Bill and Ben (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Main Page

Behind the Scenes

Merchandise

Gallery

This is a behind the scenes subpage for Bill and Ben (T&F). This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information

The Railway Series

Bill and Ben are fictional standard gauge twin tank locomotives created by the Rev. W. Awdry. They live and work at the Sodor China Clay Company, and carry the numbers 1 and 2 respectively.

They first appeared in The Railway Series book, Main Line Engines, which was published in 1966. Their last appearances was in Thomas and the Twins, published in 1989.

Front of Bill and Ben:

1965 Bill as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1966)

1965 Ben as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1966)

1988 Bill as illustrated by Clive Spong (1989)

1988 Ben as illustrated by Clive Spong (1989)

Rear of Bill and Ben:

1965 Bill as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1966)

1965 Ben as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1966)

1986 Bill as illustrated by Clive Spong (1986)

1986 Ben as illustrated by Clive Spong (1986)

Bill and Ben are based on the Bagnall 0-4-0STs Alfred and Judy.

Television Series

In 1986, Bill and Ben were introduced in the second series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and are regarded as the most iconic twin characters of the series along with Donald and Douglas. Unlike in the Railway Series, Bill and Ben are owned by Sir Topham Hatt and do not carry numbers.

In the eighth series, Bill and Ben were meant to appear in the episode, Thomas to the Rescue, but their scene was cut resulting in them being absent for a year. But they returned in the following series. For the majority of the eighth to twelveth series, they only appeared as minor characters. There have also been occasions where Ben appears without Bill.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the twins were absent for four years. In 2013, Bill and Ben made their return in the seventeenth series.

From their return in 2013 until 2016, Jonathan Broadbent provided the voices for Bill and Ben in both the British English and American English dubs of the series. Following Broadbent's departure in 2017 or 2018, Tim Whitnall and Matt Wilkinson took over the roles of Bill and Ben in both dubs of Big World! Big Adventures!. While Wilkinson continued to voice Ben in the twenty-second series, Rasmus Hardiker took over the role of Bill from Whitnall in both dubs. All four voice actors gave Bill and Ben Birmingham accents.

Ben was consistently portrayed with a deeper voice compared to Bill. This carried over to Jonathan Broadbent's portrayal of the twins. Rasmus Hardiker gave Bill a higher pitched voice with a bolder tone, when Ben retained his somewhat softer vocals.

Behind the Scenes

Gauge 1 models

Bill and Ben's models were custom built with a plastic body shell and used a Märklin locomotive as a donor for the chassis and various parts. They were painted using glossy car body paint and lined with red automotive pinstripe tape with the letters on their saddle tanks were custom cut vinyl stickers.

In the second series, Bill and Ben's nameplates were made to be removable, which was required for the episode, The Diseasel, which centred around the twins playing a trick on BoCo to confuse him with their identical looks. Since the third series their nameplates were replaced with custom printed stickers.

Bill and Ben's wheels were sourced from a gauge 1 locomotive made by Märklin, the BR 80. The buffers were also from the BR 80.

In a behind the scenes picture of Bill's model during the second series reveals that the twins were to have numbers on their smokeboxes above their faces, as they did in The Railway Series. However, they were removed for unknown reasons once filming of The Diseasel began.

During the production of the sixth series Bill and Ben's paint was given a matte finish. In the episode, Buffer Bother, Ben's buffers were temporarily bare brass.

Bill and Ben went through aesthetic changes in the model series. These include:

• Series 3:
  • Their nameplates were painted on instead of being actual plates.
• Buffer Bother:
  • Ben gained brass buffers temporarily.
• Series 7:
  • Ben regained black buffers.

The BR 80 was used as source of parts for Bill and Ben

Bill's model with a number

BillandBen'sModelSpecification.PNG

Bill and Ben's original nameplates

Filming of Heroes

Ben with brass buffers

The twins' models on display in Japan in 2000

Thirteen different facial expressions were sculpted for Bill and Ben, although twelve were used on-screen and one of which his alternative happy face was left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. Some of Bill and Ben's faces were duplicated in case they needed to wear the same facial expression in the same shot. One of Bill and Ben's faces is owned by Twitter user TomsProps.

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.

Bill and Ben's jovial face as it appeared in the second series... (1986)

...and later gained some teeth in the third series all the way until The Great Discovery, excluding the fourth, eighth and tenth series, Thomas and the Magic Railroad and Calling All Engines! (1991-1998, 2002-2003, 2005, 2007-2008)

Bill and Ben's content face that appeared between the second and sixth series, excluding the fourth series and Thomas and the Magic Railroad... (1986-1992, 1998, 2002)

...but did appear in Ben's promotional image from the eighth series (2004)

Bill and Ben's sad face that appeared between second and eleventh series, excluding the eighth and tenth series, Thomas and the Magic Railroad and Calling All Engines! (1986-1998, 2002-2003, 2005, 2007)

Bill and Ben's cross face that appeared between second and seventh series, excluding the fourth series and Thomas and the Magic Railroad (1986-1992, 1998, 2002-2003)

Bill and Ben's happy face as it first appeared in the second series... (1986)

...and later gained some teeth in the third series all the way until the ninth series, excluding the eighth series, Thomas and the Magic Railroad and Calling All Engines! (1991-1998, 2002-2003, 2005)

Bill and Ben's speechless face that appeared between the second and sixth series, excluding Thomas and the Magic Railroad (1986-1998, 2002)

Bill and Ben's cheeky face that appeared between the second and seventh series, excluding the fourth series and Thomas and the Magic Railroad (1986-1992, 1998, 2002-2003)

Bill and Ben's surprised face that appeared between the second and twelfth series, excluding the fourth, eighth, tenth and eleventh series, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Calling All Engines! and The Great Discovery (1986-1992, 1998, 2002-2003, 2005, 2008)

Bill and Ben's worried face that appeared between second and eleventh series, excluding the fourth, eighth, ninth and tenth series, Thomas and the Magic Railroad and Calling All Engines! (1986-1992, 1998, 2002-2003, 2007)

Bill and Ben's disappointed face that appeared between second and seventh series, excluding the fourth series and Thomas and the Magic Railroad (1986-1992, 1998, 2002-2003)

Bill and Ben’s smiling face that first appeared in a deleted scene from the eighth series episode, Thomas to the Rescue… (2004)

...and appeared on-screen between the ninth and twelfth series, excluding the eleventh series, Calling All Engines!, and The Great Discovery (2005-2006, 2008)

Bill and Ben's grinning face that only appeared in the eleventh series episode, Dream On... (2007)

...and The Great Discovery (2008)

Bill and Ben's surprised face during production of the second series (1986)

Bill and Ben's faces during production of the fourth series (1995)

Bill and Ben's faces during production of the sixth series (2002)

Page one of Bill and Ben's faces during production of the twelfth series (2008)

Page two of Bill and Ben's faces during production of the twelfth series (2008)

Bill and Ben's models were twice the size of their basis' in order to accommodate their eye mechanisms and motor. This was carried over to their CGI models.

In the fifth series episode, Double Teething Troubles, Bill and Ben were seen with lamps. They were powered by hidden battery packs.

During the production of the eighth series, the models had to go under some repair; Ben's model was refurbished with a new cab roof due to a huge crack.

Ben's model (Note: The huge crack on the cab roof)

Ben's chassis

The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI and the characters' faces were animated through CGI with the aid of motion capture animation. The moulded faces were replaced by white targets with triangles to fix a computer-animated face in post-production. Ben’s resin faces were only used in background shots.

Bill and Ben’s models are now currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan.

In 2019, faithful replica props were announced by CoolProps in Japan and supposed to be sold to the public. They used the original models located at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan for reference.

Ben and Bill

Sad and Angry faces

CGI models

In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. In 2013, Bill and Ben were created in CGI by Arc Productions. The model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Bill and Ben have had modifications throughout the CGI series. These include:

• Series 17:
  • Their faces became smaller, and were raised slightly higher up.
  • Permanent lamps and taillamps.
    • An additional sandbox was added on the footplate to mount the lamp.
    • An extra wood panel was added to the rear window to accommodate the taillamp.
  • Taller cabs.
  • Brass nameplates.
  • Red lining behind the "SCC" lettering on their boilers.
  • Red wheels.
  • External brake shoes.
  • Black domes and crossheads.
  • Brake pipes.
  • Yellow wheel lubricators on both sides, that connected to their valve gears.
  • Yellow siderod guards.
  • Black rivets on their front bufferbeam and coupling hook bases.
• Series 19:
  • Their crossheads became grey again.
  • The text on their nameplates became gold.
• Series 21:
  • Their crossheads became black again.

Bill CGI promo

Ben CGI promo

Final render

Cylinder

Bill's nameplate

Ben's nameplate

Funnel

Rear(s)

Front coupling

Wheels

Cab interior

Firebox

Coal bunker

Recoloured versions of Bill and Ben were made for the episode, Bill or Ben?. They were repainted dark blue with dark blue wheels, yellow lining and yellow lettering.

Voice Actors

Bill:

• Jonathan Broadbent (UK/US; seventeenth series - The Great Race)
• Tim Whitnall (UK/US; Big World! Big Adventures! only)
• Rasmus Hardiker (UK/US; twenty-second series - twenty-fourth seires)
• Tomoko Naka (Japan; second - seventh series)
• Noriko Shitaya (Japan; ninth series onwards, excluding The Great Race)
• Sakura Yoshioka (Japan; The Great Race only)
• Sascha Draeger (Germany; seventeenth series onwards)
• Marek Bocianiak (Poland)
• Christian Greger Strøm (Norway; seventeenth series only)
• Scott Maurstad (Norway; Tale of the Brave only)
• Reinder van der Naalt (The Netherlands)
• Alan Bravo (Latin America, seventeenth series onwards)
• Dor Srugo (Israel; Tale of the Brave only)
• Yehonatan Magon (Israel; excluding Tale of the Brave)
• Silas Borges (Brazil; seventeenth series onwards)
• Salvador Serrano Jr. (Spain; seventeenth series onwards)
• Antti L. J. Pääkkönen (Finland; Tale of the Brave onwards)
• Sasu Moilanen (Finland; Big World! Big Adventures!))
• Anton Savenkov (Russia; Emily Saves the World onwards)
• Loukas Frangoulis (Greece)

Ben:

• Jonathan Broadbent (UK/US; seventeenth series - The Great Race)
• Matt Wilkinson (UK/US; Big World! Big Adventures! - twenty-fourth series)
• Miyuki Hara (Japan; second - third series)
• Hiromi Nishida (Japan; fifth - seventh series)
• Noriko Shitaya (Japan; ninth series onwards, excluding The Great Race)
• Sakura Yoshioka (Japan; The Great Race only)
• Sascha Draeger (Germany; seventeenth series onwards)
• Wojciech Chorąży (Poland)
• Anders Sundstedt (Norway; seventeenth series only)
• Scott Maurstad (Norway; Tale of the Brave only)
• Reinder van der Naalt (The Netherlands)
• Carlos Domínguez (Latin America; seventeenth series only)
• Miguel Ángel Leal (Latin America; Tale of the Brave onwards)
• Yehonatan Magon (Israel)
• Silas Borges (Brazil; seventeenth series onwards)
• Miguel Ángel Poison (Spain; seventeenth series onwards)
• Joonathan Kettunen (Finland; Tale of the Brave onwards)
• Anton Savenkov (Russia; Emily Saves the World only)
• Loukas Frangoulis (Greece)