Emily's Coaches (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Emily's Coaches are a pair of fictional standard gauge coaches created by Jan Page.

The coaches first appeared in the seventh series episode Emily's New Coaches, which first aired in 2003. Their last appearance was in the twenty-fourth series episode Thomas' Fuzzy Friend, which was released in 2020.

They are based on Six-wheeled Clerestory Roof Coaches used on the Great Western Railway.

Gauge 1 models
The models of the coaches were made using Tenmille Gauge 1 LB&SCR Stroudley coach kits. The Orange and Red Coaches used that basis.

Close-up models
Close-up models of the coaches were built to be used for scenes where it had to interact with the close-up scale figures. It only appeared in the eighth episode Emily's New Route.

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

Photographs of the coaches' Gauge 1 models were used for referencing. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series 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.