Bill and Ben

## Bill and Ben the Tank Engine Twins

Bill and Ben are very cheeky twins who work at Cliffstone Centre Quarry.

## Personalities

Bill and Ben are the mischievous twins of the Cliffstone Centre Quarry crew! The two little engines, built to be low-slung, help take care of the rougher work in the busy quarry yards, like shunting or collecting cars from the mineshafts of clay and slate or hauling smaller trains between the quarry and the harbours. The two have great fun teasing the other engines and playing tricks on them, and do tend to squabble with one another, but they're hard workers deep down at heart...they just have a bit of a troublesome way of having fun!

## Technical Details

### Basis

Bill and Ben are based on the Bagnall 0-4-0STs "Alfred" and "Judy" of Par, Cornwall, who are both preserved and in working order at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway.

Alfred and Judy are painted in a green coat of paint, with yellow lining, although the former was once repainted in a yellow coat of paint, very similar to Bill and Ben's yellow coats of paint.

Bill and Ben’s basis
### Livery

In the Railway Series, Bill and Ben are painted dark orange with red lining. In the television series, they are painted dark yellow with red lining.

In the television series, Bill and Ben 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 onward, they have their names painted on their saddle tanks.

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

## Trivia

* Sir Topham Hatt's ownership of Bill and Ben changes in the television series, as the second season episode Percy Takes the Plunge refers to them as not being Fat Controller's engines, while the third season episode One Good Turn refers to them as "the most mischievous engines working on Sir Topham Hatt's railway."
* In the Railway Series, from Wrong Road onward, 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'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 in CGI, they were rendered in the same larger size.
* Often in the CGI Series, they swap whistle sounds.
* Bill and Ben were known as Guillaume and Benjóin in the French version of the Classic Series.
* 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.
* They might have been named after Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men, who were first created in 1952, the same year Toby the Tram Engine was first published.

## Voice Actors

**Bill:**

* Jonathan Broadbent
* Rasmus Hardiker
* Tomoko Naka
* Noriko Shitaya
* Sakura Yoshioka

**Ben:**

* Jonathan Broadbent
* Matt Wilkinson
* Hiromi Nishida
* Noriko Shitaya
* Sakura Yoshioka