Edward is very kind-hearted, mature, wise and keen to help a friend in need. The small engines trust him to lend a listening ear and sympathetic advice. He is a hard worker too and always does his best to finish a job. Edward has also been the voice of reason to misguided engines. If ever an engine misbehaves or acts out, it is Edward that the Fat Controller turns to in order to soothe things out. As he runs a branch line, Edward knows the responsibilities it takes to be successful doing so, including shunting. This sometimes puts him at odds with Gordon, James and Henry, who firmly believed that tender engines are too important for menial jobs such as shunting. Because of this, Edward found himself treated harshly for his shunting duties until Sir Topham Hatt shut the big engines up in their sheds. Unfortunately, the big engines, especially Gordon, often see Edward as old-fashioned and slow. While it is true he is one of the oldest engines on the North Western Railway (which he helped build), he has proved time and time again that he is more than capable of working as hard as any engine. He and BoCo have been the only engines who can look after Bill and Ben and know how to put them in their place should they misbehave. Like any otherwise old engine, he stands for no nonsense from anyone, especially from the bigger engines. Even with all his years of patience, Edward can grow impatient with engines who cause trouble, especially Bill and Ben. He can be very canny in dealing with these engines when he has to be, as he managed to pull off an elaborate scheme to give Bill and Ben a taste of their own medicine. Edward is also not above indulging in certain levels of mischief; he laughed when he first saw Thomas wake Gordon with his whistle, and went in with Thomas’ plan of teaching Gordon a lesson with the same level of slyness and smugness as the tank engine himself, particularly when Gordon was forced to beg Edward for a push.