Duncan/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Duncan is a fictional Scottish narrow gauge welltank locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is the No.6 engine on the Skarloey Railway.

He first appeared in the Railway Series book, The Little Old Engine, which was published in 1959. His last appearance was in New Little Engine, published in 1996.

''Front of Duncan:

Television Series
In 1995, Duncan was introduced in Season 4 of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The season placed a great focus on him and the other Narrow Gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books televised. All the Skarloey Railway steam engines were painted red with blue lining in the Railway Series (bare Duke). However, in order to make it easier for the viewer to identify each engine from one another, Duncan was painted golden yellow with black and gold lining.

Duncan appeared throughout Season 4 to Season 7. The narrow gauge engines took a full absence in 2004, but returned the following year in Season 9.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for 3 years. Unlike like the original 5 Skarloey Railway engines, Duncan did not return in the 2012 special Blue Mountain Mystery. However, he was mentioned in the sixteenth season episode, Don't Bother Victor!. In 2014, Duncan made his return in Season 18. Since Season 19, the Skarloey Railway has been underutilised, this may be due to the fact that Mattel, the current owner's of the Thomas franchise, have deemed them too obscure.

In almost all English speaking narrations, Duncan has a Scottish accent; reflecting his basis' origins. However, in the narration of the fifth season, Alec Baldwin protrayed Duncan with a British accent and gave him a gruff American accent in the following season. From Spring 2014 onwards, Duncan is now currently voiced by Tom Stourton (UK/US) in the CGI version of the series on both sides of the Atlantic, respectively. Tom Stourton maintains a Scottish accent for the character.

Awdry's model
The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built an OO9 scale model of Duncan. The model was made from a GEM Douglas kit. Duncan's model is now on display at the Narrow Gauge Museum in Tywyn, Wales, UK located near the Talyllyn Railway along with the other Skarloey Railway engines and rolling stock .

O gauge model (Small scale)
Duncan's small model was custom built from brass by model maker, Peter Eves to run on O gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard during production of Season 4. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with gold and black Letraline pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed foil stickers.

Duncan's wheels were sourced from Slater's 10 spoke Wantage Tramway wheels. These wheels were used on an O gauge locomotive chassis. All the narrow gauge steam engine side rods were sourced from old OO scale Triang models and modified slightly to fit. These rods did not fit well at all and the engines ran notoriously bad behind the scenes. The buffers were sourced from Slater's Plasticard as well, with most engines using the square based short sprung buffers.

There were 8 different facial expressions worn by Duncan on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. Duncan's happy face mask is now owned by Twitter user {{ThomasTankMerch{{Ref|"A Guide to the Faces"}}.

The model had a motor to power it mounted inside the chassis as well as an eye mechanism. There was no room to fit a smoke mechanism or the battery and receiver needed for the R/C eyes. Wires connecting to the battery, servo and receiver were usually hidden off camera or carried in rolling stock behind the engine. The eye mechanism used servos mounted in the cab; the servos were hidden by blacking out the cab doors and windows. Metal rods went from the servos in the cab to a bracket in the smoke box behind the faceplate, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. This limited the range of movement of the eyes as well as being cumbersome and jamming often. Although the model did not produce smoke, smoke was released from the set under them. The smoke tended to drift out the funnel to create the illusion as if they do for a brief moment.

Nearly all drivers and firemen for the small scale locomotives were cut down the middle and black tacked to the engines' cab because the electric motors would not allow them to stand half in the cabs{{Ref|name=Robert|"Robert Gauld-Galliers' interview with Sodor Island Fansite"}}.

The small scale Duncan model was predominantly used in the fourth season. It was used in the fifth season for in between shots where they would interact with the gauge 1 scaled characters and sets.

O gauge model (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, Season 5 introduce larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines, and from Season 6-12, Duncan's large model was used exclusively. The larger-scale models were built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and ran on O gauge track. They were close to 16mm scale, but slightly larger.

The model makers were unimpressed with the original large scale Duncan model used in Season 5, due to it having inaccurate proportions compared to it's small scale counterpart. The production team decided to build a new one come Season 6.

There were 14 different facial expressions worn by Duncan on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. The model was made from brass. The wheels and chassis were custom machined (CNC). The model was track powered, so pickup contacts were attached to the metal wheels, which ran into the motor to power it. The electricity ran from the track to the wheels/pickup contacts and went into the motor to power him. The model was also fitted with a smoke unit.

Close-up model
A larger scale model of Duncan was built in the fourth season. It was required for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures.

It was also used for close-up whistle shots; smoke would emit both from the whistle when required. The model did not have a visible whistle until the sixth season episode, Faulty Whistles, which centered around Duncan loosing his whistle.

Most of the close-up scale models did not have faces seeing as most of the time the models were not complete on top of the fact the faces would never need to be seen in this scale.

Unlike his both his O gauge models, Duncan's front and back cutout windows had glass.

It appeared in the fourth, sixth, seventh, and twelfth seasons.

The close-up model underwent a few changes throughout the television series. These include:
 * Season 6:
 * Added whistle.
 * Cab is less weathered.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Duncan was recreated from scratch in CGI by Arc Productions in 2014 for production of Season 18. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

During production of Blue Mountain Mystery, Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway to take measurements and photographs of the locomotives to use for referencing of the Skarloey engine's CGI models. Unfortunately, Duncan's basis, Douglas, was having an overhaul and could not be measured, hence why Duncan was absent from the series until Season 18.

When Duncan officially returned, his CGI render was based off his original television model. Because of this, he is the only narrow gauge engine to have brake pipes, not to have a Talyllyn styled tail lamp and not to directly resemble his basis. Furthermore, Duncan's CGI model is not necessarily accurate and does not have the same proportions to his previous model era counterparts.

Duncan has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Season 18:
 * Smaller in size than both his original model and his basis.
 * Red running board.
 * Permanent lamp, lamp irons, brakepipes and outlets.
 * Slightly thinner funnel.
 * Slightly smaller dome and windows.
 * Smaller boiler and coal bunkers.
 * The brass pipe connecting to his dome became thinner.
 * Brass nameplates.
 * Shorter and wider sand dome.
 * Sanding gear under the cab.
 * Riveting under his coal bunker and on his smokebox.
 * His coupling hooks gained a grey base with rivets.
 * His buffer housings shape changed back to square.
 * The lining on his cab and bunkers became outdented and unpainted.
 * His cutout windows gained frames and glass.
 * His eyes, eyebrows, nose and chin returned to how they were in the fourth season.

Voice Actors

 * Tom Stourton (UK/US; eighteenth season onwards)
 * Ryōichi Tanaka (Japan; fourth - seventh seasons)
 * Chikara Osaka (Japan; ninth season onwards, excluding the twentieth season)
 * Nobuaki Kanemitsu (Japan; twentieth season only)
 * Krzysztof Szczerbiński (Poland; eighteenth season onwards, excluding Emily Saves the World)
 * Grzegorz Kwiecień (Poland; Emily Saves the World only)
 * Stig Henrik Hoff (Norway; eighteenth season onwards)
 * Paul Disbergen (The Netherlands)
 * Fabrice Trojani (France and French speaking Canada)
 * Óscar Flores (Latin America; eighteenth season only)
 * Rafael Pacheco (Latin America; twentieth season onwards)
 * Cosmin Petruț (Romania)
 * Martin May (Germany; eighteenth season only)