The idea for Mountain Engine first came about after I bought the ERTL model 'Godred' from the series and read the packaging, which gave me a synopsis of the darkness and compelling escapades of the Culdee Fell railway.
From this I instantly looked at the Railway Series book 'Mountain Engines' by the Rev.W.Awdry to gather the general identities of each character. My artistic discovery more or less felt similar to Britt Allcroft's epiphany of what the railway series could become and I really felt that the stories could be brought to life in the way both both Britt and David created.
ERTL models have become my artistic style and so I felt as though having the characters ready to use, I would write a rough adaptation of the first story and see how successfully it would fit into a five minute slot.
One thing I knew was that for the 'television style' I knew I'd have to change things around such as the inspector from the first story being The Fat Controller instead; which was the common change in the fourth series of Thomas the tank Engine. It's taken longer than expected because of all the wonderful steam effects you will see in the shots as well as the moving eyes and of course not forgetting the animation style.
I hope you all enjoy watching it as I have making it!
Michael Evans