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Background Information
In 1995, the narrow gauge coaches were introduced in the fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. Three variations of coaches were made; blue and cream coaches, red coaches with yellow stripes, and green and cream coaches. They replaced the roles of Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima, Beatrice, Ada, Jane, Mabel, Gertrude and Millicent in the televised adaptations of the Skarloey Railway stories from The Railway 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 could of 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.
These coaches reappeared in sixth series but were no longer depicted with faces. The seventh series introduced the Refreshment Coach. They last appeared in the twelfth series.
Following the show's transition to CGI, these coaches were later replaced with ones that resembled the coaches on the Talyllyn Railway when the Skarloey Railway was reintroduced in 2012. Coaches based on the Glyn Valley Tramway coaches were added in 2018.
Behind the Scenes
O gauge models (Small scale)
These models were scratch-built to run on O gauge gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard during production of the fourth series. Three variations of coaches were made; blue and cream coaches, red coaches with yellow stripes, and open green and cream coaches. 4 of each of the 3 set of coaches were made. The coaches were designed by art director, Robert Gauld-Galliers, who based them off real narrow gauge coaches.
Like Annie and Clarabel, these coaches had the embedded faces and matched their paint schemes. The face ends were held on with black tack, allowing them to be detachable. The faceplates were made from Plasticard and depicted various facial expressions.
These coaches were made of resin. The original pattern for the sides was moulded so that multiple casts could be reproduced. So in effect, only one side and one end was made from scratch as a pattern. The side patterns included buffer beams and solebars. The wheels came from standard split spoke wagon wheels made by Slater's Plastikard. The coach roofs were made of both resin and wood. The coaches used Coopercraft buffers shortened to about half their original length.
The blue coaches resemble the livery of the coaches seen in The Railway Series, however they had much larger faces and their front and back were completely blue. Whenever the green coaches had faces, their ends were entirely cream-coloured. However, if they did not have faces, the green stripe on their sides was continued onto their ends.
The roofs were removable, this made it accessible for human figurines to be place inside the open coaches. Alternate variations of each type of coach were made with lower buffer beams to accommodate with engines such as Skarloey and Peter Sam who had abnormally low rear buffers.
As the Narrow Gauge engine models did not have enough space, a lot of some of the blue and red coaches had holes drilled underneath the chassis for the cables connecting to engine's eye mechanism receivers. The green and cream coaches could not hide the receiver and batteries for the engine's eye mechanisms due to their open sides. Usually, a covered coached appeared before the green coach because of this. In the case of Duke, as he had a tender to store his receiver and batteries, there was no need to always have a covered coach behind him.[1]
The glass was a thin sheet of clear plastic glued on the inside. During night time sequences, the covered coaches had battery-powered lights inside them. Defusing paper was also taped inside the windows to soften the light coming through it.
Coaches with faces
Coaches without faces
Coaches with low buffer beams
The small scale models were predominantly used in the fourth series. They were also used in the fifth series for in between shots where they would interact with the gauge 1 scaled characters and sets. The coaches have also appeared via stock-footage in the seventh series.
In some fourth series episodes, the blue coaches were seen with open doors. This was reproduced by bonding door parts to the side.
Present Day
Three small-scale models of the blue narrow gauge coaches along with two faces, three green coaches along with a face (with the face being sold by The Prop Gallery) and one red coach and face are now in possession of Twitter user ThomasTankMerch. Two of the green coaches and the red coach were restored by ThomasTankMerch. Three of the red coaches along with one face are in possession of Twitter user TomsProps.
O gauge models (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, the fifth series introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and rolling stock. From the sixth-twelfth series, these larger models were used almost exclusively. The narrow gauge coaches in particular were upscaled in production of the fifth series to be compatible with the large scale narrow gauge models introduced in the previous series. These models were built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and rolling stock and ran on O gauge track. They were close to 16mm scale, but slightly larger.[2]
The covered coaches windows were now clear and the coaches' roofs were removable, thus making it accessible for human figurines to be place inside all coaches. Alternate variations of each type of coach were made with lower buffer beams to accommodate with engines such as Skarloey who had abnormally low buffers. However, unlike their small scale counterparts, the models were never depicted with faces onscreen.
These coaches were made of resin. The original pattern for the sides was moulded so that multiple casts could be reproduced. So in effect, only one side and one end was made from scratch as a pattern. The wheels were sourced from Slater's Plastikard.
There were originally going to be faces for their large-scale models. However, they were never shown on-screen in the television series. Only two large-scale faces, each for the red and blue coaches respectively, are known to have been created.
These models were used exclusively throughout the sixth to twelfth series.
Standard type of narrow gauge coaches
Coaches with low bufferbeams
Present Day
After production of the model series ended in 2008, most of the large scale coaches were put into storage, they were all bundled in lots with one lot containing a blue coach, a green coach and the Refreshment Coach being listed as "TF00107".
One of the red coaches would be displayed at the first and third Awdry Extravaganza. The rest of the large scale coaches are currently still in storage.
Reference Sheets
Close-up models
Larger scale models of the blue and red coaches were built during production of the fourth series. These were required for scenes where the coaches had to interact with the close-up scale figures.
These models were able to be dismantled and resembled for use of interior shots. Furthermore, the close-up scale models were usually not built as complete models.
Blue coaches
Unlike the O gauge counterparts, the blue coach's close-up model never had windows and was painted completely blue. This model only appeared in the fourth series.
Red coaches
The red coach appeared in series 4, 9, 10 and 11. Inside the coach, two London Midland and Scottish Railway posters are seen in the tenth series episode, A Smooth Ride. This coach would be displayed at the Awdry Extravaganza 3 in 2023.
Green and cream coaches
The green and cream coach was built as a complete model. Posters of the "Coronation Scot" on the LMS and one for "Battle of Britain" on the Southern Railway are seen inside the coach. It appeared in Series 7 and 9.
CGI models
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Both types of narrow gauge coaches were created from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2012 for production of Series 16. The models were "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.[3]
Instead of reintroducing the pre-existing coaches, they were replaced with coaches resembling the ones featured on the Talyllyn Railway. These coaches are out of scale, being too long and too tall.
In the twenty-second series episode Counting on Nia, a new coach design which was based off the Glyn Valley Tramway coaches was introduced into the series. This type of coach was also created by Nitrogen Studios.
Voice Actors
Blue Coaches:
- Hideo Ishikawa (Japan; A Bad Day for Sir Handel)
- Yasunori Masutani (Japan; Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady)
Red Coaches:
- Nobuhiko Kazama (Japan; Four Little Engines)
- Yasuhiro Takato (Japan; A Bad Day for Sir Handel)