Class 40/Behind the Scenes

In the Railway Series
Class 40 a fictional standard gauge diesel locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He appears in the Railway Series book, Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine, which was published in 1963.

Class 40 is based on a BR Class 40 1Co-Co1.

In the Television Series
In 1995, Class 40 was introduced in the fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He first appeared into the episode, Rusty to the Rescue, among the diesels at Vicarstown Goods Depot. He later appeared in the episode, Bowled Out, reprising his role from the Railway Series.

Class 40 has not appeared in the television series since 1995.

Gauge 1 model
Class 40’s model was custom built to run on gauge 1 track. The body was made out of plastic and vacuformed over a custom body shape pattern. Once the vacuformed pattern was formed the windows and external details were added and then 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 buffers, coupling hook and brake pipe were had by Tenmille.

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.

Five different facial expressions were sculpted for Class 40, although only four were used onscreen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould.

Voice Actors

 * Michio Nakao