Edward (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Edward is a fictional standard gauge tender locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is the No. 2 engine on the North Western Railway.

Edward first appeared in the first series episode Edward and Gordon, which first aired in 1984. His last appearance was in the twenty-fourth series episode A New Arrival, which was released in 2020.

Thomas and the Magic Railroad
Edward was not in any known draft of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. According to Phil Fehrle, there was not enough screen time and opportunity to utilise him in a way that added any real value to the film. As a result, he was the only engine of the original seven created by Wilbert Awdry not to appear.

Steam Team
In the eighth series, Edward was among the members of the Steam Team, the main cast of eight central characters. However, following the twenty-second series, Edward was removed from the Steam Team in favour of Nia to join to fix the gender imbalance at Tidmouth Sheds and diversify the Thomas & Friends franchise. Following this, he was relegated to being a supporting character.

Voice
Keith Wickham portrayed him with an English accent in the UK, though William Hope gave him a Southern American accent in the US. Hope's Edward voice also lacks the stereotypical drawl of the typical Southern American dialect, making him sound much younger than he actually is. Much like many early voice performances in the CGI series, Hope's performance as Edward occasionally lowered in pitch before raising to higher ranges. Tim Whitnall tried voicing Edward in the US dub of the eighteenth series episode Spencer's VIP, but did not make the final cut.

Gauge 1 models
Edward's original model was scratch built from a few different types of plastic sheeting of varying thicknesses and used a Märklin locomotive as a donor for the chassis and various parts. It was painted using car body paint and lined with red and yellow automotive pinstripe tape, with his numbers being custom cut vinyl stickers.

Four different models were used as donors to make the engines after it was decided to use a more reliable base for the props. These were all gauge 1 models made by the German company Märklin. They are the BR 38, BR 55, BR 78 and BR 80.

Edward's main chassis was sourced from the BR 55, which was cut down to only have the rear four wheels from the original 0-8-0 arrangement. His tender wheels and clips that held the wheels were from the tender of the BR 55 as well as his tender buffer beam.

He also used some parts from the BR 78. These include his front buffer beam, sourced from Gordon's donor model, and a bogie with two ten spoke wheels on it. This bogie was shortened to make the wheels closer together and give a more appropriate look for his 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. His tender used the front steps from the BR 78, which unlike Henry's steps from the rear of the BR 78, were never reinforced. Over time they broke off and he had new ones made from thin square rods of plastic to mimic the look of his originals.

As seen in a photograph taken by David Payne from when Edward was first built, Edward's leading wheels did not have power pickups, they were later added once filming started on the first series. This was likely done due to performance issues after the heavy alterations the chassis went through, which made it so there were less pickups than the unmodified chassis.

Edward's plastic model was originally AC powered as this is how the Märklin locomotives were powered. During a refurbishment, his AC motor was replaced by a DC motor to allow for easier running and maintenance since there were fewer wires and components to deal with.

Model Changes
Edward's gauge 1 models had gone through several aesthetic changes in the television series:
 * Series 3:
 * Edward's angry face gains some teeth.
 * Series 4:
 * The lining on his wheel arches became slightly thinner and moved outward.
 * His whistle sound changed pitch.
 * Series 5:
 * His whistle sound went back to its original pitch (excluding James and the Trouble with Trees).
 * Series 6:
 * His paint was given a matte finish.
 * His safety valve disappeared.
 * His eyebrows became smaller and longer and are raised slightly.
 * His coupling rod bolts became blue.
 * His footplate became dark grey.
 * Series 7:
 * The teeth on his angry face disappeared for the rest of the model era.
 * Series 8:
 * His eyebrows became thinner.
 * Calling All Engines!:
 * His eyebrows were lowered and became even thinner.
 * Series 10:
 * The riveting and brake pipe extrusion on his front buffer beam disappeared. (brass model)
 * His buffers were moved downward and widened in length. (brass model)
 * His funnel became thicker. (brass model)
 * He gained a small box above his left-hand splashers. (brass model)
 * Series 12:
 * His face became bigger, now matching his smokebox/boiler size.
 * His pupils also became smaller.
 * His eyebrows became thicker and changed shape.
 * The gap between his second and third boiler bands became larger.

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 Resort. 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 it's old age, Edward's plastic model would be disposed off, as it was no longer needed by the company since they had the brass models which would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

One of Edward's brass models is currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan with his smiling face. It had previously been on display at Nitrogen Studios.

Faces
Fourteen different facial expressions were sculpted for Edward and used on-screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. Some of Edward's faces were duplicated in case the crew needed a face to look dirty and clean on the same day of shooting. Four of Edward's screen-used faces are now owned by Twitter and Instagram user ThomasTankMerch.

Close-up model
A close-up model of Edward was built to be used for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures.

Initially, the close-up model of Edward's cab only consisted of his cab and a small section of his firebox, built by Bernard Carr. This model is now owned by Twitter user TomsProps. In the scenes of where a tender was required, Gordon's close-up tender was used, with the number being strategically hidden. At some point between the second series and The Great Discovery, a new close-up model was built possibly due to the original's condition, this new model also featured a tender. The cab of this model is also currently owned by TomsProps albeit currently unrestored.

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

Photographs of Edward's Gauge 1 model were used for reference. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original Thomas & Friends 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.

Edward's CGI model was mostly identical to his Gauge 1 model but has had modifications, these include:
 * Hero of the Rails:
 * He slightly decreased in height.
 * He sits slightly lower on his chassis.
 * His boiler becomes slightly smaller and his funnel becomes taller.
 * His buffers became bigger and moved towards the centre of his buffer beam.
 * His pupils returned to their larger size.
 * His roof is slightly more curved than it was in the model series.
 * His whistle sound is sharper in tone.
 * Series 17:
 * He gained a permanent head lamp and tail lamp.
 * Series 18:
 * His handrails were painted black.
 * The Adventure Begins:
 * His handrails were painted silver again.
 * The inside of his tender became blue.
 * His side rods became silver.

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

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

Voice Actors

 * Keith Wickham
 * William Hope
 * Tim Whitnall
 * Mark Moraghan
 * Simon Hepworth
 * Yasuhiro Takato
 * Nozomu Sasaki
 * Øyvind Borgemoen Lyse
 * Herman López
 * Javier Olguín
 * Luis Leonardo Suárez
 * Daniel Abundis
 * Gabriel Juárez
 * Christian Stark
 * Christos Topoulos
 * Henry König
 * Wojciech Chorąży
 * Fabrice Trojani
 * Petteri Hynönen
 * Petrus Kähkönen
 * Jarmo Koski
 * Reinder van der Naalt
 * Dan Schatzberg
 * Celso Alves
 * Jordi Estupiñá
 * Anh Tuấn
 * Christian Damsgaard
 * Galbenisz Tomasz
 * János Bata
 * Fekete Zoltán
 * Alexander Kotov
 * Denis Bespaliy
 * Anton Savenkov
 * Um Sang-Hyun
 * Loukas Frangoulis