Lady/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Lady was introduced in the 2000 film, Thomas and the Magic Railroad as a major character, but made no appearances afterwards due to the film's low performance. She would make a reappearance in 2005's Calling All Engines! in a dream sequence. According to model maker Chris Lloyd in his interview with SiF, the reason why Lady was only featured in a dream sequence in Calling All Engines! and was not meant to be seen again in the series was because in the show's continuity, Lady is not real, thus directly confirming that Thomas and the Magic Railroad is not canon to the show.

Voice
The character was voiced by Britt Allcroft, the creator of the series herself. Allcroft gave Lady a British accent, much like most of the steam engine characters in the film.

Originally, Lady was not going to have a speaking role in Thomas and the Magic Railroad; her only way of communicating was telepathically with Thomas when he was on Muffle Mountain and her whistle. In the original script, as Thomas can understand Lady telepathically, he can also understand her pain and sadness. Thomas talks to her, but gets no verbal response from her. She was later given lines to help smooth over cuts made to the film.

Gauge 1 model
Lady’s model was custom built to run on gauge 1 track. The model was built from brass and painted in a matte finish.

The chassis was constructed from scratch (CNC). It had two motors, both powered by electricity from the track via the pickups on the metal wheels. The main motor powered the wheels, while the second motor (located at the back) powered an inside piston for the smoke mechanism.

The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired.

Faces
Seven different facial expressions were sculpted for Lady, although only three were used on-screen, one of which, a second smiling face was used in her promotional image from Calling All Engines!, while a duplicate shocked face and two concerned faces were left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. A smokebox door was also sculpted for the model, which can be seen in a few behind the scenes pictures of shooting the film.

Fonts
The following fonts were used on Lady's Gauge 1 model:
 * CommercialScript BT Bold

Life-sized model
A life-sized model of Lady was built for scenes where she would have to interact with the human actors. The model is sixteen feet long, six feet wide and ten feet tall, and was constructed primarily out of wood. It also had a face and a smokebox door.

CGI model
Lady's model was used in a green screen during filming of the Magic Railroad, CGI was used most notably to animate her face when being restored and the background.

Firebox
The firebox scene with Lady was actually filmed during the winter of early 2000 in the alleyway of GVFX's Toronto office.

Burnett's Treasures
Items related to Lady are placed in Burnett Stone's Workshop.

Thomas Land (Japan)
The “Fun Ride” model used at Thomas Land (Japan) from May 2001 to May 2010 was made at Hayauchi MFG Co., Ltd.

Voice Actors

 * Britt Allcroft
 * Marina Watanabe
 * Miyu Matsuki
 * Blanche Ravalec
 * Rita Engelmann
 * Gabriela Gómez
 * Lupita Leal
 * Hadar Shachaf Ma'ayan