Henry/Behind the Scenes

In real-life
The Reverend W. Awdry had a great deal of trouble with Henry. Originally, Awdry had illustrated him as a 4-4-2 Atlantic, however William Middleton changed this when he illustrated him as a 4-6-2 Pacific similar to Gordon. Awdry was especially unhappy with C. Reginald Dalby's illustrations: he looked almost identical to Gordon, more so while he was painted blue - in Tank Engine Thomas Again, Henry looked completely identical to Gordon, but this was passed off by explaining he needed to use Gordon's buffers while his were being repaired. To make matters worse, he was illustrated inconsistently, often having several different shapes within the space of a single story - in most of Dalby's illustrations Henry was portrayed incorrectly as a 4-6-0 instead of a 4-6-2.

Awdry's original idea had been to write Henry out of the series, but by "Henry the Green Engine" he had decided to instead have Henry involved in a serious accident, allowing him to be rebuilt into a Class 5MT. As this was a real locomotive, Dalby was thus forced to be consistent. Since then, Awdry would base all his locomotive characters on real-life prototypes and for such characters as Edward, Gordon, James and Percy, he would invent backstories for them.

In the Railway Series
According to "TIOS", Henry was an experimental locomotive built from plans stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley, but the wrong plans were taken and the locomotive built was so riddled with faults that the only person who could be persuaded to buy it was the Fat Controller, who, at the time, was desperate for any locomotive he could get.

There is a certain amount of argument over Henry's rebuild, caused by The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways (TIOS), which was written to provide historical background to the Railway Series and to correct pictorial inconsistencies that had occurred in earlier volumes. The Reverend W. Awdry claimed that the pre-rebuild and post-rebuild Henry were actually two completely separate engines, although in the Railway Series, Henry seemed familiar with events that happened before the crash. Henry's memory could have simply survived the rebuild, but as both sources can be considered equally canonical, the question of whether there have been two Henrys or one will likely remain unanswered.

"TIOS" also featured a biography of the Fat Controller, which mentioned that he was apprenticed with Stanier at Swindon Works. It is possible that this was another piece of retcon added to explain how Henry was able to be rebuilt so easily - something that even the Reverend W. Awdry admitted was "a mystery".

In Sodor: Reading Between the Lines Henry was said to look very much like a Stanier 5MT, which suggests that he is not totally identical to one of these engines. It is not clear why Christopher Awdry should have felt the need to contradict his father, but it could simply be a combination of errors and publication deadlines.

Old Shape
Unlike in the Railway Series, in the television series, Henry has always had one shape with an 4-6-0 wheel arrangement. However, he was later modified after his Flying Kipper crash. To begin with Henry had the basic shape and running plate of a "Black 5"; however he had a single window cab, wheel arches and a Wooten firebox so he would look rather like a "GNR/LNER Gresley A1 Pacific". He also had a six wheeled LNER-style tender.

New Shape
Following his crash and visit to Crewe in the first season, Henry returned with his tapered firebox replaced with a Belpaire firebox and added top feed and steam pipes. He still retained his single-window cab and his wheel arches were also removed to ease the changeover to his "Black Five"-esque appearance. Instead of his Fowler tender, he has always kept his original tender. Later changes, not related to the crash, include:
 * Series 2:
 * He regained his wheel arches, with the third pair being cut off (from where his tapered firebox was).
 * His stepladder became solid, instead of hollow.
 * He gained two extra brake pipes. In addition, all four face downward.
 * In Duck Takes Charge, and in some scenes of Dirty Work and A Close Shave, his whistle is Duck's six half steps higher in pitch.
 * Series 3:
 * His front right and back left brake pipes were facing upward again.
 * In Tender Engines, his front left and back right brake pipes were removed.
 * Series 5 (only):
 * There was extra yellow lining on his half windows at the back of his cab.
 * Thomas and the Magic Railroad:
 * The gap between his second and third boiler bands becomes larger.
 * The lining on his tender was lowered so it no longer lined up with the lining on his cab.
 * His double whistle was replaced with a single whistle.
 * His eyebrows became more slanted.
 * His window frames became thinner.
 * Series 6:
 * His eyebrows became longer.
 * Series 10:
 * His front cab windows became slightly wider and shorter.
 * The riveting on his front bufferbeam disappeared.
 * Series 12:
 * His eyebrows are now thicker.
 * His crow's feet disappeared.
 * The gap between his second and third boiler bands went back to how it was originally.

CGI model
In 2009, the television series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Henry's CGI model was identical to his Gauge 1 model but has had slight modifications:
 * Hero of the Rails:
 * He lost his front brake-pipe outlet.
 * His crow's feet reappeared.
 * The red lining on his wheel arches became thinner and he got lining on the back of his cut-off wheel arch.
 * The inside of his tender became green.
 * Series 17:
 * He regains his permanent lamp and tail lamp.
 * The Adventure Begins:
 * His side-rods became silver.

Voice Actors

 * Kevin Frank (Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * Keith Wickham (UK; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Kerry Shale (US; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Ryō Horikawa (Japan; first-eighth series)
 * Kenji Utsumi (Japan; James and the Trouble with Trees (First Half))
 * Jun'ichi Kanemaru (Japan; Calling All Engines onwards, excluding Day of the Diesels and Edward the Hero)
 * Nozomu Sasaki (Japan; Day of the Diesels)
 * Kenta Miyake (Japan; Edward the Hero)
 * Fabrice Trojani (France and French speaking Canada)
 * Espen Sandvik ( Norway; Hero of the Rails - Tale of the Brave)
 * Ambrogio Colombo (Italy)
 * Blas García ( Latin America; Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * Luis Alfonso Padilla (Latin America; Thomas and the Magic Railroad; TV Version)
 * Ricardo Silva (Latin America, Hero of the Rails - The Great Race, excluding Tale of the Brave and the twentieth series)
 * Arturo Mercado Jr. (Latin America; twentieth series onwards, excluding the Great Race)
 * Klaus Sonnenschein (Germany; Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * Michael Bideller (Germany; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Lutz Herkenrath (Germany; Audio Book 1-13 only)
 * Q. Gray (Germany; Audio Book 14-16 only)
 * Cezary Kwieciński (Poland; Hero of the Rails onwards)
 * Reinder van der Naalt (The Netherlands)
 * Dov Reiser (Israel; Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
 * Dor Srugo (Israel; fifteenth series - King of the Railway)
 * Yoli Seker (Israel; twentieth series onwards)
 * Caspar Phillipson (Denmark)
 * Henrique Reis (Brazil, Hero of the Rails onwards, excluding Tale of the Brave)
 * Ulisses Bezerra (Brazil; Tale of the Brave only)
 * Juan Navarro Torelló (Spain)
 * Jukka Voutilainen (Finland, Hero of the Rails - seventeenth series, excluding the sixteenth series)
 * Jarmo Koski (Finland; Tale of the Brave onwards)
 * Trưởng Tân (Vietnam)
 * Seder Gabor (Hungary)
 * Alexander Kotov (Russia)
 * Loukas Frangoulis (Greece)