James/Behind the Scenes

Background Information

Railway Series

James is a fictional standard gauge tender engine created by the Rev. W. Awdry around 1946. James was designed by locomotive engineer George Hughes, and was built for work on the LMS, at the Horwich Railway Works in 1912 or 13. When running at high speeds it had been discovered that James' class experienced heavy 'nose-dives'. As a result James was built by Hughes in a failed attempt to fix this problem, by fitting him with a Pony Truck. With Hughes' experiment being a failure James was no longer needed on the railway, and was sold to Sir Topham Hatt I around 1923. Shortly after arriving on Sodor James had a crash after the Troublesome Trucks ran him off the rails, and was unable to stop due to his wooden brake blocks starting on fire. He was soon sent for repairs at Crovan's Gate were many of his design flaws were fixed, this including being fitted with proper brakes, it can be presumed that James also received his fowler tender here. James is based on a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Class 28 Locomotive.

Main Illustrations of James:

James as Illustrated by Reginald Dalby (1950)

James as Illustrated by Reginald Dalby (1948)

James as illustrated by Reginald Dalby (1953)

James as illustrated by John. T. Kenney (1959)

James as illustrated by Gunvor & Peter Edwards (1966)

James as illustrated by Clive Spong (2011)

James as illustrated by Clive Spong (2011).

James as illustrated by Edgar Hodges (1979)

James as illustrated by Edgar Hodges (1979)

James as illustrated in the Railway Series Suprise Packet

James as reillustrated by Loraine Marshall (2014)

Main Illustrations of James (Back):

Other Illustrations of James:

Other Illustrations of James showing illustration errors etc. Illustration errors pertaining to James that appeared throughout the Railway Series, were that the top of his cab would inconsistently change from black to red, the length of his tender would change, and the size of his splashers would change, as well as the lining would disappear.

James in James and the Bootlace (Missing the lining on his cab).

James in Troublesome Trucks (James' face is smaller than normal).

James in James and the Express (James' cab window was accidentally colored in red).

James in Henry and the Elephant (He only has one cab window).

James in Off the Rails (James' splashers are spaced farther away than normal, and his face is missing).

James in Leaves (James has a black running board under his tender).

James in Bowled Out

James in Edward's Exploit (James is incorrectly depicted with a red dome).

James in Little Western (the front of his cab is yellow).

1948 James Reillustrated for Wedgewood China Merch (1980's)

Changes to James:

James Appearance in the Railway Series had changed drastically over the years, some of these changes include:

James the Red Engine:

• James first receives his red livery.
• James' cab windows become black.

Troublesome Engines:

• James receives black lining around his front too splashers, on both sides, however they were previously visible in some illustrations of James the Red Engine.
• James' cab roof becomes black.

Toby the Tram Engine:

• James is first shown with his iconic number 5, he received it prior to the events of the previous book, but his tender was concealed in all of the illustrations.

The Eight Famous Engines:

• The top of James' cab is now red again.

The Twin Engines:

• The top of James' cab is now black again.

Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine:

• James cab roof again turns to red.

Main Line Engines:

• The Lining on James' cab, splashers, and tender become blue.

Enterprising Engines:

• The top of James' cab becomes black again, and his blue lining disappears.

Oliver the Western Engine:

• James' footplate becomes black.

James and the Diesel Engines:

• James permanently regains his blue lining.
• In closeup scenes, James gains rivets around his smoke box, funnel, top of cab, and boiler.
• James' footplate becomes black.

Henry and the Express:

• James' receives rivets on his front buffer beam

Television Series

In 1984, James was introduced in Season 1 of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. As the show was new, the season placed a great focus on him, Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, Percy, and Toby. Throughout the show's history, James has been depicted as being very fond of his red coat of paint, and is often boastful towards the other engines, however he is shown to have a good heart and often redeems himself in the advent of these situations. When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, James continued to appear as usual, and has appeared in every season of the television series so far.

Gauge 1 Model

James' main model throughout the series, his Gauge 1 Model was constructed for first season production, and appeared until the show switched to CGI in the thirteenth season. James had too Gauge 1 Model's, a perspex model used for the first ten seasons, and a second brass model used from season 10 till the end of the model series. Both models were constructed by heavily modifying a Märklin company engine's model, in order to create James and the other character's. James' funnel cracked in half sometime during third season production, as halfway through the episode 'Buzz Buzz' his funnel is seen with black tack around it, the cracked funnel can also be seen in "Escape", "Oliver Owns Up", and "Percy, James and the Fruitful Day". James'. The model would then be repainted yellow and black striped livery was constructed for the tenth season episode The Green Controller, in which James misunderstood Percy and thought The Fat Controller wanted him repainted in this livery. James' original Gauge 1 Model used from Season 1-10, is now owned by ThomasTankMerch.

Model Measurements

James' with a cracked funnel as seen in Buzz Buzz

Tender

Rev. W. Awdry with James' Model

Season 8 Model Measurements

Tenth series ruler reference of James' model in 'busy bee' livery

James Model in 2019

James' Model before and after Restoration

Prototype Facecasts of James' now owned by SeansModels

James' Model in Calling All Engines! showing that his facemask from Buzz, Buzz was originally going to be reused in this special.

James' Classic Series Facesheets

James' Season 12 Facesheet

An image of James facemasks taken during the production of Season 4 sometime during 1995. (Note: One of Edward's facemasks is shown here. Presumably by accident).

Gauge 1 Wharf Model

A Gauge 1 Model of James was constructed during tenth season production for scenes at The Wharf, in which James would be interacting with the narrow gauge engines. Similar to Thomas and Percy's pack models, This model was larger than most Gauge 1 Models to serve this purpose.

Tender

Brass Model

Although not visible on screen, a behind the scenes photo from Abi Grant's website shows that the models front buffer beam featured rivets.

James' model in Dirty Work

One of James' brass model in 2014

Close Up Models

Throughout the show, James has had several large scale models, these models typically only featured part of the engine, and were used in closeup scenes in the show. James' Large Scale Models featured the inside of his cab, part of his tender, his whistle, and his front buffers. They only appeared in the episodes James and the Coaches, Troublesome Trucks, Old Iron, The Trouble With Mud, Buzz Buzz, Thomas and the Special Letter, and The Runaway in which it was used to represent the inside of Thomas' Cab. The Closeup Model used for James' cab interior, was also used for Edward, and is thought to have been built by the late Bernard Carr, a former model-maker on the show. This prop is now owned by TomsProps on Twitter.

An Image showing different parts of James' Close Up Models

One of James' Close Up models depicted him with a white roof. He was previously depicted with a white roof in the RWS story The Fat Controller's Engines.

Closeup Large Scale Interior Cab, also used for Edward (Owned by TomsProps).

Life Sized Model

James' life sized model was a real to life scale model of James' cab and the top of his boiler. It was constructed for the scenes of Thomas and the Magic Railroad in which Junior is on top of James' cab at the Sodor Ironworks. The Model acted as a green screen to create the illusion of Michael E. Rodger's character, Junior sitting atop James in this scene. Additionally this model lacked James' whistle and dome, as a result James lacked a whistle in this scene.

Behind the Scenes

James's Gauge 1 Model as shown with the effects of the green screen model

James' Animated Models

James' Learning Segment Model

James' Dirty Learning Segment Model

James' Learning Segment Model in a Green Livery

James' Learning Segment Model in a cream-undercoat

James' Model seen in both The Great Festival Adventure and Trouble on the Tracks

James' Building the New Line Model

James' TTTE Kids Station Game Model

James' Go Go Thomas! Model

CGI Model

James full CGI model first appeared in the special Hero of the Rails, when the show transitioned to CGI. Like the other character's he had previously gained a CGI face in the twelfth season as the CGI transfer was underway.

James in Season 12 with a basic CGI face

James in a basic CGI storyboard.

James' model in the rendering process.

CGI Model (Season 13 - 22)

CGI Model (Season 23-24)

In Black Livery

Black Livery with Rivets

In Pink Livery

Pink Livery with Rivets

In Best Decorated Livery

In Blue Livery

In Green Livery

In Silver Livery

In Purple Livery

In Yellow Livery

In Brown Livery

In Light Green Livery

In Orange Livery

In Dark Pink Livery

James' Cab Controls as seen in The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor

James' Undercarriage & Wooden Brake Blocks as seen in The Adventure Begins.

Fantasy Sequence Flying James Model as seen in Series 24's "A New Arrival".

James' Tender as seen in Series 24's "Sonny's Second Chance".

External Links

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