Mighty Mac/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
Mighty Mac is a fictional narrow gauge double-ended Fairlie duplex locomotive created by Paul Larson working on the Skarloey Railway.

In 2001, Robert Gauld-Galliers created the character, Little Giant, a yellow double-ended Fairlie, for the sixth series of the television series. The character was not featured in any episodes or scripts and was subsequently shelved.

In 2005, Mighty Mac made their debut in the ninth series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends in the episode of the same name. They later appeared in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth series and also in the special, The Great Discovery.

Despite the opposing personalities of the two ends, they are technically one engine and have always been referred to as "he" by the narrator, as opposed to "they" with the exception of their debut episode.

Mighty and Mac have not appeared in the television series since 2008.

They are based on the Double-Fairlie locomotives of the Ffestiniog Railway.

O gauge model (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, the fifth series would introduce larger scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and rolling stock. From the sixth to twelfth series, these larger models were used almost exclusively. Production orthographics were drawn up for Mighty Mac's gauge 1 model on 8th August 2004. Mighty Mac's model was custom built during production of the ninth series and was compatible with the large scale narrow gauge engines and rolling stock. It was built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and ran on O gauge track, close to 16mm scale, but slightly larger.

Mighty Mac have had some modifications throughout the television series. These include:


 * Series 10:
 * Their whistle sounds changed pitch and to Sir Handel's.
 * Their livery or paint became darker.
 * Series 11:
 * Their whistle sounds changed again.
 * The Great Discovery
 * Mac shared Mighty's whistle sound.
 * Series 12:
 * They regained Sir Handel's whistle sound in some scenes of the twelfth series episode Mountain Marvel, but the rest of the series, Mac still shared Mighty's whistle sound from the eleventh series.

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 model made, Mighty Mac's model would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

As of early 2020, Mighty Mac's model was on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park with their happy faces. After the exhibit closed and a new layout would be constructed elsewhere in the park, the model would be returned to storage.

Voice Actors

 * Taketoshi Kawano
 * Tomasz Błasiak