Episode 7:

Thomas was working alone in Tidmouth yard one August day. Edward had just left with a train for Ffarquhar, a city near the middle of the island which a new branchline had been built for. Thomas was now shunting together a train for James to take off to Vicarstown, including the particularly nasty likes of SCRuffey, a privately owned truck.

"Short an' Stumpy ye are!" SCRuffey jeered. "Silly 'ittle tank engine ye are!"

"Oh, shut up!" Thomas snapped, shoving the gruff car into place. "And don't even try it Fred!" Fred Pelhay had been attempting to start a rousing chorus amongst the trucks. What the chorus was, Thomas didn't want to know.

"So sorry Mr. Thomas." Toad the brakevan sighed. "Those Troublesome trucks are not the greatest of fellows!"

"It isn't your fault Toad." Thomas reassured the kind and somewhat insecure brakevan. "It's their nature, i'm just glad you aren't like them!" He put Toad last on James' train, pushed it into its proper siding, and moved along the line, he was needed in Knapford yard now for the Coaches.

Henry tooted as he left the station, and Thomas passed through to reach the yard. He found the Wild Nor' Wester waiting at a platform, so he dutifully shunted it away and stopped it in its proper siding.

"Hello Thomas!" came a voice he enjoyed. Annie and Clarabel the coaches were sitting in another siding nearby, and Annie had called from the front, her sister facing backwards, as usual.

"Hello Annie, Clarabel." He replied, moving toward another line of Branchline coaches for Edward later that day.

"Who's that train for?" Clarabel asked as he passed them.

"It's for Edward, which is different, I know." He laughed. Edward did in fact usually pull freight, but the new branchline had brought more passengers than before, and he was due to pull this train around noon.

"That new branchline is quite nice you know." Annie mused.

"Yes, Ffarquhar is a nice place." Clarabel added.

"I~" Thomas was about to respond, when a scream reached his ears.

He pulled around on the yard's turntable just in time to see James, pulling his line of trucks, screaming along as they pushed him too fast. "HELP!" The red engine screamed, his paintwork brighter from a shower of sparks at his wheels.

"Thomas, his brakes are failing again!" Bob Hardy shouted urgently.

"I've got to do something!" Thomas shouted, looking around. He was a very efficient shunter, and his jobs here were mostly done, so made up his mind, and charged out of the yard.

"Wait Thomas!" Annie and Clarabel shouted simultaneously, "Take the Crane!"

Thomas stopped and looked over to a large rescue crane, known as a breakdown crane, and moved quickly through the well-organized yard. Bob coupled him up and they were off. The large, dark-green crane wasn't heavy, nor sentient, but Thomas could sense it's readiness as he pulled as fast as he could out of Knapford.

The smell of smoke in the air told Thomas that James had no chance of stopping these trucks, and he cursed himself for putting Fred Pelhay and SCRuffey on the same train, and so close to each other. As he charged over Gordon's Hill, he found Toad the Brakevan discarded on the line, sitting there, ejected. Thomas slowed and nearly ran over Toad, but managed to just push him along, however slightly roughly. "Toad!" He shouted as he connected. "What happened?"

"SCRuffey got all the trucks to push James too fast!" Toad shouted. "His brakes caught fire and he been pushed along! I tried to stop it but Fred knocked me off!"

"We'll catch him yet Toad!" Bob shouted from the cab, feeding Thomas as much steam as he could.

The chase was intense, Thomas could only see through the windows of Toad ahead, and as they thundered through Maron, they could see James's train far ahead. "Go Mr. Thomas!" Toad shouted.

The straight stretch of track between Maron and Cronk was a great point for Thomas to catch up to James, as the cars could only push as fast on Hills. Thomas, Toad and the Breakdown crane charged down the tracks, and James screaming could be heard once more as they approached. "HELP!" the red engine continued to scream.

"We're coming James!" Thomas screamed in reply, and pulled as fast as he could.

The straight stretch was running out though, and a sharp corner before Cronk lay ahead, and James couldn't possibly stop in time. Smoke billowed from his wheels as Thomas pulled closer on the second track. James hadn't stopped screaming, and it combined with the trucks laughing made for a deafening sound as Thomas swerved closer.

But it was too late. The turn lay ahead, and Bob had to slow Thomas down to prevent himself coming off the rails. The crash was spectacular, and Thomas, Toad and the Breakdown crane saw it all.

As James hit the turn, he tilted at a bad angle, unrecoverable. Geoffrey Black jumped to safety into a lucky patch of Hay, and James fell from the tracks. Then came his load. Thomas couldn't recall what he had been pulling in his naughty line of trucks, but it all spilled across the field as the trucks jumped the rails one by one. James and his trucks slid for a distance, dirt and grass flying up around the tracks and all across the red engine's paint. Some trucks smashed upon impact, presumably killing them, but unluckily, Fred and SCRuffey survived, only falling across the field.

"Heaven help him…" Toad mumbled as James finally stopped skidding. He was a mess, and Thomas was now glad he'd brought the crane all this way. He stopped beside the crash site, and Bob moved to the crane.

"Do you know how to work it Bob?" Thomas called back.

"I used it once when old Candle crashed back in the 40s!" Bob responded. "If it still works the same, I'll get James up soon enough!"

Henry was passing by just then with a slow goods train, and came to a halt beside Thomas. "What happened here!?" He exclaimed.

"James's brakes failed as he was pushed by these trucks!" Thomas replied.

"We'll be back with a crew, alri' Bob?!" Owen Bailey called out.

"These trucks are making it hard to get James out, i'll have to dispose of them first, want to take them?" Bob asked Henry.

"You'll want a scrap truck for some of them!" Henry replied. "But i'll take the living ones!"

Bob and Owen pulled the living trucks swiftly to the tracks, all of them moaning and regretting the endeavor. Thomas shunted the trucks and Toad to Henry and he towed them away, and James slipped in and out of consciousness. Geoffrey Black came back to help pull his engine out of the dirt and dust.

"Keep it together James." Thomas whispered worriedly as Bob hauled James' tender out of the field.

Finally, the intense hours ended as Bob carefully pulled James out of the ditch he'd ripped through the ground, gently setting him on the tracks. James left side was damaged like nothing Thomas had ever seen, from Sodor or the LBSCR. His paint was shredded and his coupling rod was missing in the dirt, his buffer beam, boiler and dome were dented and somewhat crushed, and the glass on his windows shattered, but James himself was alive, and his essential parts intact.

"C'mon, let's get you back to Tidmouth Sheds." Thomas whispered, pushing James in front and pulling the Breakdown Crane behind him as the sun began to set.

They puffed gently into Tidmouth, taking advantage of the Ffarquhar branchline to avoid the hills, and Thomas let James into the sheds first. "Thomas!" Came a deep voice behind him, and Thomas waited for the owner to come to his front. "Well done Thomas!" Sir Topham boomed, his hat in his hands and a worried yet excited emotion on his face. "Henry and Owen told me what you did, and I'm proud of you!"

"Yea, the train did all the work…" Bob grumbled, somewhat jokingly.

"You did grand as well Bob!" Hatt laughed. "It's a good thing you learned how to use that crane all those years ago!"

"Please sir, will James be alright?" Thomas asked, seeing the engine struggle into the sheds.

"James will be fine, I've called in my best workman, Jem Cole to help get him back on the job!" Hatt nodded as he said this. "Thomas, you will be rewarded soon, but I'm leaving on Vacation tomorrow, so i'm afraid it will have to wait. But don't let me forget, you and Bob deserve something special after this day!"

"Just buy me a pint Topham!" Bob laughed.

"Not after last time Bob." Topham rolled his eyes.

"Where have you been?!" Shouted another voice in the yard. Gordon slowly rolled into the yard with a highly annoyed face and voice. "I had to shunt my own coaches! Henry brings in a scrap truck! What on~~" Gordon stopped shouting as he looked to the sheds and saw James. "What on Sodor?"

"James has had a nasty accident, Gordon!" Hatt replied sternly. "And Thomas and Henry came to the rescue! I think you can excuse your own inconvenience for that!"

Gordon sighed and rolled onto the Turntable, Charlie Sand tipping his hat to Bob Hardy as they passed. Thomas sighed in relief and looked back at James, who seemed already to be better off resting in the sheds.

"Topham! We're going to be late!" Jane called.

Sir Topham Hatt shoved his last pancake whole into his mouth and jumped up, leaving the bill behind as well as his top hat, and ran out of the restaurant to his car where his wife and two grandchildren awaited.

"C'mon Grandfather!" Stephen Hatt whined, pulling Topham into the car.

As he turned the key on the rental car, it sputtered, roared, and died. "Um…" Topham stuttered, attempting it again, but failing. "Curse this rental… This happens everytime…."

A bell rang nearby, and Topham looked up from his dead car to see his saving grace and personal obsession, a train. He tapped on Lady Hatt's arm and got out of the car, approaching the station, hoping for a ride on the engine. It was a steam tram, brown and mostly made of wood, but it was running well and it was sentient too.

"Hello there!" Topham called to it.

"Who me?" it replied. "Oh, well hi!"

"You're a fine engine, may we get a ride?" Topham asked. His wife and grandchildren approached from behind, his grandchildren excited.

"Why not? Henrietta has room." The tram replied. Topham looked over to the tram's train, which consisted of a single coach directly behind him, and three freight cars of various goods. "M'name's Toby!" The coach had a face too, and she winked at Topham as he looked her over.

"What sort of engine is this?" Bridget Hatt asked.

"Why it's a tram!" Topham responded. "And a sentient one too!"

"Is it electric?" Stephen asked.

Toby scoffed indignantly. "No, he's clearly steam. Quite a model too! Where were you built Toby?" Topham asked

"The Great Eastern Railway, but they sold me a while back and i've worked here ever since." Toby smiled again, Topham knew how to talk to trains.