Ashima

Ashima is a brightly-painted Indian tank engine, who works on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. She was one out of many engines to participate in the Great Railway Show, and competed in the Shunting Challenge, and of whom Thomas is very close friends with.

Thomas & Friends
Ashima was invited to participate in the Great Railway Show for the Shunting Challenge. She, along with the other eleven contestants for the show, came to Sodor by mistake when the ferry they were on accidentally stopped at Sodor instead of England, and she was accidentally left behind when the ferry left with all the other engines except her. Ashima, lost and not knowing the way to the Mainland, tried to ask Thomas for his help, but Thomas, who was already jealous of her, refused to assist her. Ashima soon managed to befriend Thomas, and she convinced him that he did not need to change for the competition, and suggested that he participate in the Shunting Challenge, but Thomas was involved in an accident which put him out of the competition. Ashima was taken to the Mainland with the other Sudrian engines who would be competing in the Great Railway Show.

After arriving and watching the Best Decorated Engine parade, Ashima was questioned by Emily on why she did not compete, revealing to the Sudrian engines she would compete in the Shunting Challenge. She does so alongside Ivan, Raul, Gina and Thomas, who had managed to arrive to the Great Railway Show after all and took Percy's place. During the race, she helped Thomas hold Vinnie back when he was bullying Philip, and also pulled Thomas back when a pylon nearly fell on him. During the end of the competition, Ashima ended up winning after Thomas sacrificed his own chance to win when he spotted a derailed flatbed on her track, but the judges made the both of them the winners of the competition. Ashima returned to Sodor with the Sudrian engines, where she would then return back to India.

Some time later, Thomas visited Ashima in her homeland of India, where he spent some time working on the Indian Railway. While there, he was formally introduced to Rajiv, whom he had not had a chance to meet back at The Great Railway Show, and learnt from Ashima about how elephants used to help out in the yards when the engines were busy. He later found her waiting for a cow that was fast asleep on the tracks in front of her to wake up and move, not wanting to disturb it due to how cows were sacred in India. She later arrived to find that Thomas had suffered a minor derailment as Rajiv had shown up with the Indian Breakdown Cranes, but Thomas explained that a female elephant helped him back on the tracks. Ashima recognized the elephant as an old friend, Trusty Trunky, whom had helped her previously, and shared a laugh with Thomas and Rajiv after Trusty Trunky hosed the mud off Thomas, splashing Rajiv a bit in the process.

She was later at the station as it was being used to film a Bollywood movie, and learnt that her Controller, Charubala, and the film's director, had asked Thomas to take the lead actor to the site of the next scenes to be filmed. Before that, Thomas inquired as to what a Bollywood movie was, and Ashima explained how it is India's version of the movies filmed in Hollywood in the United States. She was also in awe when Rajiv revealed he was performing in the movie as well. Thomas later daydreamed of himself saving Ashima from plunging off a broken bridge, with Ashima calling him a hero for it.

When Thomas learned that tigers lived in India and were a part of Noor Jehan's Jungle Tours, Ashima assured him that the tigers were not dangerous as they were known to run away from people and were very rarely seen. Thomas later learned from Shankar that this was due to protecting them from poachers.

Persona
Ashima is usually found working on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Southern India, where the steep incline makes the track very dangerous and difficult to climb. So it's no wonder that a small tank engine like Ashima shows no fear. Beautifully crafted with hand painted decal, Ashima is a fun, feisty and likeable engine who is more than happy to help out wherever and whenever needed.

Basis
Ashima is based on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway X class. She is based off of the oil-burning version of the engine. These engines are built to run on metre gauge rails, whereas Ashima is standard gauge.​​​​

Livery
Ashima is painted hot pink with white and royal blue lining. Her wheels, whistle and bufferbeam are also painted hot pink, royal blue and she bears several bright green, white and orange patterns, inspired by Indian textiles and Henna Tattoos. In addition, the flower petal designs on her front cylinder block was based on her basis X-37385's.

Appearances
She will appear in the twenty-fourth season.
 * Season 22 - Trusty Trunky, Thomas Goes to Bollywood and Tiger Trouble
 * Season 23 - Shankar's Makeover, Grudge Match (stock footage cameo) and Crowning Around

Specials

 * 2016 - The Great Race
 * 2020 - The Secret of the Cave Treasure

Music Videos

 * The Great Race - You Can Only Be You and Be Who You Are, and Go Far
 * Series 22 - The Journey Never Ends, Set Friendship in Motion, All the Girls Around the World and Let's Dream
 * The Secret of the Cave Treasure - I'm Alive and Take Me To The Other Side

Learning Segments

 * Guess Who? Puzzles (does not speak)

Videos

 * 2016 - Ashima of India (does not speak)
 * 2017 - Ashima Helps Rajiv
 * 2018 - Thomas and the Brownlow Medal (cameo), Meet Ashima of India!, Meet Rajiv of India! (cameo), Animals Around the World (cameo), What Did Thomas Learn In India?
 * 2020 - Nia's Get Out of Me Ear Experience

Voice Actors

 * Tina Desai (UK/US)
 * Naomi Watanabe (Japan; The Great Race)
 * Misa Ishii (Japan; Season 22-present)
 * Julia Kołakowska-Bytner (Poland)
 * Annie Rojas (Latin America)
 * Manuela Bäcker (Germany; The Great Race only)
 * Franziska Lessing (Germany; Season 22-present)
 * Csuha Borbala (Hungary)

Trivia

 * Her name means "without borders/limitless" in Hindi.
 * Despite the fact she is based on an oil-burning tank engine (and has an oil tank on top of her boiler), Ashima still uses coal to make steam.
 * Ashima has been partially modified to work on British railways; she has been given buffers and chain couplers, and her cowcatcher has been reduced in size and lowered to accommodate these.
 * The Cuban dock workers' models from Blue Mountain Mystery were reused as her crew.
 * She is the only returning international character from The Great Race to retain the same voice actor from her debut. Yong Bao never spoke during said film and was given an actor for the first time in Big World! Big Adventures!. Carlos and Raul were recast since The Great Race and Rajiv and Shane were originally cast in Series 22.

Merchandise

 * Wooden Railway (discontinued)
 * Take-n-Play (discontinued)
 * Collectible Railway
 * Capsule Plarail
 * Adventures (discontinued)
 * Wood (redesigned in 2019)
 * TrackMaster (normal and hyper glow)
 * Motor Road and Rail (powered and unpowered)
 * Motorized Railway
 * TrackMaster Push Along
 * Minis