab and tender, and rivets on his smokebox.
 * In "James' Day Out", he was given rivets on his running board, boiler, cab, and tender, and a tail lamp and rear lining on the back of his tender.
 * In "Duck Gets Lost", the Learning Curve Wooden Railway James model got replaced by a 2013 Mattel Wooden Railway James model.
 * A recurring catchphrase in the series, "aw phooey", is most often used by James.