Toby/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Toby is a fictional steam tram locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. Toby lives and works on the North Western Railway as their No.7 engine.

He first appeared in the Railway Series book, Toby the Tram Engine, which was published in 1952. His last appearance was in Thomas and his Friends, published in 2011.

Front of Toby:

Toby is based on the GER Class C53 0-6-0T Wisbech steam tram.

The idea for Toby came to the Rev. W. Awdry in 1951, during his family's annual summer holiday in Gorleston, Norfolk. Wilbert and Christopher Awdry were wandering around nearby Great Yarmouth when they came upon a dilapidated tram engine, became friends with its crew and took some photographs of it. Both father and son were intrigued by what Wilbert would later describe as a "funny little engine with a queer shape". When the holiday was over, Wilbert began looking for ways to incorporate a tram engine into the Railway Series.

Further inspiration came shortly afterwards from another tram engine. The Rev. Teddy Boston arranged for Wilbert to ride the footplate of one of the last surviving Wisbech and Upwell Tramway J70 class tram engines. Wilbert was fascinated by the stories he heard about the tram engines, some of which he later incorporated into a series of articles about remarkable railways.

Wilbert considered authenticity vitally important and had his brother, George Awdry, research into a realistic way to incorporate Toby on Sodor. George researched into details of tramway regulations and came up with the solution of Thomas falling foul of the law on the Quarry Tramroad. Needing an engine that complies with the regulations, he sent for Toby. Wilbert incorporated his and Christopher's first encounter with a tram engine into the story by having the Fat Controller and his family discover Toby while on holiday.

It is of note that Wilbert wanted to go on holiday to Tywyn in 1951, but Margaret Awdry had already booked the holiday to Gorleston. Had Wilbert visited Tywyn that year, it is possible Toby would never have been created in the Railway Series.

Television Series
Toby was introduced in the television series in 1984 when the first series premiered and has appeared in every series since.

In the eighth series, Toby was among the members of the Steam Team, the main cast of eight central characters. However, following the twenty-second series, Toby's role in the Steam Team seemed to become demoted to be less prominant in order to fix the gender imbalance of the main cast and diversify of the Thomas & Friends franchise. Unlike Edward and Henry, who were removed from the Steam Team in favor for Nia and Rebecca to join, Toby's spot was not filled by a new member and he is still mentioned in the updated Engine Roll Call song. He continues to appear as a major supporting character.

Awdry's model
Wilbert began constructing his Ffarquhar Branch layout in 1955 at Emneth Vicarage. He constructed a model of Toby to go with earlier models he had made of Thomas and Percy. While Toby is based upon the 0-6-0 J70 class, Awdry based his model on the earlier, but very similar, 0-4-0 Y6 class, which was better suited for the four-wheeled motor-bogie he used to power the model. Since the last Y6 tram had been scrapped in 1952 and Wilbert had never seen one, Wilbert created his Toby with the help of old photographs and blueprints supplied by the Eastern Region's Stratford Works. This model, made in card and plywood, would last until 1979 when it went "into preservation".

The Toby model was very popular at the Wisbech Trades Fair, where Wilbert first displayed his layout, due to being based on a local engine. In 1959, the magazine Railway Modeller published detailed instructions by Wilbert for building a model of Toby in a "Railway Modeller Shows You How!" section.

By 1965, a spare Toby was required and this was built from a Keyser kit of the J70. It was powered by a Keyser motor bogie which, after ten years, was not performing as well as it should, so a third Toby was made from a Keyser kit for the body, mounted on a cut down Tri-ang Nellie chassis.

Gauge 1 model
Toby's original model was custom built with a perspex body shell and used a Märklin locomotive as a donor for the chassis and various parts. It was painted using automotive paint and weathering to give a wood look. The numbers were custom cut vinyl stickers.

Toby's chassis was sourced from a gauge 1 locomotive made by Märklin, the BR 80. The wheels and side rods were red (not repainted from the original colour of the BR 80) in the first five series. The bell also came from the BR 80, while the bufferbeams were sourced from the tender of a BR 55.

Toby's original model was originally AC powered as this is how the Märklin locomotives were powered. During a refurbishment his AC motor was replaced by a DC motor to allow for easier running and maintenance.

Close-up model
A close-up model of Toby was built to be used for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures.

The model was made in pieces so it was able to be dismantled and reassembled for use of interior shots if required. Most of the close-up scale of engines made to this scale were usually not built as complete models, however Toby was.

It appeared in the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eleventh and twelfth series.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Toby was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Photographs of Toby's gauge 1 model were used for referencing. According Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.

Toby went through several aesthetic changes in the CGI series:
 * Hero of the Rails:
 * His side-rods and pistons disappeared.
 * His bell sound changed to be similar to the one that Flora uses.
 * His cabs appear to be blackened out.
 * He has decreased in size and is the same height as Henrietta.
 * His face became more thicker and blocky.

Voice Actors

 * Colm Feore (Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * Ben Small  (UK; Hero of the Rails - eighteenth series)
 * Rob Rackstraw (UK; nineteenth series onwards)
 * William Hope (US; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Yasuhiko Kawazu (Japan; first - eighth series)
 * Tomohiro Tsuboi (Japan; ninth series onwards )
 * Espen Sandvik (Norway; Hero of the Rails - seventeenth series)
 * Herman López (Latin America, Hero of the Rails - Ryan and Daisy, excluding Thomas the Babysitter and Toby's New Friend)
 * Daniel Abundis (Latin America; Thomas the Babysitter onwards, excluding Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure and Ryan and Daisy)
 * Rolando de Castro (Latin America; Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * César Árias (Latin America; Thomas and the Magic Railroad; TV Version)
 * Jürgen Theuns (The Netherlands)
 * Tom Deininger (Germany; Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * Volker Hanisch (Germany; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Franz Josef Steffens (Germany; Audio Book 4 only)
 * Andreas von der Meden (Germany; Audio Book 7-16 only)
 * Mieczysław Morański (Poland, Hero of the Rails onwards, excluding Marion and the Dinosaurs)
 * Jarosław Domin (Poland; Marion and the Dinosaurs only)
 * Albert Cohen (Israel; Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * Gadi Levy (Israel)
 * Fadulli Costa (Brazil; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Miguel Ángel Poison (Spain)
 * Sacha Pilara (Italy)
 * Michel Lasorne (France and French speaking Canada; eighth - twelfth series)
 * Bernard Demory (France and French speaking Canada; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Petri Hanttu (Finland; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Hristo Dimitrov (Bulgarian; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Vladimir Antonik (Russia, thirteenth - sixteenth series and Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure)
 * Denis Bespaliy (Russia; King of the Railway onwards, except Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure)
 * Haris Grigoropoulos (Greece)
 * Um Sang-hyun (South Korea)