Thomas the Tank Engine would not stop being a nuisance. Every night, he would complain relentlessly to the other engines about shunting in the yards and fetching coaches. Thomas wishes to see the world for a change, despite the others taking little notice as they only see Thomas as an engine with a big imagination and a long tongue. However one night, Edward comes to the shed and as he is a kind engine, he feels sorry for Thomas and so, Edward offers to let Thomas take his goods train back to Wellsworth the next day. If he does so, then Edward will shunt coaches for Thomas in the yards, which the tank engine happily agrees to. The next morning, Edward and Thomas ask their drivers about switching jobs for the day and after they say 'yes', Thomas runs off happily to find the freight cars at the yards.
Now freight cars are silly, noisy, they talk a lot and don't attend to what they are doing and worst of all, they often play tricks on engines who are not used to them. Edward is well aware of this and has much experience with freight cars and he does warn Thomas to be careful but the tank engine is too excited to listen. Thomas prepares his train quickly, the shunter couples him up and as the signal drops to show the line is clear, Thomas is ready to depart. The conductor blows his whistle, Thomas blows his whistle as a reply and he starts to pull away but the freight cars are not ready. Despite their cries to wait, Thomas just ignores them and orders them to come along as he puffs out of the station, rather stubbornly. Thomas starts going faster as he passes through Henry's Tunnel, through the countryside and races through Elsbridge station, all while feeling very proud but the cars are growing crosser and crosses. Thomas eventually slows down as he reaches Gordon's Hill and even though it is a hard climb, Thomas puffs on and soon, he reaches the top of the hill and as his driver tries to apply the brakes, the cars bump into each other and before Thomas knows it, he is being pushed down the hill. Thomas loses control of the freight cars and shouts at them to stop pushing him but the cars take no notice and try to go even faster.
Before long, Thomas rapidly approaches Maron and races through the station and swerves into a siding at the goods yard and he shuts his eyes until finally, he stops just in front of the buffers. But there, having seen everything, was Sir Topham Hatt and he comes up to the tank engine and questions him as to why he came in so fast, to which Thomas explains that he didn't mean to as he was pushed by the cars. Sir Topham Hatt advises Thomas that he has a lot more to learn about freight cars and that after shunting the yards for a few weeks, he will know almost as much about them as Edward and then, he will be a Really Useful Engine.
30 апр 2023
