Season 4 Narrow Gauge Explained

Season 4 Narrow Gauge Explained

After public outcry from The Reverend Awdry himself regarding the stories of the third season straying from books on which they were supposed to be based, it was decided the 4th season of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends would take a more conservative approach, choosing to stick closer to Awdry's work.

The crew had been having trouble finding suitable stories to adapt into episodes dating back to the second season, when Britt Allcroft commissioned Christopher Awdry to write "Even more about Thomas the Tank Engine" for the sake of future television adaptions. The third season had simply made up it's own material to work around this, but this caused controversy.

Season 4 found the solution to this issue with the introduction of the narrow gauge engines.  This opened up a wealth of new stories previously off limits that could now be brought to the small screen without deviating to much from Awdry's material. Althought that's not to say Britt and David did not take certain liberties.

The fourth season is for the most part regarded as the most atheistically pleasing series of the entire show, and this is in no small part to the narrow gauge models and sets. How were these models made? How did they work? Why were they only used for such a short time? When did they last appear?

We will answer all of this and more, just keep on reading.

One of the most striking things about the season 4 narrow gauge models were the colors, as evident in this shot of Sir Handel from "Steam Roller".

The Locomotives

A total of 7 small scale narrow gauge locomotives were made. Each was custom built from brass by model maker Peter Eves. They were painted using glossy car body paint and lined with letraline tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed foil stickers, and they ran on Peco O gauge track with every other sleeper removed.

While the bodies were all completely custom, many of the smaller components found on the models were off the shelf items. For example, all models used Slater's brand O gauge wheels. 5 of the steam engines used the Slater's 10 spoke Wantage Tramway wheels, while Sir Handel used the Manning Wardle wheels with thicker tyres put on to achieve the "steam roller wheels" look. Rusty most likely used unspoked SM32 "Quarry Hunslet" wheels.

Slater's Manning Wardle 7mm wheels being used on an O gauge locomotive chassis.

The buffers came from slater as well, with most engines using the square based short sprung buffers.

Slater's buffers used by many of the narrow gauge engines.

The side rods were sourced from old OO scale Triang models and modified slightly to fit. The Triang Princess Royal and Hall in particular were used to create most of the valve gears on the engines.

On Sir Handel, the rods from the Triang Princess were modified so the rods connect to the crosshead on the outside rather then the inside.

Duke used rods directly lifted from a Triang Hall class with little modification.

All the steam engines used some variation of these pieces. Rheneas and Peter Sam for example used the crosshead off one of either the Triang Hall or Princess Royal but on custom rods, with Peter Sam's being shorter and Rheneas's being longer.

These rods did not fit well at all and the engine ran notoriously bad. You can see this in various episodes. A notable example is in the beginning of "Trucks" when Sir Handel is roughly shunting the open wagons. You can see him take off from a dead stop at breakneck speed. This is due to the rods being stuck and unjamming once enough power was applied to the rails causing Sir Handel to shoot forward.

It's evident Sir Handel's rods were playing up in this scene from "Trucks".

The electronics

Each engine had a motor to power it mounted inside the chassis as well as an eye mechanism. There was no room to fit a smoke mechanism or the battery and receiver needed for the R/C eyes.

You'll notice they loved to shoot tons of smoke up from under the set while filming all the narrow gauge episodes. This was for two reasons. 1, to create a lot of smoke and hide the fact the engines did not actually have smoke mechanisms, and 2, to blast some smoke up through the open chassis, and out the open funnel in hopes of creating the illusion of puffing smoke. Although the engines do not puff smoke, you'll notice in scenes where smoke is released from the set under them that the smoke does tend to drift out the funnel and create the illusion they do for a brief moment.

You can see smoke being shot up from under the set and drifting out of Skarloey's funnel in this shot from "Four Little Engines"

The eye mechanism was another issue. Because the engines were so small, the typical eye mechanism used on the gauge one engines could not be used. Instead the servos were mounted in the cab. This is why the cabs and windows were always blacked out. Metal rods went all the way from the servos in the cab to a bracket in the smoke box behind the faceplate, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. This limited the range of movement of the eyes as well as being cumbersome and jamming often. There's many shots throughout the season where you see an engine's eyes jolt suddenly, this is the mechanism getting stuck and quickly unjamming.

A crude drawing showing how the eye mechanism was set up. You can see why it was so unreliable.

If that isn't bad enough, there was no room inside the locomotives for the R/C receiver and battery needed to operate the eyes. Wires from the servos had run out from under the engine and connect to the batteries and receiver which were either hidden inside rolling stock while the engine was moving, or hidden behind the engine or scenery when the engine was static. If you ever wondered why the engines always seem to have a single wagon or van behind them, it was simply to hide the receiver and battery for the eye mechanism. If the engine is running light, the eyes will not be moving because there is nothing to hide the battery/receiver inside.

Duncan with his eye mechanism battery clearly visible behind him. In the episode this shot is head on so it could be hidden behind him.

Ever wonder why Sir Handel was pulling this odd consist in "A Bad Day for Sir Handel?" Because the battery and receiver for the eye mechanism could not be hidden in the open air green and cream coaches hence a red coach had to be put directly behind him to conceal them.

You can see the wires from the servos coming out from under Skarloey and going into the red coach in this shot from Granpuff.

Here you can see Sir Handel pulling a slate truck with a receiver disguised as a slate load. It sits significantly higher then the regular slate loads.

Here's Duncan pulling his receiver disguised as a slate load in the season 5 episode "Duncan Get's Spooked". Again, note how it's much taller then all the other loads.

The Rolling Stock

The narrow gauge rolling stock was all made from resin. The original patterns were made from Perspex with the exception of the slate and brown open wagons which were from wood. These patterns were then cast in resin to create the final rolling stock you see in the show.

The brown open wagons and slate wagons were the only wagons which were cast from a wood pattern, not a perspex one.

All the goods wagons used Slater's Hudson "Skip" 4 hole disc wagon wheels and Slater's coupling hooks and chains, although these hooks were cast in resin and used as well. The resin coupling hooks proved to be  fragile and broke easily. They all rode on Coopercraft 7mm wagon chassis with a portion of the middle cut out to shorten the length. The van and coach roofs were made of both resin and wood.

The Slater's wheels used on all the narrow gauge goods wagons.

The slate wagon heading the charge against Peter Sam in the episode "Trucks" had a resin coupling hook, which evidently broke off as seen here.

O gauge Coopercraft wagon chassis with a small portion of the middle removed were used on all goods rolling stock. Shortened Coopercraft buffers were used on the coaches as well.

The coaches on the other hand used Slater's standard split spoke wagon wheels. Unlike the rolling stock which had tiny wood blocks for buffers, the coaches used Coopercraft buffers shortened to about half their original length.

Slater's split spoke wagon wheels were used on all coaches.

One interesting fact about the rolling stock is that at least one of each type of wagon/coach was given a lowered buffer beam. Almost all the rolling stock's buffers/couplings sat much higher then the engines. The theory was that the piece of rolling stock with the lowered buffer beam would end up being placed behind the engine as to have the buffers match as well as ease coupling tension. Most of the time however the lowered buffer beam wagons can be spotted anywhere in the train without regard of being behind the locomotive.

A slate wagon with a lowered buffered beam as seen in "Duncan Get's Spooked".

A red van with a lowered buffer beam as seen in "Rock N' Roll".

A blue coach with a lowered buffer beam as seen in "Special Funnel".

Answers to frequently asked questions

Here's just a random list of question we see asked on Twitter forums, etc. we think we can give a definite answer to.

Was Peter Sam's old funnel removed?

Peter Sam's old funnel was actually not removed. The old funnel was kept in place while the new funnel was put over. The new funnel was simply a brass box meant to slip over the old funnel, hence the square shape. This is why it is not thin and long like an actual giesl ejector. It's also worth noting the paint doesn't match his smokebox. It's a matte black while the smokebox seems to be a gloss. This theory is proven by the fact Peter Sam with his old funnel can be seen in the season 5 episode "Duncan gets Spooked". We can only assume the newer one fell off and they forgot to place it on.

The paint on the new funnel doesn't match at all. You can also see some brass showing through here.

Peter Sam with his old funnel as seen in the 5th season episode "Duncan Get's spooked".

How were Stuart and Falcon's nameplates done?

The crew made the mistake of building Peter Sam and Sir Handel with their respective nameplates and filming the Mid Sodor railway scenes last. Rather then peeling the original nameplates off, the "Stuart" and "Falcon" nameplates were placed over the original "Sir Handel" and "Peter Sam" nameplates. This would have worked had it been the other way around, but as you would expect the original nameplates were much longer then the "Stuart" and "Falcon" ones. They answered this issue by simply covering the original longer nameplates with black tape and sticking the newer shorter ones over them. The final product looked pretty dodgy.

Was Bertram made back into Duke?

Bertram was repainted back into Duke, albeit hastily. A photo of a 2004 style promo showing him appeared on the back of a book or DVD cover, and it's clear the color does not match his season 4 look at all. It also appears his buffer beam was not painted red.

Why did the small narrow gauge engines only last a season?

The small scale narrow gauge engines basically had everything working against them from day one. They were too small for the camera to focus properly making depth of field a constant issue, they were poor runners because of their ill fitting side rods sourced from Triang models, they lacked smoke units, the receiver and batteries for the eyes could not be fit inside the models and had to be hidden inside rolling stock or somewhere on set, and the cramped eye mechanisms would constantly jam up. In short they were a nightmare to work and actually did in fact cause "confusion and delay". This made building new models in a larger scale the very next season a priority. Despite all their faults, nobody can deny the smaller scale narrow gauge models were some of the best looking on the show, much more so then their larger counterparts.

"That'll be the day!"

When was the last time the smaller scale narrow gauge stuff appeared?

Although the small scale narrow gauge engine and rolling stock stopped formally appearing after season 5, some of it did pop up from time to time.

Some small scale rolling stock was used as set dressing in the season 7 episode "The Old Bridge".

The small Rusty and some slate wagons appeared in the 2004 special "Calling All Engines". He does not look to be repainted.

The small scale Peter Sam appeared in the season 9 episode "The Magic Lamp. This was done because they did not have a larger narrow gauge scale Harold, so the big model would have looked severely out of scale.

The small scale Peter Sam in the same condition sold on Vectis Auctions in 2014 along with a lower buffer beam Slate wagon. Note the matte paint as well as painted on lining and name/number plates.

The small Skarloey appeared in the season 10 episode "Thomas and Skarloey's big day out". It was used in scenes where Thomas had to take Skarloey on sets that were made in gauge 1, not larger narrow gauge scale.

In conclusion...

Despite their flaws, I can personally say the season 4 narrow gauge episodes are among my favorite of the entire series. engaging and entertaining stories coupled with top tier visuals with fun, colorful and proportional models made for the high point of the show. The larger scale models, although superior in terms of operation, cannot compete visually with their smaller counterparts. The faces on the larger ones especially are vastly inferior and goofy looking compared to the tight and snarky looking originals. We're lucky enough to own a few artifacts from this era of the show and they sit among our most prized possessions.

From left to right: Rheneas, Sir Handel, Duncan, and Duke.

We hope you enjoyed this blog and maybe even learned something too! Our next blog will most likely be on the making and history of the faces, so stay tuned.

All images not taken by us were sourced from the Thomas & Friends Wiki.