Derek/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
Derek is a fictional standard gauge diesel created by Britt Allcroft, David Mitton and David Maidment working on the North Western Railway.

In 1998, Derek made his debut in the fifth series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends in the episode, Double Teething Troubles. The engine is only known as "the new diesel" or “the diesel” in that episode; his name was not revealed until his merchandise was released. He later appeared in the special, Calling All Engines!, during the song, Trying.

Derek has not appeared in the television series since 2005.

Derek is based on a BR Class 17.

Gauge 1 Model
Derek’s model was custom built to run on gauge 1 track. The model was built from brass and was painted using glossy car body paint.

The chassis was constructed from scratch (CNC). It had a motor powered by electricity from the track via the pickups on the metal wheels.

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.

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

Voice Actors

 * Hisao Egawa