Bertram/Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

This is a behind the scenes subpage for Bertram. This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information

Television Series

Bertram is a fictional narrow gauge saddletank tender locomotive created by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton.

In 1998, Bertram was introduced in the fifth series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He only appeared in the episode, Toby's Discovery with no dialogue and the music video, Percy's Seaside Trip via stock-footage.

For ease of filming, the fifth series introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and from the sixth series to the twelfth these larger models were used almost exclusively. Due to budgeting reasons, no large scale model of Bertram was built and this can be attributed as to why he never appeared after the fifth series.^[1] This makes him one of the few characters to remain absent since his introduction the fifth series.

Like Duke, Bertram is based off the engine Prince, a 0-4-0ST+T engine on the Ffestiniog Railway at Porthmadog, North Wales.

Behind the Scenes

O gauge model (Small scale)

For further information about the small scale model. Click here.

Bertram's model was recycled from Duke's model, which was custom built to run on O gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard. It was repainted using glossy car body paint and lined with red Letraline pin-striping tape.^[2]

Bertram's drive wheels were sourced from 10 Spoke Wantage Tramway driving wheels made by Slater's Plastikard and tender wheels were sourced from 10 Spoke LNER 02 Bogie Wheels. Bertram used rods directly lifted from an OO scale Triang Hall class with little modification.^[2]

Faces

Bertram was only ever depicted with one happy face. This face was actually recycled from Smudger, a narrow gauge engine introduce in the previous series. Three other facial expressions were initially made for Smudger that appeared on-screen, but were never worn on Bertram. These faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould.^[3]

Reference Sheets

The model had a motor to power it mounted inside the chassis as well as an eye mechanism. There was no room to fit a smoke mechanism or the battery and receiver needed for the R/C eyes. Wires connecting to the battery, servo and receiver were usually hidden off camera or carried in his tender behind the engine. The eye mechanism used servos mounted in the cab; the servos were hidden by blacking out the cab doors and windows. Metal rods went from the servos in the cab to a bracket in the smoke box behind the faceplate, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. This limited the range of movement of the eyes as well as being cumbersome and jamming often.^[2]

According to an interview with Stephen Asquith, Bertram was supposed to have his own model However, Duke's model and Smudger's face were recycled to create Bertram due to financial difficulties.^[4]

Interestingly, Bertram's 2000-2015 Wooden Railway toy depicts him in a "tank engine" form due to images where his tender is obscured being used as reference^[5]^[6] a model in his "tender engine" form was released in 2016.

After the events of the sixth series, Bertram's model was later reverted back to Duke in 2004. However, the model was incorrectly painted a lighter shade of brown and his buffer beam was not painted red.