Duck/Behind the Scenes

In the Railway Series
Duck is a fictional standard gauge tank locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. Duck lives and works on the North Western Railway. He carries the number 5741.

He first appeared in the Railway Series book, Percy the Small Engine, which was published in 1956. His last appearance was in Thomas and his Friends, published in 2011.

Front of Duck:

Duck is based on the Great Western Railway 57xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine with added sand boxes.

In the Television Series
In 1986, Duck was introduced in the television series in the second series, reprising many of his roles from the Railway Series. Unlike the Railway Series where his number was 5741, he was given the number 8.

Since his introduction, Duck appeared as one of the main characters up until the seventh series. During the development of the Steam Team, Duck was originally considered to be the eighth member, but was left out to make room for Emily to give a female character a more prominent role. As a result of the stories from the eighth to sixteenth series focusing primarily on the Steam Team, Duck was absent along with many other characters for several years. He appeared in the twelfth series as a supporting character, but was left absent again when the series moved from live-action model animation to Computer-Generated Imagery. It would not be until the seventeenth series that Duck would return as a major character, sharing a starring role with Thomas in the episode the Thomas Way.

Duck now appears as a major supporting character again, occasionally having a lead role to himself or a minor role in at least one episode per series.

Since his return in 2013, Duck has been voiced by Steven Kynman in both the British English and American English dubs of the series. Steven Kynman gives Duck a West Country accent, reflecting his basis' origins.

Awdry's model
Duck originated as a GWR 57xx pannier tank engine produced by Gaiety Models. It was purchased as a "spare" engine for exhibitions in 1949, seven years before Duck would make his debut in The Railway Series. As originally purchased the model suffered a defect, a malformed wheel that gave it a pronounced waddle. Wilbert's children promptly christened the engine "Duck" upon observing this, a name that persisted even after the original wheels were replaced and the waddle cured.

Gauge 1 model
Duck’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 and the numbers and letters were custom cut vinyl stickers.

Duck’s wheels chassis was sourced from a gauge 1 locomotive made by Märklin, the BR 55. The front bufferbeam was sourced from the BR 80 and the rear bufferbeam from the BR 55.

16 different facial expressions were worn by Duck on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould.

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 Duck was built in the second series. 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 from the whistle when required.

The cab was made in pieces so it was able to be dismantled and reassembled for use of interior shots if required. Most of the close-up scale of engines made to this scale were usually not built as complete models, however Duck was.

The model was also equipped with an eye mechanism. 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.

The close-up model of Thomas’ happy face was also used on the close-up Duck in the second series episode, A Close Shave.

It appeared in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth series.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. In 2013, Duck was created in CGI by Arc Productions. The model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Duck has had modifications throughout the CGI series. These include:
 * Series 17:
 * He increased in size and is subsequently a lot larger than his model form.
 * His face returned to its original size permanently.
 * His cheekbones returned, though somewhat less prominent.
 * His running board was painted black, like it was in the Railway Series.
 * Brake pipes and the outlets were added on his front and back buffer-beams.
 * He gained a headlamp and a tail lamp. His headlamp is now on his sandbox rather than his running board.
 * He lost the black sandboxes underneath his running board.
 * He also lost the stepladder in the middle of his running board.
 * Rivets on his buffer-beam, footplate and cab were added.
 * The stepladder underneath his cab became smaller than the one on his model form and real life basis.
 * The GWR lettering on his sides has a slightly different font and shadowing.
 * He gained black lining around his cab portholes.
 * He gained a new whistle of the same design as Thomas', but his whistle sound stayed the same.
 * Tale of the Brave:
 * His handrails changed to a darker grey.
 * Series 19:
 * His handrails changed back to white.
 * The rivets on his buffer-beam and cab changed to black.
 * Series 20:
 * His rivets on his cab changed back to green.
 * He was reduced in size.
 * He lost his buffer-beam rivets, footplate rivets and brake pipe outlets.
 * His buffers are positioned higher.
 * His right-hand front buffer is missing its base and is shorter than his left one.
 * The shadowing around his buffer-beam detail remains as it was before his resize and thus is out of place.
 * His handrails clip through the front of his tank.
 * His coupling hook base clips through his buffer-beam.
 * His tail-lamp is missing and only the shadowing of it remains.
 * Series 22:
 * The shadow effect on his buffer beams fit correctly around the buffers, brake pipe outlets and couplings.
 * His right-hand buffer regains the missing base and both buffers are now the same length.
 * His coupling hook base no longer clips through his buffer beam.
 * He regained his tail-lamp.
 * He regained his brake pipe outlets.
 * His headlamp increased in size.

Note
A photograph seen in the seventeenth series episode, The Thomas Way depicts Duck at Paddington station on the Great Western Railway. The image features Duck's television series model from the sixth series episode, Twin Trouble. This is, therefore, the first full CGI episode to feature models from the model era.

Voice Actors

 * Steven Kynman
 * Kōzō Shioya
 * Kiyonobu Suzuki
 * Shōto Kashii
 * Nozomu Sasaki
 * Piotr Warszawski
 * Jakub Szydłowski
 * Paul Disbergen
 * Huub Dikstaal
 * Sigbjørn Solheim
 * Raffaele Palmieri
 * Tony Marot
 * Oliver Warsitz
 * Roberto Gutiérrez
 * Gerardo Reyero
 * Jorge Roig Jr.
 * Dan Schatzberg
 * Zvika Fohrman
 * Leopoldo Ballesteros
 * Henrique Canales
 * Denis Bespaliy
 * Anton Savenkov
 * Vina Papadopoulou
 * Loukas Frangoulis
 * Haris Grigoropoulos
 * Markus Niemi