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Background Information[]
In 1984, the 7-plank trucks were introduced in the first series of Thomas & Friends and have been primarily used since. Throughout the CGI Series, the van designs were altered to be slightly taller compared to the previous ones.
The Troublesome Trucks are a group of fictional characters created by the Rev W. Awdry. They reprise their roles from The Railway Series. They are often considered the first technical antagonists of the series since their roles usually involve them causing trouble for the engines in ways such as pushing them down hills, holding back, and so on, to which they show no remorse more often than they do.
Types of truck designs:
Behind the Scenes[]
Gauge 1 models[]
Since the first series of the television series, these trucks were originally created with Tenmille kits, built as per instructions. Some models of the Trucks had railings at the top of their fronts.
During the production of the seventh series, a new variation of 7-plank trucks were built from resin seven plank kits. They were engineered so that the parts from older Tenmille wagons could be used on them. One of the most notable details was that they had more pronounced bolts and rivets on them. They were originally painted in dark green and were weathered, but by the eighth series, some of them were also painted in many different colours, such as blue or red.
Present Day[]
In early 2020, some 7-plank trucks were displayed at Drayton Manor Resort. Some of the trucks featured had face and body combinations not seen in the original television series. In 2023, after the layout was rebuilt, several 7-plank trucks were put back on display, featuring different face and body combinations compared to before.
Reference Sheets[]
Gauge 3 models[]
Gauge 3 models of the trucks were built in the ninth series to be used at The Transfer Yards and The Wharf sets alongside the large-scale models of Thomas, James, and the Skarloey Railway engines.
Gauge 3.5 models[]
During the fifth series the production team created scaled up models of Thomas, Percy and the Troublesome Trucks. The trucks would later be used alongside the models of the Sodor Construction Company vehicles, which had to be larger than the gauge 1 models in order in fit in all the components required for filming. No physical faces were ever built for these trucks.
In the twelfth series, the gauge 3.5 trucks gained CGI faces. Flat sheets with white targets with triangles were used to fix a computer-animated face in post-production.
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Close-up models[]
Close-up models of the 7-plank trucks were built to be used for scenes where they had to interact with the close-up scale figures and close-up shots of the engines.
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Reference Sheets[]
CGI models[]
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Various wagons were recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios. These models were "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.
According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models 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.
