Charlie/Behind the Scenes

Thomas & Friends
Charlie is a fictional standard gauge tank locomotive created by Sharon Miller.

In 2009, Charlie made his debut in the thirteenth series of Thomas & Friends in the episode, Play Time.

Since his introduction, Charlie was voiced by Matt Wilkinson in the UK dub, while Glenn Wrage voiced him in the US dub up until the sixteenth series, when Ben Small took over voicing Charlie. In The Great Race, Charlie was voiced by Steven Kynman in both dubs.

Charlie was based off of the Manning Wardle L Class 0-6-0ST. Billy is another member of this design.

CGI Model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Charlie was modelled in full CGI by Nitrogen Studios for the thirteenth series. The 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.

Charlie has undergone a few changes since his introduction:
 * Series 17:
 * The silver ring around the cap of his lamp disappeared.
 * The Great Race:
 * He gained four rivets above each of his front buffers.

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

Fonts
The following fonts are used on Charlie's CGI model:
 * Sodor BLD

Voice Actors

 * Matt Wilkinson
 * Glenn Wrage
 * Ben Small
 * Steven Kynman
 * Bernard Demory
 * Fabrice Trojani
 * Hideyuki Kanaya
 * Nozomu Sasaki
 * Sigbjørn Solheim
 * Matthias Klimsa
 * Leszek Zduń
 * Bartosz Martyna
 * Artur Pontek
 * Dan Schatzberg
 * Yehonatan Magon
 * Gabriel Ortiz
 * Luis Daniel Ramírez
 * Barry Beijer
 * Caio César Nunes
 * Jorge Teixeira
 * Petri Hanttu
 * Loukas Frangoulis
 * Vladimir Antonik
 * Alexander Kotov
 * Kisfalusi Lehel
 * Christian Damsgaard