Duncan/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Duncan is a fictional Scottish narrow gauge tank locomotive working on the Skarloey Railway created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He first appeared in the Railway Series book, The Little Old Engine, which was published in 1959.

Duncan is based on the Talyllyn Railway No.6 locomotive, Douglas. Several historical events that occurred with Douglas in real life, were mirrored with his fictional counterpart, Duncan. As Douglas' tall cab scraped against the tunnels, it became an inspiration for the story of Home at Last. In addition, Douglas was known for being a rough rider due to its short wheelbase, which was what inspired Duncan's "Rock 'n' Roll" tendencies.

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 2011 special Blue Mountain Mystery. However he was mentioned in the sixteenth season episode, Don't Bother Victor!. He later returned 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.

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. In all English speaking narrations, Duncan has a Scottish accent; reflecting his basis' origins. Tom Stourton maintains a Scottish accent for Duncan.

Awdry's model
The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built an OO9 scale model of Duncan. 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. Throughout the fourth and fifth seasons, the model had bent side rods. 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.

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.

The small scale Peter Sam 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, Rheneas' 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.

There were 11 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.

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.

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 and funnel shots; smoke would emit both from the whistle and funnel when required.

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.

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)