Hank/Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

This is a behind the scenes subpage for Hank. This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information

Hank is a fictional American standard gauge tender locomotive created by Sharon Miller.

In 2008, Hank was introduced in the twelfth series of Thomas & Friends. He only appeared in the episode, Heave Ho Thomas!. Both narrations, Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon, give him a Southern accent which reflects his basis' origin.

Hank is based on the PRR Class K4s. In early sketches made in 2007 by Philip Reeves, Hank was originally planned to be a Union Pacific Heavy Challenger class.^[1] Furthermore, according to Sodor Island Fansite (SiF)'s interview with model maker and designer John Lee, Hank was originally designed to have an older face with a handlebar moustache. However, at HiT Entertainment's request, John made Hank look slightly younger and more jolly.^[2]

Behind the Scenes

Gauge 1 Model

Hank's models were scratch-built to run on gauge 1 track by model maker, John Lee. Two models of Hank were built in case one stopped working or got damaged during filming. The models were made out of plastic, the bells, whistles and smokebox were made of brass and fibreglass,^[3] and the body was painted in a matte finish and lined with red and gold automotive pinstripe tape. They were also built to a 1:32 scale.^[4]

The models were track powered, so pick-up contacts were attached to the metal wheels, which ran into the motor to power it. The electricity ran from the track to the wheels/pick-up contacts and went into the motor to power him. To save time and money, Hank’s wheels were made from the same tooling as Spencer's wheels. Hank's running gear assembly was built by model-maker, Mike Wall. Hank's buffers were sourced from Tenmille as well as his tender bogie.

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.

Reference Sheets

Series 12

Faces

In background shots, Hank wore moulded faces as at the time of the model’s construction, the modelmakers were unsure if the characters would have CGI faces for these shots.

Five different facial expressions were sculpted for Hank, although only one was used on-screen and one of which (a laughing face) was used in a promotional shot whilst three of which (sad, shocked and smirking) were left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. The faces were designed by John Lee, and sculpted by model-maker, Clare Kinross.^[7]^[8]

Reference Sheets

Usage and Evolution

Present Day

In 2022, Hank's duplicate smiling face would be sold by The Prop Gallery. It, alongside Hank's duplicate unused sad face, are now owned by X user Machan of Sodor.^[9] All of Hank's faces would later be displayed at The World of Thomas the Tank Engine Exhibition at the Kyoto Railway Museum on 15 March 2025. A duplicate smirking face was also put up for auction as part of Propstore's Thomas & Friends Online Charity Auction 2025. Production-made casts of Hank's smiling and sad faces as well as semi-complete copies of his smirking and shocked faces are owned by YouTube user ThomasFan U.K.^[10]^[11]

CGI Face

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. A white target with triangles was placed on the front of Hank’s smokebox to fix a computer-animated face in post-production.

Present Day

After production of the model series wrapped in 2008, most of the models and sets would be put into storage, with some being put on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park. All other models would be logged and referenced from 2010 till early 2011 by HiT Entertainment, from this HiT would decide on which models were to enter storage once again, which would be given to crew members and which to be disposed off. Due to only having one set of gauge 1 scale models made, Hank's models would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

From 2020 to late 2022 one of Hank's television series models was on display at the Discover Thomas & Friends Exhibition at Drayton Manor Theme Park and wore his happy face mask. In July of 2022, Hank switched places with Molly after she took the place of Daisy on the layout.

After the exhibit closed and a new layout would be constructed elsewhere in the park, the model would be returned to storage. On 15 March 2025, one of Hank's models was put on display at The World of Thomas the Tank Engine Exhibition at the Kyoto Railway Museum and in April, as part of the 80th Anniversary celebrations, Mattel would put Hank's second model, as well as 2 faces, up for auction as part of Prop Store's Thomas & Friends Online Charity Auction 2025 in order to raise money for the National Autistic Society.^[12]

Present Day Ruler Reference Photos

Voice Actors

Fabrice Trojani (France and French speaking Canada)
Christian Stark (Germany)
Przemysław Bluszcz (Poland)

References

[1] @PRRFanDoesTrain on X (1, 2, 3)

[2] John Lee | Sodor Island Fansite

[3] John Lee's website (archived)

[4] Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (Series 2 -12) on Pinewood Studios

[Toryreck-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 @Toryreck on X

[6] @Toryreck on X

[7] John Lee's website (archived)

[8] TomsProps on X

[9] @MachanofSodor on X

[10] Thomas & Friends Prop Special Episode 11 - Production Made Hank The Giant Engine Face Casts | YouTube

[11] Thomas & Friends Prop Special Episode 12 - Production Made Hank The Giant Engine Casts | YouTube

[12] Hank the American Engine Model with Two Faces on the Thomas & Friends Online Auction

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]