Freddie/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
In the Railway Series, Ivo Hugh, a young red 0-4-2 tank engine, is the No.7 engine of the Skarloey Railway. In the television series, Freddie replaces Ivo Hugh as the No.7 narrow gauge engine.

Large Scale model
Freddie's model was custom built to a larger scale then the gauge 1 (Standard gauge) engines and ran on O gauge track. The model was made from brass on a custom CNC router and had custom made CNC wheels and chassis. Seven different facial expressions were worn by Freddie on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay, and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mold. 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 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.

In the twelfth season, Freddie's face was animated through CGI with the aid of motion capture animation. The physical model's molded faces were replaced by white targets with triangles to fix a computer-animated face in post-production. In The Man in the Hills, Freddie was seen with a lamp, powered by a hidden battery pack.