Troublesome Trucks (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
The Troublesome Trucks are a group of fictional characters created by the Rev W. Awdry. They are pieces of rolling stock that are used for transporting goods around the Island of Sodor.

The Troublesome Trucks were first introduced in the first series, reprising their roles from the Railway Series. They are often considered the first technical antagonists of the series since their roles usually involve them causing trouble for the engines in ways such as pushing them down hills, holding back, and so on, to which they show no remorse more often than they do.

Voices
While the narrator provided the voice for all characters in the live-action era of the series, including the Trucks whenever they spoke, their laughs and singing voices were provided by the music composers Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell in high-pitch from 1986 to 2003. After O'Donnell and Campbell left the series, Michael Angelis provided the laughing voices for the Trucks for the eighth series, again, in high-pitch.

The Trucks were originally to be voiced by Neil Crone and Kevin Frank in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but their speaking roles were cut and they only appeared as background characters. From the sixteenth series to the eighteenth series, the Trucks were originally voiced by Ben Small. After Small was let go from the series, Christopher Ragland took over as the voice for the Trucks. However, multiple voice actors would also voice the Trucks later on, including William Hope, Kerry Shale, Rob Rackstraw, Lucy Montgomery and Rasmus Hardiker.

Gauge 1 models
Since the first series of the television series, many different models for the Troublesome Trucks were originally created with Tenmille kits, built as per instructions. Some models of the trucks had railings at the top of their fronts.

During the production of the seventh series, a new variation of 7-plank trucks were built from resin seven plank kits. They were engineered so that the parts from older tenmille wagons could be used on them. One of the most notable details was that they had more pronounced rivets on them. They were originally painted in dark green and were weathered, but by the eighth series, some of them were also painted in many different colors, such as blue or red.

Faces
For the first series, a single Troublesome Truck had paper eyes and a paper mouth for faces, much like Annie and Clarabel, with no emotion presented other than an angry expression. Starting from the second series, the trucks were given grey faces as with all other vehicle characters to give a greater variety of facial expressions. The first series truck would, however, make occasional cameo appearances.

Gauge 3 models
Most like the gauge-1 facials, the faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. The faces were originally built for the gauge-1 models for the vans, most notably the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Vans.

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

According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models 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.

Initially, only the 7-Plank Trucks were given faces and were treated as the default troublesome truck until Series 20. Eventually, LNER 12 Ton Vans, Salt Vans, Tankers, Slate Trucks, and Mine Trolleys all gained faces.

Pantone Colours
The following pantone colours are used on the Troublesome Trucks' standard CGI model:

When Arc Productions took over animation from Nitrogen Studios, the 7-Plank Trucks were retextured and their standard CGI model became primarily grey:

Texture variants
In addition to their standard livery, a few other texture variants exist of the Troublesome Trucks CGI models. These texture variants include:

The Troublesome Trucks went through several aesthetic changes in the television series:
 * Series 13:
 * The 7-plank trucks became taller.
 * Series 17:
 * All 7-plank trucks became light grey.
 * The trucks now have identical faces with no distinguishing features, just as they did in the twelfth series.
 * Series 20:
 * The ventilated vans regain their faces.
 * Journey Beyond Sodor:
 * The tankers, salt vans and slate trucks regain their faces.
 * Big World! Big Adventures!:
 * Several trucks in other countries are seen with different liveries and facial features.