Bertie (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Bertie is a fictional bus created by the Rev. W. Awdry.

Bertie first appeared in the first series episode Thomas, Terence and the Snow, which first aired in 1984. His last appearance was in the twenty-fourth series episode Cleo's First Snow, which was released in 2020.

He is one of the most iconic non-rail characters in the series, and up until his absence in the twenty-second series due to the production team overhauling his model in order to make him realistic for the following series, he was the only non-rail character to appear in every series of the television series.

Voice
Bertie was originally voiced by Rupert Degas in both the UK and US English dubs of the television series from the fifteenth and sixteenth series of the television series (following Kevin Frank in Thomas and the Magic Railroad). After Degas left the series in 2012, Keith Wickham took over the role of Bertie and has continued to voice the character since. All three voice Bertie with a standard British accent.

Gauge 1 model
Bertie's model was custom built from plastic for the first series. The model was built to run on Styrofoam road and was painted in glossy car body paint. The model was built to fit small-scale figurines as passengers, so to make space, he was not fitted with an eye mechanism, and he had his eyes black-tacked into place. During production of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the model was rebuilt and refurbished.

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Bertie has had modifications throughout the model era. These include:
 * Series 2
 * The radiator cap disappears.
 * Series 3:
 * He gains eyebrows.
 * The black lining on his door disappeared.
 * His driver's door handle disappeared.
 * Series 4:
 * His horn sound mainly changed to another one that he mainly used in the same series and Bertie's main second horn sound was used until the seventh series. But he used Caroline's horn sound in Rusty to the Rescue.
 * Thomas and the Magic Railroad:
 * His paint was given a matte finish.
 * His horn sound changed again to another different one.
 * His lights became even more white.
 * Series 6:
 * After he gains a different horn sound that was later reused for Lorry 2 in Toby's Windmill and Bulgy in Best Dressed Engine.
 * Series 7:
 * Bertie's eyes now move when he is stationary as the moving eyes from one of the other characters were edited into the shot.
 * Series 8:
 * He regained Caroline's horn sound again.

Faces
Nine different facial expressions were sculpted for Bertie, although only eight were used on-screen and one of which an angry face was left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. A radiator was attached to each of Bertie's faces. For unknown reasons, the top corners of the radiator on Bertie's sad, shocked and tired faces were curved on instead of slanted like the rest of his faces, but the former two were later re-shaped during production of the eleventh or twelfth series. Bertie's chuckling face is now owned by twitter user ThomasTankMerch.

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Reference Sheets
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Close-up model
Close-up shots of Bertie was required for scenes where he had to interact with close-up scale figures. It appeared in the episodes, Seeing the Sights, Topped Off Thomas, the Learning Segment, Who Can Take Them? and the special, The Great Discovery. A close-up model of Bertie's rear wheel set was also made, but little information is known about this model.

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Reference Sheets
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CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Bertie was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software. Photographs of Bertie's Gauge 1 model were used for reference. 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.

Bertie has had modifications throughout the CGI series. These include:
 * Series 13:
 * His radiator was missing.
 * His face became longer.
 * Series 14:
 * His radiator returned.
 * Series 19:
 * His windows became glazed/tinted so his driver's face could no longer be seen.
 * Series 23:
 * He gains his CRD 54 license plate from the Railway Series.
 * He gains rearview wing mirrors.
 * He gains a bar across his front window and some of his side windows.
 * His front window gains a windshield wiper.
 * He gains rivets on his front end and beneath his right lamp.
 * He gains ridges along his body.
 * His front-right door gains a handle.
 * His black stripes and lining on his door disappeared.
 * His indicator is coloured gold.
 * His driver-side door is no longer painted on.

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

Pantone colours
The following pantone colours are used on Bertie's CGI model:

Voice Actors

 * Kevin Frank
 * Rupert Degas
 * Keith Wickham
 * Stephen Donald
 * Rob Rackstraw
 * Hikaru Midorikawa
 * Takafumi Kawakami
 * Mitsuhiro Sakamaki
 * Santiago Ziesmer
 * Gerhart Hinze
 * Rainer Schmitt
 * Helgo Liebig
 * Wolf Frass
 * Michael von Rospatt
 * Sigbjørn Solheim
 * Øyvind Borgemoen Lyse
 * Krystyna Kozanecka
 * Elżbieta Kijowska
 * Roberto Carrillo
 * Jorge Roig Jr.
 * Edson Matus
 * Jordi Estupiñá
 * Antonio Ramírez
 * Reinder van der Naalt
 * Hadar Shachaf Ma'ayan
 * Yehonatan Magon
 * Dor Srugo
 * Guilherme Briggs
 * Petteri Hynönen
 * Petrus Kähkönen
 * Haris Grigoropoulos
 * Loukas Frangoulis
 * Alexander Kotov
 * Denis Bespaliy
 * Anton Savenkov