Molly/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
Molly is a fictional standard gauge tender locomotive created by Paul Larson working on the North Western Railway.

In 2005, Molly made her debut in the ninth series of Thomas & Friends in the episode, Molly's Special Special. She later appeared in the tenth and eleventh series and also in the special, The Great Discovery.

Molly has not appeared in the television series since 2008.

Molly is based on a Great Eastern Railway D56.

Gauge 1 model
Production orthographics were drawn up for Molly's gauge 1 model on 7th February 2004. Molly's model was scratch built from brass to run on gauge 1 track, whilst her wheels and chassis were constructed from CNC. The eye mechanism had two servos one for up and down movement, The other for left and right movement. A second model was planned to be built, however it was left incomplete and never used on screen.

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 gauge 1 scale model made, Molly's model alongside her unfinished second model, would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

Faces
Four different facial expressions were sculpted for Molly and used on-screen as well as some prototype faces. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. Molly's content face was duplicated in case the crew needed the face to look dirty and clean on the same day of shooting.

The Snow Engine
The ruler reference photos taken during the production of the eighth series contains the snow engine similar to Molly's basis. However, these models were never used on screen.

Voice Actors

 * Keiko Nemoto
 * Blanche Ravalec
 * Celine Fontanges