Edward/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Edward is a fictional standard gauge tender locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He was the first character created for the Railway Series. Edward lives and works on the North Western Railway as their No. 2 engine.

He first appeared in the Railway Series book, The Three Railway Engines, which was published in 1945. His last appearance was in Thomas and his Friends, published in 2011.

Front of Edward:

Inspiration
The inspiration for Edward himself came from the Rev W. Awdry watching trains on the Great Western Railway as a child. He said in an interview with Brian Sibley for The Thomas the Tank Engine Man that, to him, the noise of the locomotives' exhaust almost sounded like dialogue - for example, the larger engine having trouble climbing the hills would appear to be saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it" and the smaller engine helping them would sound like it was saying, "I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!" Later, the Reverend Awdry told his son a bedtime story about an engine who was sad because he was never taken out of the shed for being old. Upon being asked what the engine's name was by his son, the Reverend Awdry picked the name "Edward" out of thin air.

Television Series
Edward was introduced to the television series in 1984 when the first series premiered, and has appeared in every series since.

In the eighth series, Edward was among the members of the Steam Team, the main cast of eight central characters. However, following the twenty-second series, Edward was removed from the Steam Team in favour for Nia to join in order to fix the gender imbalance at Tidmouth Sheds and diversify the Thomas and Friends franchise. He now appears as a major supporting character.

Keith Wickham portrayed him with a British accent in the UK, though William Hope gave him an American accent in the US.

Gauge 1 model
Edward’s original 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 automotive paint and lined with red automotive pinstripe tape with the numbers being custom cut vinyl stickers.

Edward’s drive wheels and tender wheels was sourced from a gauge 1 locomotive made by Märklin, the BR 55, and the bogie wheels were from a bogie of the BR 78. The front bufferbeam came from the BR 78 and the rear bufferbeam came from the BR 55. The handrails stanchions were also sourced from Märklin locomotives.

Edward’s perspex model was originally AC powered as this is how the Märklin locomotives were powered. During a refurbishment his AC motor was replaced by a DC motor to allow for easier running and maintenance.

Close-up model
A close-up model of Edward was built to be used for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures.

Initially, this model only consisted of his cab and a small section of his firebox. In scenes where a tender was required, Gordon's close-up tender was used, with the number being strategically hidden. At some point between the second series and The Great Discovery, a tender was eventually built for Edward's close-up model.

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

Photographs of Edward's Gauge 1 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.

Edward's CGI model was mostly identical to his Gauge 1 model but has had modifications, these include:
 * Hero of the Rails:
 * He slightly decreased in height.
 * He sits slightly lower on his chassis.
 * His boiler becomes slightly smaller and his funnel becomes taller.
 * His buffers became bigger and moved towards the centre of his bufferbeam.
 * His pupils returned to their larger size.
 * His roof is slightly more curved than it was in the model series.
 * His whistle sound is sharper in tone.
 * Series 17:
 * He gained a lamp and tail lamp.
 * Series 18:
 * His handrails were painted black.
 * The Adventure Begins:
 * His handrails were painted silver again.
 * The inside of his tender became blue.
 * His side rods become silver.
 * He gains brake shoes behind his second driving wheels.

Thomas & the Magic Railroad
Edward was not in any known draft of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. According to Phil Fehrle, there was not enough screen time and opportunity to utilise him in a way that added any real value to the film. He was the only engine of the original seven created by Awdry not to appear.

Voice Actors

 * Keith Wickham
 * William Hope
 * Mark Moraghan
 * Yasuhiro Takato
 * Nozomu Sasaki
 * Kan Tanaka
 * Øyvind Borgemoen Lyse
 * Herman López
 * Javier Olguín
 * Daniel Abundis
 * Christos Topulos
 * Henry König
 * Wojciech Chorąży
 * Fabrice Trojani
 * Petteri Hynönen
 * Petrus Kähkönen
 * Jarmo Koski
 * Reinder van der Naalt
 * Dan Schatzberg
 * Celso Alves
 * Jordi Estupiña
 * Anh Tuấn
 * Galbenisz Tomasz
 * Alexander Kotov
 * Denis Bespaliy
 * Anton Savenkov
 * Um Sang-hyun
 * Loukas Frangoulis