His whistle sound changed to Duck's at three whole steps and a half higher in pitch.
Series 5:[]
His whistle changed back to how it originally sounded excluding "Horrid Lorry, James and the Trouble with Trees, Baa! and Make Someone Happy".
His brake pipe now faces upwards.
Thomas and the Magic Railroad:[]
His paint was given a matte finish.
His brake pipe now faces downwards again.
The curve on James' cab lining underneath his window became shallower.
His pupils became bigger again.
Series 6:[]
His safety valve disappeared.
Series 8:[]
His eyebrows became longer.
Calling All Engines!:[]
His eyebrows became thicker.
Series 10:[]
His buffers were moved down slightly. (brass model)
The riveting on his front bufferbeam disappeared. (brass model)
His whistle became lower to the cab. (brass model)
His windows became smaller. (brass model)
His funnel became slightly shorter. (brass model)
CGI model[]
Hero of the Rails:[]
He increased in size, making the top of his boiler the same height as Gordon's. His cab, funnel and tender was also scaled up accordingly. His Gauge 1 model was originally the same size as Edward however James even points out the fact that he is now bigger than Edward in The Adventure Begins.
The curve on James' cab lining became even more shallow.
His eyes increased in size.
Series 17:[]
He gained permanent lamps on his front and tender.
The Adventure Begins:[]
He was painted in his black Railway Series livery and received external brake shoes with wooden blocks added on his rear driving wheels. Following his accident, he still had his brake shoes, but the woodblocks were replaced and he was repainted into his current livery. This change only appeared in this special and briefly in the twenty-first series episode, The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor.
His brake pipe now faces upwards again.
His side rods became silver.
In his black livery, he gains lining on the rear of his tender. This disappears when he is repainted red (however the back lining briefly appears again when he dreams of being different colours in the twenty-second series episode, An Engine of Many Colors.
Series 23:[]
He gained brass handrails on his cab and tender and rivets on his bufferbeams, cab, roof, tender, smokebox, smokebox saddle and boiler saddles, as well as the centre of his boiler. He also gained black lining on the rear of his tender permanently.