Sir Handel/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Sir Handel is a fictional narrow gauge saddletank locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. Before joining the Skarloey Railway, he was originally known as Falcon and worked on the Mid Sodor Railway. He carries the No.3.

He first appeared in the Railway Series book, Four Little Engines, which was published in 1955. His last appearance was in New Little Engine, published in 1996.

Front of Sir Handel/Falcon:

Television Series
In 1995, Sir Handel was introduced in Season 4 of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The season placed a great focus on the Narrow Gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books televised. He was first introduced as Falcon on the Mid Sodor Railway, and unlike the Railway Series, he kept his dark blue colour when he came to the Skarloey Railway. This was done to help make it easier for the viewer to identify the narrow gauge engines, as all Skarloey Railway steam engines were painted red in the the Railway Series (bare Duke).

Sir Handel did not appear again until Season 10 in 2006. This was because a large scale model was not built for Sir Handel for prior seasons due to budget reasons. However, the writers provided an explanation given for his absence in the TV series, that he had been working in the quarry all summer. Upon returning, he adopted a more mature persona compared to his former pompous personality.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for 3 years. Sir Handel later returned in the 2012 special, Blue Mountain Mystery, along with Skarloey, Rheneas, Peter Sam, and Rusty. In the CGI series, he has shown that he is patient, humble and kind and is seen frequently working at the Blue Mountain Quarry. 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 2012 onwards, Sir Handel is now currently voiced by Keith Wickham (UK/US) (who also voices Skarloey) in the CGI version of the series in both sides of the atlantic, respectively. Keith Wickham gives Sir Handel a Welsh accent; reflecting his basis' origins.

Awdry's model
The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built an OO9 scale model of Falcon for his layout of the Mid Sodor Railway. Falcon was made from a GEM Vari-kit modified with saddle tank, a cab from an Airfix Pug kit and a Minitrix 0-6-0 chassis. Similar to Albert.Falcon's model was donated by Awdry and put on display at the Reverend Teddy Boston's Cadeby Light Railway in Cadeby, Leicestershire, before the railway finally closed in 2005.

O gauge model (Small scale)
Sir Handel'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 red Letraline pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed foil stickers. For the episodes taking place on the Mid Sodor Railway, Sir Handel's nameplate was covered with black tape and overlapped with his Falcon nameplate.

10 different facial expressions worn by Sir Handel on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay, and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mold. Sir Handel used the Manning Wardle wheels with thicker tyres put on to achieve the "steam roller wheels" look. 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. On Sir Handel, the rods from the Triang Princess were modified so the rods connect to the crosshead on the outside rather then the inside. The buffers were sourced from Slater's Plasticard as well, with most engines using the square based short sprung buffers.

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. That 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.

O gauge model (Large scale)
Unlike most of the narrow gauge engines, due to financial reasons, the large scale Sir Handel model was not built until 2005. The large scale models replaced their small scale counterparts and provided ease of filming and reliability. The Sir Handel model was exclusively used between Season 10-12. This model was 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.

6 facial expressions worn by Sir Handel on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay, and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mold. Some faces used the same expression casts with slightly different eyebrows to produce different emotions.

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 Sir Handel was built in Season 4. It was required for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures in or near his cab. Smoke would emit from the whistle and firebox when required.

The cab was made in pieces so it was able to be dismantled and resembled for use of interior shots if required. 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 often never need to be seen in this scale.

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

Sir Handel's close-up model only appeared in the fourth season.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Sir Handel was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2012 for production of the special Blue Mountain Mystery. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Photographs of Sir Handel's large scale 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.

In addition, Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway and took measurements of Sir Handel's basis, Sir Haydn, so that his CGI model would resemble Sir Haydn as closely as possible.

Sir Handel has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Blue Mountain Mystery:
 * His blue livery became a more vibrant shade than it was in the tenth season.
 * Grey buffers and trailing wheels.
 * His buffer housings became square again and more accurate to his basis.
 * A visible whistle.
 * Dark brass handrails along his saddle tank were added.
 * His cutout windows gained brass frames and contained glass.
 * His lubricating boxes gain lids on top and brass taps on the sides.
 * His tail lamp was positioned higher and changed to a removable Talyllyn-styled lamp.
 * Sanding gear under his cab.
 * Rivets were added to his bufferbeam and cab.
 * He gained angle brackets on the back of his cab.
 * Black siderod guards.
 * Brass pipes under his saddle tank.
 * Season 18:
 * Permanent lamp and lamp irons.
 * Season 20:
 * His trailing wheels and saddle tank hand rails became silver (or more reflective).

Voice Actors

 * Keith Wickham (UK/US; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Naoki Tatsuta (Japan; fourth season only)
 * Bunkō Ogata (Japan; tenth - eleventh seasons)
 * Shōto Kashii (Japan; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Daniel Montoya (Germany; Blue Mountain Mystery - sixteenth season)
 * Marcus Just (Germany; seventeenth season only)
 * Kai-Hendrik Möller (Germany; twentieth season onwards)
 * Jan Kulczycki (Poland)
 * Paul Disbergen (The Netherlands)
 * Nir Ron (Israel; Saving Time only)
 * Per Skjøldsvik (Norway; Blue Mountain Mystery only)
 * Helge Winther Larsen (Norway; sixteenth - seventeenth season)
 * Miguel Ángel Leal (Latin America; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Fernando Castro (Spain; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Alexander Kotov (Russia; sixteenth season only)
 * Prokhor Chekhovskoy (Russia; seventeenth season onwards)
 * Taisto Oksanen (Finland; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Loukas Frangoulis (Greece)