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Background Information[]
Television Series[]
Owen is a fictional incline traction engine created by Sharon Miller, Andrew Brenner, and Ian McCue.
In 2012, Owen made his debut in the special, Blue Mountain Mystery.
Originally, Owen was voiced by Ben Small (UK/US) in the CGI version of the series on both sides of the Atlantic. Following Small's departure, Owen has been voiced by Rob Rackstraw from 2019 to 2020. Both voice Owen with a Welsh accent.
Owen is based on the incline at the Dinorwic Slate Quarry. Unlike his basis, however, Owen does not have a transfer table at the bottom of the incline.
Early concept art of the Blue Mountain Quarry revealed Owen was originally going to be a crane named Bud. While Merrick was originally named Bradley and was positioned spanning the incline.
Behind the Scenes[]
CGI model[]
Owen was created from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2010 for production of the 2012 special Blue Mountain Mystery. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.[1]
According to Greg Tiernan, the CGI models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.[1]
Voice Actors[]
- Ben Small (UK/US; Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth series)
- Rob Rackstraw (UK/US; twenty-third series - twenty-fourth series)
- Raúl Solo (Latin America; Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth series)
- Rolando de la Fuente (Latin America; twenty-third and twenty-fourth series)
- Jun'ichi Kanemaru (Japan)
- Konstantin Graudus (Germany; Blue Mountain Mystery only)
- Michael Bideller (Germany; seventeenth series onwards)
- Stig Krogstad (Norway; Blue Mountain Mystery only)
- Anders Sundstedt (Norway; seventeenth series only)
- Miłogost Reczek (Poland)
- Ángel Amorós (Spain)
- Denis Bespaliy (Russia)
- Petri Hanttu (Finland)
- Ole Møller (Denmark)
- Dláigelles Silva (Brazil; twenty-third and twenty-fourth series)