Proteus/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
Proteus is a fictional narrow gauge tank locomotive created by Sharon Miller. He is based on the Talyllyn Railway No.3 locomotive, Sir Haydn.

In 2005, Proteus was introduced in the ninth season of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He had a minor role and no dialogue in the episode, The Magic Lamp.

In 2009, Proteus was later mentioned in the twelfth season episode, Mountain Marvel. A bronze statue of the character appears.

The name Proteus occurs in Greek Mythology: Proteus was a water-god known as the "Old Man of the Sea".

O gauge model (Large scale)
Proteus's model was recycled from Sir Handel and Peter Sam's large scale model. This model was 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.

Despite the fact that Sir Handel returned in Season 10, the large scale model first appeared in Season 9 as Proteus. Sir Handel's chassis were not built at the time, so Proteus reused Peter Sam's chassis, as green edges can be seen underneath Proteus' bufferbeam and cylinder and the cylinders are significantly larger than Sir Handel's.

Proteus' statue
A bronze statue of Proteus was made for production of Season 12. The statue appears to be a resin cast of Sir Handel's model and Proteus' facemask.

It is placed on a bronze cast of track and a rectangular box to resemble concrete with a bronze plaque of the character's name.

As the statue is a resin cast of Sir Handel, it is missing his signature lamp, the cylinders and wheels are smaller compared to Proteus' original model. It is also missing additional siderod pieces.