Augustus "Cole Train" Cole is a fictional character in the Gears of War media franchise. He first appeared in the first video game of the series as a supporting character, and has since appeared in some capacity for every mainline and spin-off installment of the Gears of War franchise. Cole is voiced by Lester Speight in all of his video game appearances.

Within the series, Cole is a former star athlete in his youth who participated in humanity's war with the Locust Horde on the planet Sera by enlisting with the Coalition of Ordered Governments ("COG"), a supranational and intergovernmental military collective who are the dominant human political force on Sera. Cole has spent most of his military career alongside his close friend, Damon Baird; unlike Baird and most of Cole's teammates, who are often dour or cynical in temperament, he is usually depicted as a vibrant, enthusiastic character known for his brash humor and infectious energy.

While Cole has earned a mostly positive reception and is noted as a fan-favorite character, some critics have accused him of being a racial stereotype. The character was the subject of legal action launched by Lenwood Hamilton, a former National Football League player who claimed that his publicity rights was infringed upon because the video game character had a number of features he alleged were identified with him or his public persona. Various merchandise for the character, as with other of the series' characters, has been released.

Cole is named after Phil Cole, a level designer at Epic Games. Cole is concepted as an ex-professional player of Thrashball, a contact sport heavily inspired by American football, prior to the events of the video game series. Cole and Baird's roles were originally reversed, with David Beckham as the inspiration for Baird as a sports star. Former The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson revealed in an interview that Cole was originally going to be named "Gus the Bus", but the developers were concerned that they would infringe on the nickname of a Pittsburgh Steelers football player who matched the Bus reference; as a result, the studio went with the name "Cole Train" instead. Fergusson noted that players would be able to pick up references about "Gus" if they have played the original game as John DiMaggio, Marcus Fenix's voice actor, was instructed to say the "Gus" line with Cole, but the studio did not do much more from a dialogue perspective. The development team later used Jamie Foxx's character from the sports drama movie Any Given Sunday as Cole's archetype.

For Gears of War 3, Cole was originally meant to play a more prominent role; players were supposed to be able to swap between Fenix and Cole throughout the progression of the single player campaign. Cole has a daughter named Hana who first appears in the Hivebusters comic series to support the eponymous squad in their endeavours. The developers originally intended for Hana to appear in the main campaign of Gears 5, but due to story changes during the game's development, her character no longer fit into its narrative; instead, she is redesigned as a scientist who develops a method for infiltrating and destroying enemy Swarm Hives from within in the spin-off Hivebusters comic, which takes place in parallel with the events of Gears 5.

Cole is Lester Speight's first role in the video game industry. Speight said the character's popularity led to many fans identifying him as Cole, and they would regularly express their excitement towards him and his work via social media sites, websites and in person. Dan Ryckert from Game Informer have noted the real-life resemblance of Speight, a former footballer, to his character, commenting that "casting choices don't get much easier than this".

In Gears of War, Cole and Baird are first encountered by Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago as the surviving members of Alpha Squad. Cole joined Delta Squad after the rest of Alpha Squad is confirmed to be killed in action, and he would remain with Delta Squad throughout the original Gears of War trilogy. He is well known as a sports celebrity in Sera for his career as a Thrashball player prior to "Emergence Day", when the Locust Horde first emerged from their subterranean lairs to wage a genocidal war of attrition against humanity 14 years before the events of the first and eponymous video game of the series. In the Gears of War 3 single player campaign, Cole is a playable character from Act One, Chapter 3 until the beginning of Act Two, where he leads a small force to search for supplies in his hometown of Hanover. In Gears of War: Judgement, a prequel set a few months after Emergence Day, Cole appears as one of the game's playable protagonists and a member of Kilo Squad along with squad leader Baird, Onyx Guard cadet Sofia Hendrick and former UIR soldier Garron Paduk.

By the events of Gears of War 4, which is set more than two decades after the conclusion of the war with the Locust Horde, Cole is regarded by the public as a respected war veteran. He appears in the opening sequence of the game with Victor Hoffman and Samantha Byrne during a speech by COG First Minister Jinn. He appears in the last act to aid Marcus and his son J.D., along with their associates Kait Diaz and Delmont "Del" Walker. He also appears in Gears 5 as part of the war effort against the Swarm, the successor to the original Locust Horde. Cole has remained at the rank of private throughout his entire military career as he has rejected every military promotion that has been offered, under the grounds that having rank is not going to affect how many enemies he can kill.