Timi Taurus

Everyone knows him and everyone likes him. Always punctual and dutiful, he is a role model for us all.

Which doesn't exactly make his life easy. Although he loves the attention he receives, meeting all the demands placed on him is a heavy responsibility. It's a blessing that he has such great friends. He probably wouldn't manage without them. It’s not always possible to please everyone. That's something that Jack has yet to learn.

His many fans make him very self-confident - maybe even a little bit arrogant. It's just as well that his best friends, Gustav and Piti, keep his feet on the ground. However, he doesn't like it at all when his pal Piti flirts with Nora, as he has a crush on her himself. Oh Nora... so self-assured and bold... will he ever be able to capture her heart? Unfortunately, he is an early riser and Nora is a night train, which means they usually miss seeing each other.

Shadows, ghosts, spiders, bats, mouldy ruins - what frightens most people is a source of delight for Nora.

Driving her passengers peacefully and safely through the night is, needless to say, a matter of honour.

With Nora in charge, none of the children have nightmares. She knows how to chase away bad dreams.

She uses her expert knowledge of ghost stories to dispel any fears. Much to her dismay, however, she has never encountered anything supernatural, but Nora has still not given up hope.

Her constant companions are Bubu, the owl, and Luziferia (Luzi for short), the bat.The two of them stick with her through thick and thin. Bubu is a slightly overweight layabout. Luciferia, on the other hand, likes to cause mischief.

Nora is a night train, which is why she sleeps during the day. This makes it somewhat difficult to stay in touch with the other trains. But she doesn't mind, because she has Bubu and Luzi.

Jana is, in short, simply stunning.

Elegant, distinguished and clever, she charms everyone she meets. She's also very practical:her handbag contains everything you could possibly need, be it lipstick, a tissue or a drill. How does she do it, you ask? No idea - you'll have to ask her yourself.

Jana loves puzzles and is a keen amateur detective. She solves every case thanks to her brilliant mind. Her greatest role model is Sherlock Holmes. She is also a master of disguise and deception.

As quirky as Teacher Dampf may be, Jana always likes to get advice from the old instructor. She also gets on very well with her cousin Jack and she too appreciates Didi's brilliant mind.

Gustav is a freight train, which means no job is too difficult for him. He is an unshakeable optimist. Where others become stressed, he approaches things with a calm and level-headed attitude. That's why the other trains are happy to seek advice from him.

Gustav loves country and blues music.

He is a fan of the early 19th century, a time when trains were still at the forefront of technology.

That's why his train shed looks like a small museum.

An antique cannon stands in his front garden, which he loves to fire on every suitable and unsuitable occasion. Unfortunately, the old cannon is broken. As a result, there is only a loud bang, followed by a cannonball that rolls gently out of the barrel. This annoys Gustav greatly, but amuses the train children enormously.

When he's not exercising to stay in shape for his work, he loves to spend his evenings around the campfire with his best friends Jack and Piti.

Piti loves the country life.

Since he is not a train, he does not live in a train shed like the others. He runs a small organic farm nearby. There he looks after a few chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, a stubborn old billy goat and a retired draught horse. And not forgetting his cat and dog, of course.

Piti is the leader of the scout group and often goes on outings with the train children. With him they learn everything they need to survive in the wilderness and how to conduct themselves properly in a natural environment.

Piti has an inexhaustible supply of bad jokes at the ready (that's not to say the jokes are grotty) but the train kids still find them hilarious.  

He is a daredevil and likes to flirt a lot with Jana and Nora.

He likes to spend his free evenings with Jack and Gustav, packed snugly around the campfire.

Where to begin, I wonder? You could be forgiven for thinking that Teacher Dampf has a few screws loose... or does he simply see things from a different perspective?

The fact is that everyone admires Teacher Dampf very much. He is the village elder, so to speak.

His wisdom is beyond dispute.

"Do this..." and "Do that..." are words you will never hear from him. Teacher Dampf is a storyteller. He offers anecdotes rather than answers. As absurd as these may seem at first, they actually make sense in the end.
These stories are often about fantastic adventures from his youth. Whether they can be believed or not... well... in the end it's only the result that counts, right?

Despite his quirky nature, or perhaps because of it, Teacher Dampf is an ideal mentor, passing on not only knowledge but social skills too.