The Troublesome Trucks (also called Cars or Freight Cars, originally Foolish Freight Cars, in the US narration) are pieces of rolling stock that are nicknamed so because they can be very troublesome, and love to play tricks on the engines.
Open Wagons are the most common Troublesome Trucks. They can be seen working in most places on the North Western Railway. They carry a variety of loads, including crates, stone, slate and coal. Plank trucks are the most common type of open wagon trucks.
Plank trucks are based on 5 and 7-plank open wagons. The smaller trucks are based on the narrow gauge Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway open wagon, scaled up accordingly. The slate trucks are based on the 2-bar wooden slate wagons of the Talyllyn Railway, scaled up accordingly.
Livery
In The Railway Series and the early television series, the plank trucks were painted in a number of different liveries. Typically, Private Owner plank wagons had their own liveries in great multitude. Currently, in the television series, they are predominantly painted grey. In Big World! Big Adventures!, some of the plank trucks in Brazil were painted purple-red. In the twenty-second series, some plank trucks in China are painted black with red buffer beams. In the twenty-third series, the trucks in India are painted either orange or white. Green and dark blue ones were introduced in the twenty-fourth series.
In the early television series, the vans were painted primarily in grey or brown. Currently, they are predominantly painted cream. In Big World! Big Adventures!, some of the vans in Africa were painted green and light grey. Lei, a van in China, is painted pink with red buffer beams.
For further information, see main article: Tankers
The Tankers are used to carry a variety of liquids. Most of the tankers in The Railway Series and television series do not have faces. The only types to be seen with faces are the standard tankers, tar tankers, milk tankers, a fuel tanker and oil tankers.
Livery
The Oil Tankers and Tar Tankers are painted black, with their respective symbols on their sides. The Milk Tankers are painted white with "TIDMOUTH MILK" in blue lettering, In Misty Island Rescue onwards, the logo was replaced with a a circle with a picture of a cow in it colored in blue lining. The Standard Tankers are painted black with blank sides and the Fuel Tanker from The Railway Series is painted yellow. In Big World! Big Adventures!, some tankers in Africa were painted dark purple.
Every wise engine knows trucks cannot be trusted. On railway networks in Great Britain and Sodor, trucks could be considered the rebels and the troublemakers of all rolling stock on the railway, as most of them love to cause trouble and show no remorse for whatever damage they do unless they are told off by their engine or controller that knows how to handle them. If an engine is having a bad day, makes a mistake, or is naive and easily played upon, the trucks begin their wild antics of singing, name-calling, holding back, shoving, bumping, giggling, teasing and so on. They will play tricks on an engine based on how they treat them. They are known to be the cause of many accidents and some of them are a form of revenge due to mistreatment. They are not known for their common sense; they will carry out their plans to pay back an engine or cause trouble out of boredom even if they result in derailing, damaging or in some instances, destroying themselves. Very rarely do they behave, if they ever do.
Trucks can also be described as territorial; when they get used to certain engines pulling them, another engine in the yard to take them may cause confusion or anger for the trucks. For example, there was an occasion when Toby and Percy switched jobs, making Toby's trucks furious and causing Percy to crash. In another instance, when Oliver was to work with certain trucks, they refused for him to take them and demanded Duck or Donald or Douglas instead.
To the trucks, one engine is as good as another, as on one occasion they took their anger out on Thomas when they could not get back at James for bumping them. Another occasion was when Toby was pushed by the trucks when he took them instead of Mavis, the latter of whom had asked them to push her at the level crossing, but the trucks decided to bump him anyway.
Trucks are also shown to be somewhat manipulative and can take advantage of other engines that do not know much about them. This was shown when they tricked Bill and Ben by telling them where to put them when they said they wanted to help, only to end up causing delays when the trucks ended up all over the sidings in messy situations, making the twins late to fetch Gordon's coaches.
The only engines the trucks are known not to play tricks on are Edward, Stepney, Wilbert, Hiro, Rebecca and Salty as well as Toby and Mavis from the fifth series onwards. These engines have their ways of necessary sternness and knowledge of how to properly discipline them when they misbehave and only bump them when they deserve it. Conversely, Diesel believed that the only way to get the trucks to behave was by using violence, but this only made them behave worse, leading him to have to be taught by Hiro how to deal with the trucks' antics. Salty's way of handling trucks is singing musical tunes for them to sing along to, so as to keep their minds off of misbehaving. With Rebecca, when they tried to play tricks on her, they were instead befuddled by the end of their journey with her as she went along with their antics instead of letting them get to her. In fact, she even looked forward to taking them again. Additionally, the trucks are hesitant to play tricks on Peter Sam due to his friendly nature, though some once crashed into him on the Incline when they mistook him for Sir Handel, who often bumps them regardless whether or not they behave.
They are also afraid of Donald and Douglas after the latter crushed the Spiteful Brake Van to pieces and Oliver since he pulled a privately owned truck called S.C. Ruffey - who was also their leader - apart. Although they were all accidents, the trucks were never told that and since these incidents, they always keep in mind never to play tricks on those engines.
However, in other countries around the world, there are trucks that are shown to act very differently than the ones on Sodor, being very polite and even helpful to the engines instead of causing trouble. Like their Sodor counterparts, these trucks sing songs for their enjoyment but do so for the engines that pull them to enjoy rather than to tease them.
Bernard Demory (France and French speaking Canada; sixth series onwards; excluding the eighth - twelfth series)
Michel Lasorne (France and French speaking Canada; eighth - twelfth series)
Shinobu Satouchi (Japan; Edward and Gordon, Thomas and the Trucks, Thomas and the Breakdown Train, Troublesome Trucks, Percy Runs Away, The Flying Kipper, Dirty Objects, Thomas, Percy and the Coal, Percy Takes the Plunge, A Close Shave, Break Van, Percy's Predicament, Toad Stands By, Busy Going Backwards, The World's Strongest Engine and The Spotless Record)
Kōzō Shioya (Japan; Edward and Gordon, Thomas and the Trucks, Thomas and the Breakdown Train, Troublesome Trucks, Dirty Objects, Percy's Predicament and Gordon and the Famous Visitor)
Yasuhiro Takato (Japan; Pop Goes the Diesel, Dirty Work, Gordon and the Famous Visitor, Toad Stands By, Oliver's Find and The World's Strongest Engine)
Ryō Horikawa (Japan; Pop Goes the Diesel, Dirty Work and Emily's New Route)
Toshio Kobayashi (Japan; Diesel Does it Again, Trust Thomas, Mavis, Toby's Tightrope, Oliver Owns Up, Toad Stands By, Harvey to the Rescue and Percy's Chocolate Crunch)
Yūki Satō (Japan; Trust Thomas, Mavis, Toby's Tightrope, Special Attraction, Put Upon Percy, A Surprise for Percy, Busy Going Backwards, The World's Strongest Engine, Percy's Chocolate Crunch, Buffer Bother, Edward the Very Useful Engine and Emily's New Route)
Yasuhiko Kawazu (Japan; Oliver Owns Up, Oliver's Find and A Surprise for Percy)
Naoki Tatsuta (Japan; Toad Stands By, Special Attraction, The World's Strongest Engine, Something Fishy, James Gets a New Coat, Emily's New Route and Fish)
Tetsu Inada (Japan; James and the Trouble with Trees)
Tomohisa Asō (Japan; Put Upon Percy and Edward the Very Useful Engine)
Hisao Egawa (Japan; Haunted Henry, A Surprise for Percy, Salty's Secret, Harvey to the Rescue, Buffer Bother, Edward the Very Useful Engine, The Spotless Record, James Gets a New Coat, Emily's New Route and Fish)
Moriya Endo (Japan; Haunted Henry and Oliver's Find)
Keiji Hirai (Japan; Edward the Very Useful Engine)
Nobuaki Kanemitsu (Japan; Emily Knows Best, Saving Edward, Hector the Horrid!, James Works it Out, Percy and the Bandstand, Ho Ho Snowman, King of the Railway, The Smelly Kipper, Tale of the Brave, Missing Gator, Who's Geoffrey?, Salty All At Sea, Henry Gets the Express, Diesel and the Ducklings, Bradford the Brake Van, Daisy's Perfect Christmas and Chucklesome Trucks)
Mitsuhiro Sakamaki (Japan; Emily Knows Best, No More Mr. Nice Engine, Missing Gator, The Other Side of the Mountain and Chucklesome Trucks)
Noriko Shitaya (Japan; Hector the Horrid!, The Smelly Kipper and Big World! Big Adventures!)
Kunihiro Kawamoto (Japan; Thomas Toots the Crows, Thomas the Quarry Engine, Missing Gator, Salty All at Sea, Den and Dart, The Other Side of the Mountain, Philip's Number, Big World! Big Adventures! and Crowning Around)
Takayuki Kawasugi (Japan; Tale of the Brave, Den and Dart, The Other Side of the Mountain, Henry Gets the Express, Diesel and the Ducklings, Bradford the Brake Van, Philip's Number, The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor, Journey Beyond Sodor and Crowning Around)
Yuta Odagaki (Japan; Missing Gator, Journey Beyond Sodor and Big World! Big Adventures!)
Takuya Iwabata (Japan; Missing Gator and Big World! Big Adventures!)
From the sixth series onwards in the US, the term "truck" is used more often. In more recent series, however, the US has been more consistent in using the term "car", unless referring to the Troublesome Trucks.
The audio clip of the trucks laughing heard from the second through seventh series is actually Junior Campbell and Mike O'Donnell's laughing sound in a higher-pitch, as is the clip of the trucks singing their songs, "Pop Goes the Diesel" and "Pop Goes Old Ollie". However, Junior did both their laughing and singing voices while Mike only did their laughing voices.
In the first series, the Troublesome Trucks had paper eyes and a paper mouth similar to how Annie and Clarabel's were made. No other emotions besides an angry expression were able to be used until the following series when they were given face masks to present a greater variety of facial expressions.
The Troublesome Trucks went through several aesthetic changes in the television series:
Several trucks in other countries are seen with different liveries and facial features.
Some face masks of S.C. Ruffey, Toad, Bulstrode and The Spiteful Brake Van have been seen on the trucks.
In the second series episode, A Close Shave, a brake van is seen with a troublesome trucks face.
Eight original Troublesome Truck face masks along with several truck models that were used on-screen are now owned by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch. Another Troublesome Truck face mask is owned by Twitter user IsaacM6991, as well as Twitter user TomProps.
From the first series to the fifth series, the wagons and Troublesome Trucks used in the television series were made out of vaccuformed plastic Tenmille gauge 1 kits.
In both the UK & US versions of the CGI series each of the Troublesome Trucks have American accents apart from one truck in Tale of the Brave who had a British accent. This also occurs with some other trucks in the Meet the Steam Team video, Meet Rebecca.
