| For other uses, see Thomas and the Magic Railroad (disambiguation). |
The Test Footage was a short sequence that was originally developed for the production of Thomas and the Magic Railroad during 1996.
Production
After the difficulties of working on narrow gauge engines through a small scale during Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends' fourth series and with Britt Allcroft's film based on the franchise moving further into production, the film crew made the decision to run a test of filming with models on a larger scale as well as testing special effects with putting live-action footage of a person into the Thomas world. Robert Gauld-Galliers played the role of Mr. Conductor. Models of Thomas and Percy were built by modelmaker David Eves. These two models were 3.5" gauge, and built to twice the size of the standard engines used for filming of the show previously, Gauge 1.
The crew was left with footage that had a runtime less than a standard episode. It was ultimately decided that it would be too costly to rebuild an entire new fleet of engines. The crew returned back to the Gauge 1 models for the fifth series of the show and Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
The 3.5" Thomas and Percy would later be repurposed as designated models for Jack and the Sodor Construction Company and close-up shots of the engines between the fifth to twelfth series of Thomas & Friends.