Rheneas/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Rheneas is a fictional narrow gauge well-tank locomotive working created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is one of the oldest engines on the Island of Sodor. Rheneas lives and works on the Skarloey Railway as their No.2 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 Rheneas:

Television Series
In 1995, Rheneas was introduced in Season 4 of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The season placed a great focus on him and the other Narrow Gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books televised. All the Skarloey Railway steam engines were painted red with blue lining in the Railway Series (bare Duke. However, in order to make it easier for the viewer to identify each engine from one another, Rheneas was painted vermilion with black lining.

In the classic era of Thomas and Friends, Rheneas is portrayed as an old and wise engine. However, when Rheneas returned to the series in 2005 after an absence in Season 8, he was depicted with a more childlike attitude. It should also be noted that Skarloey and Rheneas have never been referred to as brothers in the TV adaptation, being called "friends" in the more recent episodes.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for 3 years. Rheneas later returned in the 2012 special, Blue Mountain Mystery, along with Skarloey, 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 Season 19, 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 too obscure.

From Spring 2012 to 2015, Rheneas was voiced by Ben Small (UK/US) in the CGI version of the series on both sides of the Atlantic, respectively. From 2016 onwards he is voiced by John Hasler. Ben Small and John Hasler both gave Rheneas a Welsh accent; reflecting his basis' origins.

Awdry's model
The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built an OO9 scale model of Rheneas. The model was made from a GEM Dolgoch kit. Rheneas'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)
Rheneas'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 Season 4. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with gold and black Letraline pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed foil stickers.

Rheneas' 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.

8 different facial expressions worn by Rheneas on screen. In addition, he also had a happy face mask for his small scale model that was never shown on screen in the television series. The faces were first sculpted in clay, and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mold. Rheneas' unused happy face-mask is now owned by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch.

O gauge model (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, Season 5 introduce larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines, and from Season 6-12, Rheneas' large model was used exclusively. The larger-scale models 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.

11 different facial expressions worn by Rheneas on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay, and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mold.

The model was made from brass. The wheels and chassis were custom machined (CNC). 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 model was also fitted with a smoke unit.

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.

Close-up model
Close-up models were required for scenes where engines had to interact with the close-up scale human figures. Rheneas was the only narrow gauge engine from the original 7 to not have his own close-up model.

In the fifth season episode, Rusty and the Boulder, a close-up shot of Rheneas' driver was required. As a close-up model did not exist of Rheneas, Rusty's close-up model was reused instead. This was achieved by a close-up shot of Rusty's circular cab porthole which resemble one of Rheneas'.

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

Rheneas has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Blue Mountain Mystery:
 * His bufferbeam became accurate to his basis.
 * Lining was added to his splashers.
 * A whistle was added to his dome.
 * His windows got glass and brass frames.
 * He got a Talyllyn Railway styled tail lamp.
 * A handrail was added to his boiler.
 * Rivets were added in numerous places.
 * His whistle sound was updated.
 * Season 17:
 * He got a permanent headlamp and lamp irons.

Voice Actors

 * Ben Small (UK/US; Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth season)
 * John Hasler (UK/US; twentieth season onwards)
 * Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japan; fourth - seventh seasons)
 * Daiki Nakamura (Japan; ninth season onwards, excluding The Great Race)
 * Kunihiro Kawamoto (Japan; The Great Race only)
 * Jesse Grimm (Germany)
 * Gadi Levy (Israel; King of the Railway - twentieth season)
 * Zvika Fohrman (Israel; twentieth season onwards)
 * Stan Limburg (The Netherlands; formerly)
 * Paul Disbergen (The Netherlands)
 * Stig Krogstad (Norway; Blue Mountain Mystery and King of the Railway)
 * Anders Sundstedt (Norway; sixteenth season only)
 * Sigbjørn Solheim (Norway; seventeenth season only)
 * Sergio Morel (Latin America; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Bartosz Martyna (Poland; Blue Mountain Mystery - seventeenth season)
 * Artur Pontek (Poland; eighteenth season onwards, excluding Emily Saves the World and Samson at Your Service)
 * Józef Pawłowski (Poland; Emily Saves the World and Samson at Your Service)
 * Juan Navarro Torelló (Spain)
 * Prokhor Chekhovskoy (Russia; sixteenth season only)
 * Alexander Kotov (Russia; Duncan and the Grumpy Passenger and Duncan the Humbug)
 * Anton Savenkov (Russia; Emily Saves the World onwards)
 * Petteri Hynönen (Finland; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Loukas Frangoulis (Greece)