Smokey and Steamer

Smokey (top) and Steamer (bottom)
Character information
Gender	Male
Born	Sometime between 1915 and 1921
Primary wardrobe	Greasy blue overalls
Age	Likely around 35-40
Occupation	Polar Express engineer (Steamer) Polar Express fireman (Smokey)
Allies	Hero Girl Hero Boy, Conductor
Enemies	Hobo
Likes	Singing to each other Operating the locomotive
Dislikes	Scary stories The cotter pin being sheared off
Songs	"It Takes Two" (deleted)
Background information
Performed by	Michael Jeter (workprints; some of Steamer's lines used in the final film) André Sogliuzzo (additional voice)
Appeared in	The Film

Smokey and Steamer are supporting characters in The Polar Express. They are twin brothers and the Polar Express' fireman and engineer. Steamer is short, fat, and bald while Smokey is tall, skinny, and has an extremely long ginger beard and hair.

Role in the film

Smokey and Steamer are first seen at the front of the locomotive fixing its headlight, though with some difficulty, due to the light bulb slipping out of Smokey's hand forcing Steamer to grab Smokey's beard while catching the light bulb in midair. Hero Girl is left in charge of driving the train in the meantime. After the headlight is fixed, Smokey catches sight of a light ahead on the tracks. Steamer sees it too and was so surprised that he accidentally let go of Smokey's beard, causing Smokey's head to get stuck in the locomotive's bell and Steamer calls out to Hero Girl to stop the train. Hero Boy and Hero Girl hear him, but have trouble finding out which is the brake. They eventually figure it out and quickly stop the train just in time. When the train starts to slow down, Steamer loses his balance and uses Smokey's beard to prevent him from falling off the train (which causes Smokey's head to be unintentionally freed from the bell) and finds himself face to face with a caribou when it stops.

A giant herd of caribou is blocking the tracks, which Steamer says this will take hours to clear due to the size of the herd. Hero Boy, Hero Girl, and the Conductor go to the front of the train to help with the situation. On the way, Hero Boy slips and, like Steamer earlier, uses Smokey's beard to break his fall, causing him to scream in pain. It is discovered that the caribou understand Smokey's painful screaming, so the Conductor continues to pull his beard to try to communicate with them. They eventually manage to get them to clear the tracks.

Smokey and Steamer return to the engine's cab and start the train again, with Steamer putting on his hat. However, Steamer suddenly finds that the throttle's cotter pin is jammed and loose (the PM 1225's throttle uses bolts and the likely hood of this kind of malfunction is low). He tries to fix it, which distracts him from the train's speed and Hero Girl's warning to slow down (it can be argued that despite being distracted there is little he can do to slow the locomotive down). The cotter pin holding the throttle finally falls off and slips through the grate on the floor. As the train speeds down Glacier Gulch, the pin comes out of the grate and Steamer catches it in his mouth, but accidentally swallows it.

On the Ice Lake (where the ice had frozen over the tracks), Smokey hits Steamer's back with a shovel to force the pin out, but it only succeeds in flying out the engine’s cab and pierces the ice, causing it to fracture. With no other option, Smokey has the spare pin from his hair to fix the throttle, allowing Steamer stop the train. Suddenly, Hero Boy notices the crack in the ice getting bigger, prompting Smokey and Steamer to get the train off the lake with the Conductor navigating. They find the tracks on the other side of the lake, head toward them, and quickly escape the cracking ice just in time.

After this, Smokey and Steamer are not seen again for the rest of the film, but are still driving the train and are therefore present for the remainder of the film's events.

Other appearances

The Polar Express: The Video Game

Smokey and Steamer appear in the the third chapter of the video game. While Hero Girl is driving the train, something goes wrong (in reference to the song "It Takes Two"), but Smokey and Steamer return to the cab to fix it. They ask Hero Boy to help by catching the parts that fall off and tossing them back to them. Later, after the caribou clear the track, Hero Boy helps Smokey and Steamer get the train moving again.

Behind the scenes

Smokey and Steamer were originally voiced by Michael Jeter. However, he passed away before he could record all his lines, so André Sogliuzzo recorded the remaining dialogue and over most of his existing dialogue. According to animation supervisor David Schaub, Jeter would have also provided the motion-capture. However, this proved to be difficult due to the pair's difference in size and cartoony nature, so they were keyframe-animated instead, like the Scrooge puppet, Santa Claus' reindeer, the caribou, the wolves, and the eagles. Although most of Jeter's performance did not make it into the final film, voice-matching reveals the pair's lines in the caribou scene are still voiced by Jeter, allowing him to retain a voice credit in the film.

The filmmakers had alternative ideas on how Smokey would get the second cotter pin to fix the throttle. One would have had a pin holding up his pants, which would drop the moment he took it off.

Smokey and Steamer appeared in the deleted scene, "It Takes Two". The scene was cut for time when the filmmakers decided the film would flow better without the scene. Taking place in the engine room after Hero Boy blows the whistle, the locomotive starts making strange sounds. Hero Girl tries to stop it by turning two controls, but to no avail. Luckily, Smokey and Steamer show up to put things right. When they ask what happened, Hero Girl explains what she did and they tell her the controls had to be turned simultaneously. Next, they break into a song about the importance of working together. This leaves Hero Girl confused as she was in the engine room alone, but Smokey and Steamer point to Hero Boy. They ask what he is doing and introduce themselves, with Steamer shaking his hand, and then Smokey shortly after. The Hero Boy tells them about his experience with the Hobo, the mention of whom frightens them. They perform a shadow puppet show telling the story of the Hobo, who decided one Christmas Eve many years ago to ride the Polar Express for free on the roof, but was killed when the train went through Flat Top Tunnel. Some say his ghost can still be seen riding the train every Christmas Eve. After that, they remember they have to fix the locomotive's headlight, so they leave the children in charge of driving the train.

In other languages

Language	Name	Voice actor(s)
Chinese	火車司機二角	孙诚 徐健春
Danish	Steamer	Tom Jensen (Steamer)
French	Les Machinistes	Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu
German	Dampfi / Qualmer	Hasso Zorn
Hebrew	סמוקי / סטימר	Albert Cohen
Hungarian	A masiniszta és a mozdonyvezető	László Görög (Smokey) Gábor Németh (Steamer)
Italian	Fumino e Sbuffino	Mino Caprio
Japanese	スモーキーとスチーマー	Ryūsei Nakao (Smokey) Yusaku Yara (Steamer)
Polish	Chudy maszynista i gruby maszynista	Wojciech Paszkowski (Smokey) Mariusz Czajka (Steamer)
Portuguese	Maquinista Gordo e Maquinista Barbudo	Fernando Luís (Portugal)
Spanish	Smokey y Steamer	Ismael Castro (Latin America; Smokey) Rolando de Castro (Latin America; Steamer) Aleix Estadella (Spain)
Swedish	Smokey och Steamer	Jan Modin (Smokey) Göran Engman (Steamer)

Trivia

• Smokey and Steamer are two of several characters from the film who don’t appear in the book. While it can be certain that someone is driving the train, it is never revealed who.
• Smokey and Steamer are two of few characters to have their names revealed in the movie, though this only occurred in the credits. However, they mention their names, as well as themselves being twins (which is never revealed in the film at all), in the deleted scene, "It Takes Two".
• In the Lionel set produced for the film in 2004, Smokey's figure lacks a beard of any kind, likely to keep production costs down.
• Their hats each have a symbol, which consists of the letters "PE" (the abbreviation for "Polar Express") in red on a white circle.

Quotes

Film

• "Here's the light! Careful. All right, now!" - Smokey
• "I got it!" - Steamer
• "Hold still! Hold still! Don't move!" - Steamer
• "Look!" - Smokey
• "What!?" - Steamer
• "Stop the train! Stop the train! Stop the train! Stop the train!" - Steamer
• "The brake! Pull the brake! Stop the train! Pull the brake!" - Steamer
• "Caribou?" - Steamer
• "I make that herd to be at least a hundred thousand. Maybe even a million. It's gonna be hours before they clear this track!" - Steamer
• "A tough nut to crack." - Smokey
• "And a jam." - Steamer
• "Tight spot." - Smokey
• "Up a creek. Up a tree. Lost in the grass. I'll tell you what's grass: our a--" Smokey and Steamer
• "Jumping jeepers, the cotter pin sheared off!" - Steamer
• "What?" - Smokey
• "The pin!" - Steamer
• "Where?" - Smokey
• "There." - Smokey and Steamer
• "Oh, no!" - Smokey and Steamer
• "Whoa! The pin!" - Smokey and Steamer

Video Game

• “The train has been stopped, probably something blowed!” - Steamer
• ”The pressures built, she’s gonna explore!” - Smokey
• ”I've got to open these valves!” - Steamer
• ”I gotta lighten this load!” - Smokey
• ”That heat’s too intense, this train’s gonna melt!” - Steamer
• ”You there boy, do you think you can help?” - Smokey
• ”Catch parts as they blow, watch out for the coal.” - Steamer
• ”Why don’t you put on those gloves, and we’re ready to roll!” - Smokey
• ”Let’s goooo!” - Steamer
• ”Toss it here kid!” - Smokey or Steamer
• ”That’s the part I’m looking for.” - Smokey or Steamer
• "That's the one I need!" - Smokey or Steamer
• "Toss that one to me!" - Smokey or Steamer
• "That's it throw it here!" - Smokey or Steamer
• "We don't need that right now." - Smokey or Steamer
• "You gotta catch the parts we need." - Smokey or Steamer
• "This way boy!" - Smokey and Steamer
• ”You did well there, we couldn’t have done it without your help. - Smokey
• We’re not done yet though, we need to fix the light, so we can see our way forward.” - Steamer
• ”Okay, we need to build up the steam pressure again, and get this train moving!” - Steamer
• ”That’s right, we’ve gotta stoke the fire, and build up the heat. We’re only gonna make it if…” - Smokey
• ”We all work together!” - Smokey and Steamer
• ”He’s shown that he’s brave, we know that tough.” - Steamer
• ”He’s just gotta believe, that he’s got the right stuff.” - Smokey
• ”No time flat, we'll have fixed up the engine.” - Steamer
• ”Do as we say, and stick to the rhythm.” - Smokey
• ”Up, down, left, right!” - Smokey and Steamer
• ”Dig, shovel, dig, shovel!” - Smokey and Steamer
• ”Just follow our lead and keep the beat.” - Steamer
• ”And shovel that coal and raise the heat.” - Smokey
• ”You’re doing great!” - Smokey
• ”One more round, and our work is all done.” - Smokey
• ”Then will resume to our North Pole bound run.” - Steamer
• ”Fantastic work!” - Smokey
• ”We’re movin’!” - Steamer
• ”Looks like we’re gonna make it. We should be able to make up time if we keep workin’ at it.” - Steamer
• ”Thanks for your help young fella, we couldn’t have done it without ya.” - Smokey

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