Agnes, Ruth, Jemima, Lucy and Beatrice/Behind the Scenes

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This is a behind the scenes subpage for Agnes, Ruth, Jemima, Lucy and Beatrice. This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information

The Railway Series

Agnes, Ruth, Jemima, Lucy and Beatrice are fictional narrow gauge rolling stock created by the Rev. W. Awdry. Agnes, Ruth, Jemima and Lucy are coaches, while Beatrice is a guards van. They belong to the Skarloey Railway. The carriages have only been seen illustrated with faces in Very Old Engines.

They first appeared in The Railway Series book, Four Little Engines, which was published in 1955. Their last appearance was in New Little Engine, published in 1996.

In the early drafts of the history of the Skarloey Railway, Sir Handel Brown (then named Smith) was said to have five daughters, Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Hilda and Beatrice. Their names would be used for the coaches on the Skarloey Railway, with the exception of Jemima who took the place of Hilda.

Illustrations of Agnes, Ruth, Jemima and Lucy:

1952 Agnes, Ruth, Jemima and Lucy as illustrated by C. Reginald Dalby (1955)

1961 Agnes, Ruth, Jemima and Lucy as illustrated by John T. Kenney (1962)

1865 Agnes as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1965)

1867 Ruth and Jemima as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1965)

1952 Agnes, Ruth, Jemima and Lucy as illustrated by Edgar Hodges (1979)

1982 Agnes, Ruth, Jemima and Lucy as illustrated by Clive Spong (1985)

Illustrations of Beatrice:

1952 Beatrice as illustrated by C. Reginald Dalby (1955)

1956 Beatrice as illustrated by John T. Kenney (1957)

1865 Beatrice as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1965)

1952 Beatrice as illustrated by Edgar Hodges (1979)

1982 Beatrice as illustrated by Clive Spong (1985)

They are based on the Talyllyn Railway carriages No. 1–5. The Skarloey Railway Red Coaches share the same basis as Agnes, Ruth, and Jemima, and the Skarloey Railway Blue Coaches share the same basis as Lucy. In 2011, Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway and took measurements of these carriages for reference in the CGI era of Thomas & Friends, which appeared in Blue Mountain Mystery.

Agnes, Ruth and Jemima's basis

Lucy's basis

Beatrice's basis

Agnes, Ruth, and Jemima's basis in the CGI Series (similar to Lucy)

Beatrice's basis in the CGI Series

Television Series

Agnes, Ruth, Jemima, Lucy and Beatrice were not introduced in Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. However, several coaches and brake vans resembling them do appear. In 1995, these coaches were introduced in the fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. They replaced the roles of Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima and Beatrice within a number of stories from the original books adapted for the television.

The blue narrow gauge coaches share the same basis as Lucy and retain the same colours as in the Railway Series. While the red narrow gauge coaches share the same basis as Agnes, Ruth and Jemima. There were several brake vans resembling Beatrice painted in multiple colours, however they were not depicted with faces. These coaches were only seen with faces in the fourth series.

While all the narrow gauge coaches in The Railway Series were female, any instance of the coaches in the television series being referred to in gender-specific pronouns were removed and omitted. This might have been a result of sexism allegations centred around the fact that the engines were almost invariably male, while the coaches were always female which surfaced in the 1980s. Britt Allcroft, the producer of the television series, claimed that gender issues were irrelevant.

Red narrow gauge coaches

Blue narrow gauge coaches

A blue brake van

Behind the Scenes

Awdry's models

The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built OO9 scale models of Agnes, Ruth, Jemima, Lucy and Beatrice. These models are now on display at the Narrow Gauge Museum in Tywyn, Wales located near the Talyllyn Railway along with the other Skarloey Railway engines and rolling stock .

The Rev W. Awdry's Agnes model at Tywyn

The Rev W. Awdry's Ruth model at Tywyn

The Rev W. Awdry's Jemima model at Tywyn

The Rev W. Awdry's Lucy model at Tywyn

The Rev W. Awdry's Beatrice model at Tywyn