Skarloey/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Skarloey is a fictional narrow gauge saddletank locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is one of the oldest engines on the Island of Sodor. Skarloey lives and works on the Skarloey Railway as their No.1 engine.

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 Skarloey:

Television Series
In 1995, Skarloey was introduced in the fourth season of Thomas & Friends. The season placed a great focus on him and the other narrow gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books adapted for the television series. It should also be noted that Skarloey and Rheneas have never been referred to as brothers in the television series adaptation and have been called "friends" in the more recent episodes.

In the classic era of Thomas and Friends, Skarloey is portrayed as an old and wise engine. However, as the series progressed, Skarloey's character gradually became altered to a more younger personality under the influence of HIT Entertainment. The narrow gauge engines took a full absence in 2004, but returned the following year.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for 3 years. Skarloey later returned in the 2012 special, Blue Mountain Mystery, along with Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam and Rusty. In the CGI series, his classic personality returned and he is seen frequently working at the Blue Mountain Quarry. Since the nineteenth season, 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 to be too obscure.

From Spring 2012 onwards, Skarloey is now currently voiced by Keith Wickham (UK/US) in the CGI version of the series on both sides of the Atlantic, respectively. Keith Wickham gives Skarloey a Welsh accent; reflecting his basis' origins.

Awdry's model
The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built an OO9 scale model of Skarloey. The model was made from a GEM Dolgoch kit with a PECO James saddle tank and new cab. Skarloey'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)
Skarloey'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 the fourth season. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with white and gold Letraline pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed foil stickers.

Skarloey'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. The buffers were sourced from Slater's Plasticard as well, with most engines using the square based short sprung buffers.

There were 10 different facial expressions worn by Skarloey on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould.

O gauge model (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, the fifth season introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and from the sixth-twelfth seasons, these larger models were used almost exclusively. They 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 12 different facial expressions worn by Skarloey on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould.

Close-up model
A larger scale model of Skarloey 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, funnel and firebox shots and smoke would emit when required.

The cab was made in pieces so it was able to be dismantled and resembled for use of interior shots. 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, Skarloey's front and back cutout windows had glass and brass gold porthole rings.

It appeared in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth and twelfth seasons.

The close-up model underwent a few changes throughout the television series. These include:
 * Season 5:
 * Part of Skarloey's cab roof became snapped.
 * Season 6:
 * His cab roof is now repaired.
 * The brass gold porthole rings inside the back of his cab have moved and now face around his front windows.
 * His model is significantly less weathered.
 * Season 9:
 * His livery became a dark crimson colour.
 * Season 12:
 * His cab interior changed from black to dark crimson.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Skarloey 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 Skarloey'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 Skarloey's basis, Talyllyn, so that his CGI model would resemble Talyllyn as closely as possible.

Skarloey has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Blue Mountain Mystery:
 * His pupils became smaller.
 * Accurate bufferbeam to his basis.
 * His boiler is painted black instead of red.
 * Handrails across the top of his smokebox and saddle tank like his basis.
 * His cab handrails returned, but now gold instead of red.
 * His cutout windows gained brass frames and contained glass.
 * Sanding gear.
 * Black siderod guards.
 * Extra lining on his cab.
 * Differently designed front sandboxes.
 * Footsteps underneath his cab.
 * He gained a new whistle sound.
 * A number plate on the back of his cab, similar to Talyllyn.
 * Season 22:
 * He gained a headlamp.

Voice Actors

 * Keith Wickham (UK/US; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Tomohisa Asō (Japan; fourth - seventh seasons)
 * Hideyuki Umezu (Japan; ninth season onwards, excluding The Great Race)
 * Hiroaki Tajiri (Japan; The Great Race only)
 * Jens Wendland (Germany)
 * Jacek Król (Poland)
 * Gilan Shachaf (Israel; King of the Railway)
 * Simen Sand (Norway; Blue Mountain Mystery only)
 * Sigbjørn Solheim (Norway; sixteenth - seventeenth season)
 * Bruno Marçal (Brazil)
 * Marcos Patiño (Latin America; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Jorge Teixeira (Spain)
 * Alexander Kotov (Russia; sixteenth season only)
 * Denis Bespalyy (Russia; seventeenth season - Duncan the Humbug)
 * Jukka Voutilainen (Finland; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Loukas Frangoulis (Greece)