Diesel/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Diesel is a fictional standard gauge diesel locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry.

He first appeared in the Railway Series book, Duck and the Diesel Engine, which was published in 1958. His last appearance was in Thomas and the Evil Diesel, published in 1987.

Diesel is based on the BR Class 08.

The Television Series
Diesel reprises his roles from the book Duck and the Diesel Engine in the second series. He has also appeared in original stories written by various writters.

Up until the sixth series, stories focusing on Diesel usually involved him causing trouble and being sent away for it. However, since the seventh series, Diesel has not had any form of acknowledgment that he belonged to the Other Railway and has remained on the North Western Railway ever since. His usually plays the role as the antagonist or the bully in each episode he appears in, eventually building him up as the main antagonist of the series.

Gauge 1 model
Diesel’s 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 glossy car body paint.

Diesel’s wheels were sourced from a gauge 1 locomotive made by Märklin, the BR 80. The bufferbeam and stepladders was sourced from the DHG 500. The coupling chain was made by Tenmille.

12 different facial expressions were worn by Diesel on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. One of Diesel's production made face masks is now owned by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch.

The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired.

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

Photographs of Diesel’s Gauge 1 model were used for referencing. According to 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.

Diesel has had modifications throughout the CGI series. These include:
 * Series 13:
 * His lamp disappeared.
 * Misty Island Rescue:
 * His horn sound changed to that of a generic "American" Nathan K3LA diesel.
 * Day of the Diesels:
 * His horn sound changed back to its original sound.
 * Series 19:
 * He gained a headlamp above his face.
 * His coupling chain became red.
 * He gained a permanent tail lamp.
 * Series 20:
 * His coupling chain changed back to black.

CGI Testing Model
A CGI Diesel model appeared in the CGI test of the episode Thomas and the Stinky Cheese. The testing model's face was re-used for one of The Mainland Diesels.

Voice Actors

 * Kerry Shale (UK; thirteenth series onwards, US; nineteenth series onwards)
 * Michael Brandon (US; thirteenth series - Blue Mountain Mystery)
 * Martin Sherman (US; King of the Railway - eighteenth series)
 * Jorge Ornelas (Latin America; thirteenth series onwards)
 * Daisuke Gōri (Japan; second - eighth series, excluding the sixth series)
 * Hisao Egawa (Japan; sixth series only)
 * Ken Sanders (Japan; Calling All Engines! onwards)
 * Shinichi Ishihara (Japan; singing voice)
 * Paweł Galia (Poland; thirteenth series only)
 * Janusz Wituch (Poland; Misty Island Rescue onwards)
 * Christoffer Staib (Norway; thirteenth series - sixteenth series, excluding Day of the Diesels and Blue Mountain Mystery)
 * Helge Winther Larsen (Norway; Day of the Diesels - seventeenth series, excluding the fifteenth and sixteenth series)
 * Martin May (Germany; thirteenth series onwards)
 * Christian Rudolf (Germany; Audio Books only)
 * Reinder van der Naalt (The Netherlands)
 * Anibal Munhoz (Brazil)
 * Jorge Teixeira (Spain; thirteenth series - nineteenth series)
 * Adolfo Pastor (Spain; The Great Race onwards)
 * Michel Lasorne (France and French speaking Canada; eighth - twelfth series)
 * Fabrice Trojani (France and French speaking Canada; thirteenth series onwards)
 * Gadi Levy (Israel, fifteenth series only)
 * Dor Srugo (Israel; seventeenth - twentieth series)
 * Yoli Seker (Israel; twentieth series onwards)
 * Petri Hanttu (Finland; Misty Island Rescue onwards)
 * Quổc Tín (Vietnam)
 * Alexander Kotov (Russia)
 * Bohdan Tůma (Czech Republic; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Vina Papadopoulou﻿ (Greece; second - eleventh series)
 * Haris Grigoropoulos (Greece; thirteenth series onwards)