Owen/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
Owen is a fictional incline traction engine created by Sharon Miller, Andrew Brenner, and Ian McCue.

In 2012, Owen made his debut in the special, Blue Mountain Mystery.

Originally, Owen was voiced by Ben Small (UK/US) in the CGI version of the series on both sides of the Atlantic. Following Small's departure, Owen has been voiced by Rob Rackstraw since 2019. Both voice Owen with a welsh accent.

Owen is based on the incline at the Dinorwic Slate Quarry. Unlike his basis, however, Owen does not have a transfer table at the bottom of the incline.

Early concept art of the Blue Mountain Quarry revealed Owen was originally going to be a crane named Bud. While Merrick was originally named Bradley and was positioned spanning the incline.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Owen was created from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2010 for production of the 2012 special Blue Mountain Mystery. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

According to Greg Tiernan, the CGI models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.

Voice Actors

 * Ben Small
 * Rob Rackstraw
 * Raúl Solo
 * Jun'ichi Kanemaru
 * Konstantin Graudus
 * Michael Bideller
 * Stig Krogstad
 * Anders Sundstedt
 * Miłogost Reczek
 * Ángel Amorós
 * Denis Bespaliy
 * Petri Hanttu
 * Ole Møller