Next chapter coming up right now.

I do not own Thomas the Tank/Thomas & Friends or I would have kept them in their models forms.

James was miserable.

Ever since his incident with the Orange Coaches where he damaged them from bumping them too hard and required a passenger's bootlace to repair it, he had been suspended and forced to stay at the bunkhouse for the last three days.

He was miserable and bored as all he could was clean Number 5 while the others went about their jobs while he couldn't.

Gordon, Henry and Thomas teased him about bootlaces which annoyed him greatly to no end.

Edward didn't tease him and was sympathetic to him, but he still lectured him about losing his temper and taking it out on the Railway property. All James could do was take the lecture and feel even worse as Edward was right making the guilt eat him badly during those three days.

On the third day James once again cleaned his engine and hoped he could get back to work soon as the boredom and guilt is becoming too much for him to bear. He wondered if Sir Topham Hatt, who he hasn't seen in those three days, will ever let him out to work.

His answer soon came as he climbed off the ladder he was using to wash his engine and he saw a shadow on Number 5 making him turn around to see Sir Topham Hatt standing there.

"Hello James, I hope you have learned your lesson." He said sternly and James looked down in shame. "Yes sir. I have sir. I promise to not take my anger out on Railway property again." James said lowly and truthfully still not looking Sir Topham Hatt in the eye.

"Good. I hope so as people are laughing at my railway and I don't like that at all, but I see you are truly sorry so you can go back to work now. I want you to take a Goods Train to Maron this morning. Consider it a test of faith." He said and James smiled excited to be let out to work again. "Yes I won't fail you this time. I promise."

With that he was off to Knapford where his train was being loaded by the Rock & Load crew.

"Train's nearly ready James all it is missing is some bootlaces." One of them teased and James scowled at them laughing, but they quickly go quiet when they saw Marcus come up. They wisely went back to the work quickly not wanting to anger their foreman as they heard how he punished the ones that messed up with James's last Goods Train.

"We had to overload the trucks a bit with more coal as Maron Station needs more it seems. It will be extra heavy so make sure to be careful as it will feel like you are dragging it instead of pulling it. Especially make sure to be careful when going up Gordon's hill." Marcus warned James about the weight of the Goods Train and James nods at that as he was determined to not fail. Heavy train or not he will not screw up again.

Soon Number 5 was coupled up to the train and once he heard the Guard's whistle and saw the green flag wave he was off. Marcus was right as James could feel the heavy trucks drag behind him and this made him mad from annoyance, but held it down as he was determined to not fail Sir Topham Hatt again.

It was a long trip from the weight of coal trucks and James having to take it easy seeing going to fast with that weight could tear something up badly.

Eventually he reached Gordon's hill and he knew this wasn't going to be easy, but he got a plan. Here he will go fast as going slow will get him stuck like Gordon did.

He pushed his engine into full speed and starts his ascent and it was a very hard challenge as the weight of the trucks was taking its toll on Number 5. James shovelled coal frantically to keep his engine going and going.

"Come one…halfway there…" He groaned as he kept going and soon he reached the top. "Yes! I did it!" He cheered, but then realised how quick it was and knew something wasn't right. He leaned out of the cab and saw to his anger that the last third of his train had broken away and now was going down the hill.

"I knew it was too easy." He grumbled as he starts reversing down the hill to catch up and soon saw they had lucky stopped at the bottom. He was glad for that as seeing if they kept going than they could have become a dangerous run away.

As he came to a stop he saw Edward pulling up and he offered to help recouple them up.

"Need any help up the hill?" Edward offered, but James kindly shook his head. "No thanks I will pull themselves will just have to take a little more carefully." He replied back and Edward nods proudly at that glad to see James having learned well.

Soon James back at pulling his train and went fast, but not too fast so thus he could pull the trucks safely and carefully up. Soon he was up and over the top of the hill without any further incident making him very happy as he felt he showed he can handle problems like that.

After arriving at Maron and uncoupling his train James was refilling Number 5's water tanks when he saw Edward pull up.

He was shocked to see Sir Topham Hatt riding with him and was worried he was going to be mad. However, her was surprised to see a big proud smile on his face.

"Well done James. I was riding with Edward at the time and saw what had happened. I am impressed to see how you handled the situation and your heavy train. You are now fully back to work."

James was delighted to hear that as he now knows he has made up for his incident with the coaches and showed he is really useful indeed.

Hope you all enjoyed.