Troublesome Trucks

The Troublesome Trucks (called Cars, originally Foolish Freight Cars, in the US narration) are pieces of rolling stock that are nicknamed so because they can be very troublesome, and love to play tricks on the engines.

Personalities
Every wise engine knows trucks cannot be trusted. Trucks could be considered the rebels and the troublemakers of all rolling stock on the railway, as most of them love to cause mischief and trouble and show no remorse for whatever they do unless they are told off by their engine or controller. If an engine is having a bad day, makes a mistake, or is naive and easily played upon, the trucks begin their wild antics of singing, name calling, holding back, shoving, bumping, giggling, teasing and so on. They will play tricks on an engine based on how they treat them. They are known to be the cause of many accidents and some of them are a form of revenge due to mistreatment and they are not known for their common sense; they will carry out their plans to pay back an engine even if they result in derailing, damaging or in some instances destroying themselves.

Trucks can also be described as territorial; when they get used to certain engines pulling them, another engine in the yard to take them may cause confusion or anger for the trucks. In the second series episode, Percy's Predicament for example, Toby and Percy switched jobs, making Toby's trucks furious and causing Percy to crash. In the third series episode, Oliver Owns Up, the trucks refused for Oliver to take them and demanded Duck or Donald or Douglas instead.

To the trucks, one engine is as good as another, as on one occasion they took their anger out on Thomas when they could not get back at James for bumping them. Another occasion was when Toby was pushed by the trucks when he took them instead of Mavis, the latter of whom had asked them to push her at the level crossing.

Trucks are also shown to be somewhat manipulative and can take advantage of other engines that do not know much about them. This was shown when they tricked Bill and Ben by telling them where to put them when they said they wanted to help, only to end up causing delays when the trucks ended up all over the sidings in messy situations, making the twins late to fetch Gordon's coaches.

The only engines the trucks are known not to play tricks on are Edward, Stepney, Salty, Hiro and Rebecca, as well as Toby and Mavis from the fifth series onwards. These engines have their ways of necessary sternness and knowledge of how to properly discipline them when they misbehave and only bump them when they deserve it. Salty's way of handling trucks is singing musical tunes for them to sing along, so as to keep their minds off of misbehaving. With Rebecca, when they tried to play tricks on her, they were instead confused by the end of their journey with her as she went along with their antics instead of letting them get to her. In fact, she even looked forward to taking them again.

They are also afraid of Donald and Douglas after the latter crushed the Spiteful Brake Van to pieces and Oliver since he pulled a privately owned truck called S.C. Ruffey apart. Although they were all accidents, the trucks were never told that and since these incidents, they always keep in mind never to play tricks on those engines.

There have, however, been some cases where the trucks and engines are on the same side, such as when Diesel was given a third chance on Sodor, but the trucks tricked him into misbehaving and getting sent away again. They also asked Percy to help move them away from Bulstrode, only to end up in his hull and damage him, resulting in him being sent to a beach. On very rare occasions, they behave unusually well but can be easily annoyed.

In other countries around the world, some trucks are shown to act very differently than the ones on Sodor, some being very polite and even trying to help the engines instead of causing trouble.

Basis
Troublesome Trucks are based on 5 and 7-plank open wagons. The smaller trucks are based on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway open wagon, scaled up accordingly. The slate trucks are based on the 2-bar wooden slate wagons of the Talyllyn Railway, scaled up accordingly.

Livery
In The Railway Series and the early television series, the plank trucks were painted in a number of different liveries. Currently in the television series, they are predominantly painted grey. In Big World! Big Adventures!, some of the plank trucks in Brazil were painted purple-red. In the twenty-second series, some plank trucks in China are painted black with red buffer beams. In the twenty-third series, the trucks in India are painted either orange or white.

Appearances

 * Season 1 - The Trouble With Trucks (do not speak)

Trivia

 * Trucks are usually never named; however, those that are privately owned tend to take on the name of their owner, like S.C. Ruffey, Fred Pelhay and Old Bennett. Hector and Lei are exceptions to this, being the only trucks with their own names. The ERTL character cards named two trucks, Naughty and Troublesome. The Wooden Railway range introduced a teal truck called Rickety.
 * From the sixth series onwards in the US, the term "truck" is used more often. In more recent series, however, the US has been more consistent in using the term "car", unless referring to the Troublesome Trucks.
 * The audio clip of the trucks laughing heard from the second through seventh series is actually Junior Campbell's laughing sound in a higher-pitch, as is the clip of the trucks singing their song, "Pop Goes the Diesel".
 * In the first series, the Troublesome Trucks had paper eyes and a paper mouth similar to how Annie and Clarabel's were made. No multiple emotions were able to be used until the following series when they were given face masks to present a greater variety of facial expressions.
 * The Troublesome Trucks went through several aesthetic changes in the television series:
 * Series 2:
 * The Trucks gained face masks to allow a greater variety of facial expressions. However, first series trucks made cameo appearances.
 * Series 12:
 * The Trucks have the same face design.
 * Series 13:
 * The open topped wagons became taller.
 * Series 17:
 * All trucks are now grey.
 * The trucks now have identical faces with no distinguishing features, just as they did in the twelfth series.
 * Series 20:
 * The Goods Vans regain their faces.
 * Journey Beyond Sodor:
 * The tankers and salt vans regain their faces.
 * Big World! Big Adventures!:
 * Several trucks in other countries are seen with different liveries and facial features.
 * Some face masks of S.C. Ruffey, Toad, Bulstrode and The Spiteful Brake Van have been seen on the trucks.
 * In the second series episode, A Close Shave, a brake van is seen with a troublesome trucks face.
 * Eight original Troublesome Truck face masks along with several truck models they were used on-screen are now owned by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch. Another Troublesome Truck face mask is owned by Twitter user IsaacM6991, as well as Twitter user TomProps.
 * From the first series to the fifth series, the wagons and Troublesome Trucks used in the television series were made out of vaccuformed plastic Tenmille gauge 1 kits.
 * The Capsule Plarail toys are repainted from JNR Tora55000-type's toys.