Background Information[]
Luke is a small fictional narrow-gauge Irish saddle-tank engine, created for Thomas & Friends in 2010, later debuting in the 2012 special, entitled Blue Mountain Mystery. Luke is owned by Mr. Percival, and works on the Skarloey Railway. He can most commonly be found, working at the Blue Mountain Quarry. Luke arrived on Sodor from Ireland at an unknown date, on a ship that also brought Victor to Sodor, from Cuba. Upon arriving at Brendam Docks, Luke was so excited to be on Sodor, that he asked the workmen to unload him first, which he did. In the process however, he accidently bumped into Victor, knocking him into the sea, Luke was soon repaired at the Sodor Steamworks, and afterwards went into hiding at the Blue Mountain Quarry, as he believed that Victor or "The Yellow Engine" as he called him, had been scrapped following the accident, and blamed himself for wanting to get off the ship first, later citing to Thomas that if he had simply waited, the accident would have never occured. Luke told the other Narrow-Gauge engines what had happened, but feared that if anyone else found out, such as the bigger engines, they would tell the Fat Controller, who would tell Mr. Percival, who would send Luke away from Sodor forever, as punishment. Much later, in 1962 Thomas was called in to do Paxton's work at the quarry, following the collapse of Blondin Bridge, which ended up damaging the diesel, meaning he had to go to the Dieselworks for repairs. During his time here, Thomas witnessed Luke, and wondered why the engine kept running away from him. Thomas asked many of the Narrow-Gauge engines at the quarry, and even Owen and Merrick, who the little green engine was, but they all made excuses, pretending to have no idea what Thomas was even talking about. Eventually, an encounter with Luke and the other Narrow-Gauge engines, forced Skarloey to tell Thomas the truth about Luke's past, telling him that he had done something 'very bad' and was scared of being sent away from the island for this. Eventually Luke became comfortable with Thomas around, and told him the full story of what happened years prior. Thomas searched the island trying to find any clues about the Yellow Engine, eventually being led to the steam-works, and finding out that the Yellow Engine was actually Victor. Thomas soon hurried back to the quarry knowing the full story, and that Luke had nothing to fear. Thomas tried to tell Luke and the Narrow-Gauge engines, but they jumped to conclusions, and believed that Thomas had broken his promise, and talked about Luke to other engines. Thomas even went to the lengths of having Owen lift him up to the upper terraces of the quarry, so that he could find Luke and tell him the truth about what really happened. Thomas however, forgot that the upper-terraces of the Quarry only consisted of Narrow-Gauge Lines, which meant Thomas Wheel's which were too big for these lines, skidded across the Quarry ground, and ended up with Thomas crashing, and on the verge of falling off a large cliff, if nobody came to his rescue. Luke decided that it was up to him to save Thomas, and despite being much smaller than Thomas, he was able to summon enough energy to free him from the cliff, and pull him back to Owen's platform, which caused them both to fall to the platforms bottom, very fast, as Thomas was simply too heavy, and Owen couldn't hold him any longer. Thomas had previously requested that Paxton bring Victor to the Quarry, to help him explain to Luke the true course of what occured when he arrived on Sodor. Despite Diesel telling him not to, Paxton did what Thomas said and brought Victor to the quarry, who was soon able to explain to Luke that he was in-fact the Yellow Engine, and was repaired following the accident, not scrapped. This caused Luke much excitement and happiness, as he now realized, for the first time in a long time, that he really didn't have anything to fear. Sir Topham Hatt and Mr. Percival soon arrived at the Quarry, and discovered Luke. Thankfully they agreed with Thomas, and Luke was officially welcomed into the narrow-gauge fleet, with the two controllers agreeing that "We should be proud of all our engines, new ones, and old ones". Later, Luke welcomed Stephen to the Quarry, when he was trying to figure out what his new job was. Luke also discovered a young deer at the Quarry, who he brought to live on the grounds of Ulfstead Castle, after realizing that the Quarry was two load and dangerous of a place for such an Animal. At one point, Luke even switched jobs with Millie for the day, wanting to try a new job for once.
CGI Model[]
Luke CGI Model was created by Nitrogen Studios in 2010, two years before the character would debut in 2012. Like the other character's, Luke's model was carefully hand-sculpted in the 3D Animation and Modelling Software called Maya. According to an interview with Greg Tiernan, such models are subjected to many rounds of review and reworking, before they can be finally submitted for approval, to be used within the show.
Trivia[]
- Luke's number, 22, is a reference to the year in which his basis was built, 1922. He is the second of three total characters to be given this number. The first and third, were Isobella and Rebecca. Luke being the only of which isn't female, nor painted primarily Yellow.
- During the Seventeenth Season, his CGI Model was updated to include a headlamp.