Skarloey Engine Sheds (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

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This is a behind the scenes subpage for Skarloey Engine Sheds (T&F). This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information

The Skarloey Engine Sheds are a set of fictional engine sheds located at Crovan's Gate created by the Rev. W. Awdry.

Pendre Sheds, the basis for the Skarloey Railway Engine Sheds

The original barn at Pendre

The Skarloey Engine Sheds as they appear in the Railway Series

The sheds first appeared in the fourth series episode Sleeping Beauty, which first aired in 1995. Its last appearance was in the twenty-fourth series episode Thomas' Animal Friends, which was released in 2021.

Behind the Scenes

Gauge 1 models

The original model for the Skarloey Engine Sheds was built for the fourth series.

Concept art

The sheds were also reused for various other locations:

The barn reused at the Skarloey Slate Quarry

The barn reused at Cros-ny-Cuirn

The barn reused as Hackenbeck Shed

The barn reused at Brendam Docks

The carriage shed reused as a car garage next to The Flour Mill

The barn reused at the sawmill

The carriage shed reused as Stepney's Shed

The carriage shed reused as a building on the Main Line

The barn reused at The Coal Mines

The barn reused at the Sodor China Clay Company

Midway through the fifth series, the sheds were repainted grey and reused for several other sets:

The carriage shed reused at Boulder Quarry

The carriage shed reused as a building at Bertram's Old Mine

The sheds reused at the Skarloey Slate Quarry

Gauge 3 models

For ease of filming and reliability, the fifth series introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and their environments. From the sixth-twelfth series, these larger models were used almost exclusively. They were 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.

Starting from sixth series, The Depot became the main yard and shed area for the narrow gauge engines. Given that the sheds at the depot are large scale versions of the original Skarloey Engine Sheds, it is unclear if the depot was originally intended to be the same place as the original sheds or an entirely new location. Later depictions of the Island of Sodor would classify these sets as two different locations.

For more information, see The Depot page.

Reference Sheets

The carriage shed ruler reference

Short shed ruler reference

Barn ruler reference

Close-up model

A close-up model of a small portion of the Skarloey Engine Sheds was built to be used for scenes involving the close-up scale figures.

CGI models

In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. The large scale depot sheds were recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios for the 2012 special, Blue Mountain Mystery. The models were "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

The large scale "depot" sheds in full CGI

During production of the eighteenth series, The Skarloey Engine Sheds were once again recreated in CGI by, this time by Arc Productions. Though the sheds appear to be based on their fourth series depictions, there are numerous differences between the two iterations, most notably the absence of the carriage shed and surrounding yards, as well as the closer proximity to Crovan's Gate station.

The "original" sheds as they appear in the eighteenth series