Edward/Behind the Scenes

Inspiration
The inspiration for Edward himself came from the Reverend W. Awdry's watching trains on the Great Western Railway as a child. He said in an interview with Brian Sibley for The Thomas the Tank Engine Man that, to him, the noise of the locomotives' exhaust almost sounded like dialogue - for example, the larger engine having trouble climbing the hills would appear to be saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it" and the smaller engine helping them would sound like it was saying, "I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!" Later, the Reverend Awdry told his son a bedtime story about an engine who was sad because he was never taken out of the shed for being old. Upon being asked what the engine's name was by his son, the Reverend Awdry picked the name Edward out of thin air.

Awdry's model
He still regains his sparkling blue paint and design in the tv series, only an eye mechanisam and a face mask, to show his feelings.

Thomas & the Magic Railroad
Edward was not in any known draft of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. According to Phil Fehrle, there was not enough screen time and opportunity to utilise him in a way that added any real value to the film. He was the only engine from the original 7 engines created by Awdry not to appear.

Voice Actors

 * Keith Wickham (UK; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * William Hope (US; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Mark Moraghan (A Friendly Farewell)
 * Yasuhiro Takato (Japan; first - eighth seasons)
 * Nozomu Sasaki (Japan; Calling All Engines! onwards)
 * Øyvind Borgemoen Lyse (Norway; Hero of the Rails - Tale of the Brave)
 * Herman López (Latin America; Hero of the Rails - Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure; excluding Tale of the Brave)
 * Javier Olguín (Latin America; Victor Says Yes and The Missing Christmas Decorations; one phrase as an error)
 * Gustavo Melgarejo (Latin America; twentieth season onwards)
 * Christos Topulos (Germany)
 * Henry König (Germany; Audio Books only)
 * Wojciech Chorąży (Poland; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Fabrice Trojani (France and French speaking Canada)
 * Petteri Hynönen (Finland; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Reinder van der Naalt (The Netherlands)
 * Dan Schatzberg (Israel)
 * Celso Alves (Brazil; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Jordi Estupiña (Spain)
 * Anh Tuấn (Vietnam)
 * Alexander Kotov (Russia; thirteenth - sixteenth seasons)
 * Denis Bespalyy (Russia; King of the Railway - eighteenth season)
 * Anton Savenkov (Russia; nineteenth season onwards)
 * Um Sang-hyun (South Korea)
 * Loukas Frangoulis (Greece)