Diesel (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Diesel is a fictional standard gauge diesel locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry with inspiration by editor Eric Marriott.

He first appeared in the second series episode Percy Takes the Plunge, which first aired in 1986. His last appearance was in Thomas' Animal Friends, which was released in 2021.

Initially, Diesel's portrayal in the television series was faithful to The Railway Series, with his episodes being adapted straight from the book he appeared in. In the third series, Diesel made a reappearance in an original story not featured in The Railway Series, but instead based on the magazine stories.

After only appearing as a background character in the fourth series episode Rusty to the Rescue and being absent for the fifth series, Diesel returned in the following series.

Up until the sixth series, stories focusing on Diesel usually involved him causing trouble and being sent away for it. However, since the seventh series, Diesel has not had any form of acknowledgement that he belonged to the Other Railway and has remained on the North Western Railway ever since. He usually plays the role as the antagonist or the bully in most of the episodes he appears in, essentially building him up as the main antagonist of the series.

Voice
Michael Brandon voiced Diesel in the US dub of the show from 2009 to 2012, before Martin Sherman took over from 2013 to 2015. Both portrayed Diesel with a gruff American accent, while Kerry Shale portrayed him with a high-pitched British accent. Shale had voiced Diesel in the UK since 2009, and took over the role in the US in 2015, having voiced the character in both dubs since.

Gauge 1 model
Diesel's model was custom built with a plastic body shell and used a Märklin locomotive as a donor for the chassis and various parts. It was painted using glossy car body paint.

Diesel's wheels and toolboxes were sourced from a gauge 1 locomotive made by Märklin, the BR 80. The bufferbeam and stepladders were sourced from the DHG 500. The coupling chain was made by Tenmille.

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.

Because Diesel has outside frames and cranks, his model sometimes had his rods jammed whether he is stationary or moving as shown in one promotional image of Pop Goes the Diesel and in some measurement pictures, his counterweights are not in sync with his side rods position.

During production of Series 5, Diesel's model was used to shunt and haul background rolling stock.

Diesel has had modifications throughout the model era. These include:
 * Series 6:
 * His paint was given a matte finish.
 * His side rods changed from silver to black (leftover from Dodge).
 * His brake pipe began facing upwards.
 * His wheels became unpainted.
 * Series 9:
 * He gained a lamp under his face on the right (viewer's left).

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 in 2009 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 model made in gauge 1 scale, Diesel's model would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

Diesel's television series model is now on display at the Explore the Rails exhibition and is wearing his smiling face. It was previously on display at the British Museum during the 70th Anniversary.

Faces
Sixteen different facial expressions were sculpted for Diesel, although only fifteen were used on-screen and one of which a weary face was left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. Diesel's confused face is now owned by Twitter user TomsProps. His disgusted face was previously owned by a private collector.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Diesel was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Photographs of Diesel's Gauge 1 model were used for referencing. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.

Diesel has had modifications throughout the CGI series. These include:
 * Series 13:
 * His lamp disappeared.
 * Misty Island Rescue:
 * His horn sound changed to a stock recording of a Nathan K3H type.
 * Day of the Diesels:
 * He regained his original horn sound.
 * Series 17:
 * His horn sound was louder and shorter in duration.
 * Series 19:
 * He gained a headlamp above his face.
 * His coupling chain became red.
 * He gained a permanent tail lamp.
 * Series 20:
 * His coupling chain changed back to black.

Test model
A CGI Diesel model appeared in the CGI test of the episode Thomas and the Stinky Cheese. It was created by Stardust Pictures in 2008. In 2016, the face would be reused for one of The Mainland Diesels in the feature-length The Great Race and onwards.

Texture variants
In addition to his standard livery, a few other texture variants exist of Diesel's CGI model. These texture variants include:

Voice Actors

 * Kerry Shale
 * Michael Brandon
 * Martin Sherman
 * Rob Rackstraw
 * Jorge Ornelas
 * Harold Salazar
 * Daisuke Gōri
 * Hisao Egawa
 * Ken Sanders
 * Shinichi Ishihara
 * Paweł Galia
 * Janusz Wituch
 * Krzysztof Korzeniowski
 * Christoffer Staib
 * Helge Winther Larsen
 * Martin May
 * Christian Rudolf
 * Reinder van der Naalt
 * Anibal Munhoz
 * Jorge Teixeira
 * Rafael de la Rica
 * Miguel Ángel Poison
 * Adolfo Pastor
 * Michel Lasorne
 * Fabrice Trojani
 * Gadi Levy
 * Dor Srugo
 * Yoli Seker
 * Petri Hanttu
 * Quổc Tín
 * Ole Møller
 * Alexander Kotov
 * Daniil Eldarov
 * Bohdan Tůma
 * Vina Papadopoulou
 * Haris Grigoropoulos
 * Bolla Róbert