Hank/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
Hank is a fictional American standard gauge tender locomotive created by Sharon Miller.

In 2008, Hank was introduced in the twelfth series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He only appeared in the episode Heave Ho Thomas!.

Hank is based on the PRR Class K4s. In early sketches, he was originally going to be a Union Pacific Challenger.

Gauge 1 Model
Hank's models were scratch-built to run on gauge 1 track by model maker, John Lee. Two models of Hank were built in case one stopped working or got damaged during filming. The models were made out of plastic, the bells, whistles and smokebox were made of brass, and the body was painted in a matte finish and lined with red and gold automotive pinstripe tape.

The models were track powered, so pick-up contacts were attached to the metal wheels, which ran into the motor to power it. The electricity ran from the track to the wheels/pick-up contacts and went into the motor to power him. To save time and money Hank’s wheels were made from the same tooling as Spencer’s wheels. Hank’s running gear assembly was built by model-maker, Mike Wall.

The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI and the characters' faces were animated through CGI with the aid of motion capture animation. A white target with triangles was placed on the front of Hank’s smokebox to fix a computer-animated face in post-production.

In background shots, Hank wore moulded faces as at the time of the model’s construction, the modelmakers were unsure if the characters would have CGI faces for these shots.

Five different facial expressions were sculpted for Hank, although only one was used on-screen and one of which (a laughing face) was used in a promotional shot whilst three of which (sad, surprised and curious) were left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. The faces were designed by John Lee, and sculpted by model-maker, Clare Kinross.

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.

Present Day
After production of the model series wrapped in 2008, most of the models and sets would be put into storage, with some being put on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park. All other models would be logged and referenced in 2009 by HiT Entertainment, from this HiT would decide on which models were to enter storage once again, which would be given to crew members and which to be disposed off. Due to only having one set of gauge 1 scale models made, Hank's models would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

From 2020 till late 2022 one of Hank's television series models was on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park and wore his happy face mask. In July of 2022, Hank switched places with Molly after the Molly took the place of Daisy on the layout. After the exhibit closed and a new layout would be constructed elsewhere in the park, the model would be returned to storage. The other model is currently in Mattel's storage unit in Southampton England.

Voice Actors

 * Fabrice Trojani
 * Christian Stark