Duncan (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
In 1995, Duncan was introduced in the fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine &amp; Friends. The series placed a great focus on him and the other Narrow Gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books televised. All the Skarloey Railway steam engines were painted red with blue lining in the Railway Series (bar Duke). However, in order to make it easier for the viewer to identify each engine from one another, Duncan was painted golden yellow with black and gold lining.

Duncan appeared as a primary character and one of the important narrow-gauge engines from the fourth to the seventh series. The narrow gauge engines took a full absence in 2004 but returned the following year in the ninth series.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for three years. Unlike the original five Skarloey Railway engines, Duncan did not return in the 2012 special Blue Mountain Mystery. However, he was mentioned in the sixteenth series episode, Don't Bother Victor! and he was absent in this series due to his real life basis going through an overhaul at the time. In 2014, Duncan made his return in the eighteenth series, starring in both of the episodes on the Skarloey Railway that season. He was also absent in 2015, 2017 and 2020. Unlike the other engines, who were modeled using measurements of their Talyllyn Railway counterparts, Duncan’s CGI model was based very loosely on his original small scale model

In almost all English speaking narrations, Duncan has a Scottish accent; reflecting his basis' origins. However, in the narration of the fifth series, Alec Baldwin portrayed Duncan with a British accent and gave him a gruff American accent in the following series. Since his return in 2014, Duncan has been voiced by Tom Stourton in both the British English and American English dubs of the series. Tom Stourton maintains a Scottish accent for the character.

O gauge model (Small scale)
Duncan's small model was custom built from brass by model maker, Peter Eves to run on O gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard during the production of the fourth series. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with gold and black Letraline pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed foil stickers.

Duncan's wheels were sourced from Slater's Plastikard with the drive wheels being 2'8" Manning Wardle wheels (7832MW). The secondary crank pin hole on the drive wheels was cut off to avoid collision with the rods during wheel rotation. This modification was done for all narrow gauge steam locomotives except for Sir Handel. These wheels were used on a custom O gauge locomotive chassis fabricated from 0.064in thick brass sheet metal. Duncan's coupling rods and connecting rods were custom fabricated from brass sheet metal which was subsequently nickel plated to get a chrome effect. The crossheads were also fabricated from brass and plated in the same manner. The rods did not fit well at all and the engines ran notoriously bad behind the scenes. The buffers were sourced from Slater's Plastikard as well, with Duncan using the GWR Collett Parallel (7906) set. Couplers were the etched version of Slater's 3 link wagon couplers (7155). This coupling set has since changed to a more detailed cast hook, but the etched version can still be obtained with a note to Slaters when ordering.

There were eleven different facial expressions sculpted for Duncan, although only eight were used on screen, three of which his nervous, furious, and startled faces were left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. Duncan's happy face mask was acquired by Twitter and Instagram user ThomasTankMerch, who later supplied it to Twitter user TomsProps after he acquired the small scale Duncan model.

During the production of the sixth series, Duncan's model was refurbished for use in the episode Faulty Whistles during the scene where Duncan blows his whistle at Terence, a hole was drilled in for a whistle piece near his cab and it is likely an actual whistle was fitted at some point during production. However due to Duncan being seen from a distance from where Terence and the camera were stationed, the shot would use Duncan's large scale model instead. Due to this, combined with fact the small scale models of the narrow gauge engines were eventually superseded by the large scale models, Duncan's refurbishment was left unfinished and the gloss coat matt varnish and weathering were not applied, and the parts of the model sanded down for the new coat left exposed and lining missing due to being previously removed for this process.

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 the larger models being more frequently used at the time, Duncan's small scale model would be disposed off by the company in favor of the large scale model, which would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

O gauge model (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, the fifth series introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and from the sixth to twelfth series, Duncan's large scale model was used exclusively. The larger-scale models were built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and ran on O gauge track. They were close to 16mm scale but slightly larger.

Twelve different facial expressions were sculpted and worn by Duncan on-screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. 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 eyeballs were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eyeballs would move however the crew member desired.

Fifth and sixth series models
The model makers were unimpressed with the original large scale Duncan model used in the fifth series, due to it having inaccurate proportions and dimensions compared to its small-scale counterpart, so during the production of the sixth series, the crew decided to build a new accurate model to replace it.

It is possible that during the promotion of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, several models that were last used in the fifth series at the time such as Edward and Bill and Ben were put on display in Japan, Duncan's model was also sent over and got lost in transit. This could explain why the original angry face was never used on the new model and the sudden need to make a new model in the first place. Its accuracy to the small-scale model could also be put down too it being the only model the crew had reference from to build the new model.

Present Day
Duncan's new large scale model is now currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan with his chuckling face. His mischievous face would also be put on display at the Awdry Extravaganza in 2021.

Close-up model
A larger scale model of Duncan was built in the fourth series. It was required for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures.

It was also used for close-up whistle shots; smoke would emit from the whistle when required. The model did not have a visible whistle until the sixth series episode, Faulty Whistles, which centred around Duncan losing his whistle.

Most of the close-up scale models did not have faces seeing as most of the time the models were not complete, on top of the fact the faces would never need to be seen in this scale.

Unlike both his O gauge models, Duncan's front and back cutout windows had glass. It also wore one of Duke's large scale face masks in the sixth series.

It appeared in the fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth series.

The close-up model underwent a few changes throughout the television series. These include:
 * Series 6:
 * A whistle was added.
 * The cab became less weathered.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Duncan was recreated from scratch in CGI by Arc Productions in 2014 for production of the eighteenth series. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software. During the production of Blue Mountain Mystery, Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway to take measurements and photographs of the locomotives to use for referencing of the Skarloey Railway engine's CGI models. Unfortunately, Duncan's basis, Douglas, was having an overhaul and could not be measured, hence why Duncan was absent from the series until the eighteenth series.

When Duncan officially returned, his CGI render was based on his original television model. Because of this, he is the only narrow gauge engine to have brake pipes, does not have a Talyllyn styled tail lamp and does not directly resemble his basis. Furthermore, Duncan's CGI model is not necessarily accurate and does not have the same proportions to his previous model era counterparts.

Duncan has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Series 18:
 * He became smaller in size than both his original model and his basis.
 * He received a red running board.
 * A permanent lamp, lamp irons, brake pipes and outlets were added.
 * His funnel became slightly thinner.
 * He received a slightly smaller dome and windows.
 * His boiler and coal bunkers became smaller.
 * The brass pipe connecting to his dome became thinner.
 * Brass nameplates were added.
 * His sand dome became shorter and wider.
 * Sanding gear was added under the cab.
 * Riveting was added under his coal bunker and on his smokebox.
 * His coupling hooks gained a grey base with rivets.
 * His buffer housings shape changed back to square.
 * The lining on his cab and bunkers became outdented and unpainted.
 * His cutout windows gained frames and glass.
 * His eyes, eyebrows, nose and chin returned to how they were in the fourth series.

The following pantone colours are used on Duncan's CGI model:

Voice Actors

 * Tom Stourton
 * Ryōichi Tanaka
 * Chikara Osaka
 * Nobuaki Kanemitsu
 * Krzysztof Szczerbiński
 * Grzegorz Kwiecień
 * Stig Henrik Hoff
 * Paul Disbergen
 * Fabrice Trojani
 * Jorge Roig Jr.
 * Alfredo Martínez
 * Cosmin Petruț
 * Martin May
 * Denis Bespaliy