Bill and Ben

Rasmus Hardiker (2018-present)

Ben:

Jonathan Broadbent (2013-2016)

Matt Wilkinson (2018-present)

**Bill** and **Ben** are tank engine twins belonging to the Sodor China Clay Company. They are young and cheeky and love playing jokes on the bigger engines, but are kept in order by Edward and BoCo. They work in the china clay works and at Brendam Docks, where they are kept busy shunting trucks.

In Thomas & Friends, they briefly worked at Ffarquhar Quarry, thus the task of keeping them in order fell upon Mavis.

The tank engine twins made their first appearance in Ian and Wilhelmina's Sodor Adventures special, Double Trouble.

## Appearance

Bill and Ben are twins like Donald and Douglas. They're both yellow and they have four wheels, tiny chimneys, domes and small squat cabs.

They both have brass nameplates with yellow writing, "SCC" written on both sides in yellow and "Brendam Bay" on the front of their saddle tanks. In the Railway Series, they have number plates reading 1 and 2 respectively above both the back of their cabs and their faces. In The Diseasel, they have nameplates, but from Wrong Road onwards, they have their names painted on their saddle tanks. In Buffer Bother, Ben has silver buffers, but returned to being black onwards.

From the seventeenth series onwards, the twins have red wheels instead of their original black. In the episode from the same series, Bill or Ben? the twins were painted dark blue with dark blue wheels, yellow lining and yellow lettering, but they returned to their normal livery soon afterwards.

## Personalities

Bill and Ben are Sodor's most mischievous saddle tank engine twins, who have great fun in teasing and playing jokes on other engines of the railway. They often work in the China Clay pits and quarries. Their loads of clay can be used for many things such as paper, paint and pottery. They take trucks for engines on the mainline and ships in the harbour and are regularly seen around Brendam Docks. They enjoy attention and love taking visitors and being photographed.

They tend to work together, like most twins, but even this youthful pair can have their arguments among themselves and can squabble with one another - particularly about whose fault one of their follies was. They are highly prone to playing tricks and being cheeky. They have even teased Gordon on more than one occasion. Duck has called them "the bees" before, for being terrors when they start buzzing around. Edward and BoCo are the only engines who can really keep them in order enough to put a stop to their games and make them scamper along and behave. There is no real harm to them, but even Edward admits that they are maddening at times. Bill appears to be the quicker-witted leader, while Ben seems to be the follower of the pair.

Despite their cheeky and mischievous antics, if a dangerous event occurs, such as a rockslide, they are shown to be quick-witted and capable to act to rescue anyone in trouble. This was shown when they saved a group of workmen and Thomas from many rockslides. The two also usually try to keep their jokes from becoming harmful, and will show remorse if their cheeky antics go too far and like all engines on the North Western Railway, they want to be Really Useful.

## Trivia

* Bill and Ben's names are likely a reference to Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men, a pair of mischievous twins from the 1952 British children's show, Flower Pot Men.
* In the first Polish dub, Bill and Ben were portrayed as females, but in Stefan Knothe's redub, they were both male.
* Sir Topham Hatt's ownership of Bill and Ben changes in the television series, as the second series episode, Percy Takes the Plunge refers to them as not being Sir Topham Hatt's engines, while the third series episode, One Good Turn refers to them as "the most mischievous engines working on the Fat Controller's railway".
* In the Railway Series, from Wrong Road onwards, Bill and Ben have their names painted on their saddle tanks instead of having nameplates to avoid the trick they played on BoCo from happening again.
* A behind the scenes picture of Bill's model reveals that he and Ben were to have numbers on their smokeboxes above their faces, as they did in the Railway Series.
* Bill and Ben both had a total of thirteen facial expressions during the model era, both one of which (were alternative happy faces) were never used on-screen.
* Bill and Ben's television series models are currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan.
* In the television series, Bill and Ben are twice the size of their basis'; Alfred and Judy. This was so their eye mechanisms and motors could be accommodated. When they returned to CGI, they were rendered in the same larger size.
* Nathan Clarke did an audio sample of Bill and Ben on his DAA Management Page.
* In an interview with SiF, Andrew Brenner stated that Bill and Ben were two of his favourite characters, along with James and Toby.
* Prior to Jonathan Broadbent's departure from the voice cast, Bill and Ben were the only pair of twins to have the same voice actor longer than any other twins in the series. The reputation later went to Annie and Clarabel.

## Quotes

* **Coughs and sneezles spread diseasels!**
* **You had a cough in your smokebox yesterday! It's your fault the Diseasel came!**
* **It isn't!**
* **It is!**
* **If it isn't Gordon, It's just a pile of old iron.**
* **Which we better take to the scrapyard!**
* **No Bill, this lot's useless for scrap! We'll take it to the harbour and dump it in the sea!**