Gordon's Hill (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Gordon's Hill is a fictional landform on the Island of Sodor created by the Rev. W. Awdry.

Gordon's Hill first appeared in the first series episode Edward and Gordon, which first aired in 1984. Its last appearance was in the twenty-fourth series episode Thomas' Animal Friends, which was released in 2021.

Gauge 1 set
Gordon's Hill has had numerous modifications throughout the model era:
 * Series 2:
 * Points are added near the top of the hill.
 * Series 3:
 * The points near the top of the hill are removed.
 * Series 8:
 * The hill is much shorter, with the bottom now being where the rails curve.
 * The bridge at the bottom also disappeared.
 * The design of the East facing side of the hill changes, now looking much more similar to the West facing side.

Close-up set
A close-up scaled set of a small portion of Gordon's Hill was built to be used for scenes involving the close-up scale figures.

CGI set
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Gordon's Hill was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios. 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.

Gordon's Hill has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Hero of the Rails:
 * The hill becomes much steeper.
 * The bottom of the hill becomes flatter.
 * There also appears to be two models of the hill. On one version, the ocean could be seen on the curved rail side and the other model has the ocean on the straight rail side.
 * King of the Railway:
 * The other side of the hill is modelled in CGI with the Ulfstead Branch Line junction being added.
 * Tale of the Brave:
 * The junction is removed.