I got a good bit of motivation recently and managed to get this episode done much quicker than i expected, next one will be the last episode of Thomas having a mostly main role for a while. He'll be more of a secondary or minor character in the next couple of the episodes as i want to focus on some of the other characters. With all that aside, i hope you enjoy this

It had been over a month since Thomas's inccident with his passenger train and he was feeling very sorry for himself. Even though he hadn't gone the full way, he enjoyed the time he spent pulling trains and longed to do it again.

Unfortunately The Fat Director had said nothing on the matter which made Thomas lose hope, he thought he'd never get out of the yard.

"It's simply the way it's ment to be little Thomas" said Gordon pompusly in the sheds one night,"You are only small and shunting is what you were build for, the last thing we need is you getting anymore ideas above your station".

Thomas just sighed, Edward, who was staying at the sheds that night, was quick to cut in.

"Leave him be Gordon" said Edward sternly,"Or do i need to remind you of the time you got stuck on a hill?".

Gordon just grumbled and left the sheds to take his night Express, Edward spoke kindly to Thomas.

"You'll get your chance someday Thomas" said Edward.

"I don't think so Edward" Thomas sighed,"I'll never leave this yard, it's day in day out same thing!, i just want to pull trains and see the world, but doing this job which i get no appreciation and-".

"You think you get no appreciation?" Edward chuckled,"Thomas you may not believe it, but you have one of the most important jobs on the whole railway, if you weren't here, Knapford yards would be in chaos and all the trains would be delayed, the railway wouldn't be the same without you, don't forgot that".

Thomas looked at Edward perplexed, he'd never thought about how important his job truely was, it remained on his mind for the rest of the night.

The Next Morning, Thomas was suprised have been helded back in the sheds by request of The Fat Director. He was worried, he thought the Director was still cross with him.

He soon arrived in his car and strode up to the little blue engine.

"Good morning Thomas" said The Fat Director.

"G-good morning Sir" Thomas stuttered.

"Now your probally wondering why i've called you here" The Fat Director replied.

"Yes Sir".

"Well i've realised how you've never properly been taught how to pull actually trains, so incase the time comes where you are needed too, i've decided to send you to Edward's line for the next week or so in order for him to teach you how to handle trains" said The Fat Director.

Thomas was shocked,"I-um don't know what to say Sir, t-thank you, i won't let you down" Thomas said still shocked.

"Now im trusting you to do your best on this line and i expect you to listen to Edward's instructions on what to do, i want no tricks, understood?" The Fat Director said Sternly.

"Yes Sir, of course, but just one question, who will look after the yards?" Thomas asked.

"I have arranged for an engine from the other railway to come to the yards on loan to help out while your away" The Director replied,"Now if you'll excuse me, i have paper work to do" and with that the Director hurried away.

Thomas felt very confused at this, on one hand he was very excited to be leaving the yards and seeing more of the railway, but on the other hand, Gordon and Edward's words from last night stayed planted in his mind.

He soon filled up on coal and water and left for Elsbridge. When he arrived he was greeted by Edward.

"Hello Thomas, im glad you could make it" Edward said, greeting him warmly.

"Hi Edward" Thomas replied nervously.

"You sound nervous Thomas, what's wrong?" Edward asked.

Thomas sighed,"Im just worried that the Director's still annoyed at me for my inccident with Douglas's passenger train and now that he's sent me hear for a little while, as thrilled as i am to be here, im worried i'll screw things up again".

Edward smilied,"Im sure you won't Thomas, besides The Fat Director probally sent you here to learn how to handle trains so that sort of thing doesn't happen again, now let me show you the line probally, you only saw a bit of it when you rescued James from the river".

"If you say so" Thomas replied meekly.

Edward soon began to teach Thomas how to pull trains, Thomas found it difficult at first, but he slowly managed to get the hang of it and he soon began to forget about his worries.

Since he was only just learning, he mainly worked around the quarry, taking trucks of stone up to Elsbridge but he would sometimes pull Annie and Clarabel when Edward was busy. Things were going smoothly, but it wasn't to last.

While working at the quarry, Thomas met some of the workmen and lorries that worked there, they were all very kind and friendly, except for one lorry.

His name was Owen, he'd only been built in 1925 and you'd think for someone as young as him, he'd be full of energy and excited. But in reality he was grumpy, blunt and cocky.

"Make way for the roads!" he would boast as he drove into the quarry one day,"Best move aside kettel, im the number 1 around here".

"Rubbish!" huffed Thomas,"My rails can go places that your road can't and us engines can carry much heavier loads than you".

"Pahh!" Owen snorted,"Maybe for now, but just you wait, when that Fat Controller of yours sees sense and realises that roads are the key mode of transport, you'll be scrap in no time" Owen laughed and once he was loaded with stone, he sped out of the quarry.

Thomas let off steam crossly,"The cheeck of that lorry!, who does he think he is!".

"Calm down Thomas, don't let him get to you".

Thomas looked over at the track next to him, on it was a light sky blue coloured truck, his name was Rickety. While must trucks were troublesome, Rickety was very polite and kind and he often helped Edward keep the other trucks in order, he use to work on the Mainline with Scruffey and Fred until he was moved to the branch, he didn't mind this though as he never liked Scruffey anyway.

"Sorry Rickety, it's just that lorry gets on my nerves, i'd love to show him a thing or two" Thomas said, his eyes narrowing as he looked in the direction that Owen left.

"You don't have to take him seriously, railways will also be reliable, no matter what and besides, you've been doing a wonderful job here so far, you've learned how to handle the trucks properaly" Rickety replied.

Thomas smiled at this and quickly forgot to be cross, he soon arranged the empty trucks into their proper sidings and left with a train of loaded ones bound for Elsbridge.

When Thomas arrived at Elsbridge, he began to shunt the trucks into the goods sheds near by.

As he did, he overheard some workmen talking in the yards.

"I hear the quarry up at Farquhar's been having a number of thefts lately" said one.

"Yeah" replied another,"Mr Anopha's raging, rumor has it that it's someone he has a bad past with is tryna sabotage him".

"It's not surprised" said the third one, who was sitting on an oil drum,"I mean they took on all those new staff and lorries recently, so something was bound to happen".

Thomas perked up at this, he was worried, he decided to talk to Edward about it when he next met him.

"Oh yes i did hear about that" the old engine said to Thomas at Farquhar later that day,"It's dreadful, tools are being stolen and equipment is getting vandalised, it's causing all sorts of delays".

"Have the Quarry tried calling the police?" Thomas asked.

"They have, the police are still searching, but nothing come up, you best keep a look out Thomas, if you see anything suspicous, have your crew report it immediately" said Edward.

Thomas understood this.

The next day, he was shunting some trucks in the quarry, he stopped to fill up on water and for his crew to have their lunch. As the Firemen began to fill Thomas's tanks, Thomas began to dose off.

As he did, he heard two voices in the corner of the yard, Thomas opened a sleepy eye and saw Owen and a strange man in gruff and dirty looking clothes in the yard.

"Your absoultely sure?" the man snapped.

"Yeah, Yeah" Owen barked,"We'll go in and go out, simple as that, with enough stuff to make enough money that'll make the royal family blush".

"I swear if this works out wrong, i'll take your tires off and turn you into a hen house" said the man as he climbed into Owen's cab, with a splutter and a cough, Owen left the quarry.

Thomas was confused at this,"What are they on about?" he thought to himself, he had heard from the other engines and some staff about some certain wages from certain jobs being to low and something about a stock market, but thought no more about it as he set back to work.

A few hours later it was night time, all the workmen at the quarry had gone home for the day, Thomas was arranging a last minute train before his crew backed him into his shed.

As they back to clean him down and finish up, Thomas soon began to fall asleep.

It wasn't long however until Thomas woke up to a loud crashing noise, His crew were just leaving and stopped dead in their tracks.

Thomas looked over to one of the storage offices and saw a lorry parked outside of it. Two men walked up to the door, one of them pulled an axe and Thomas looked on in horror as the axe tore the door done and the men rushed inside. The sounds of toppling shelves could be hear as the men came rushing back out again with a file in hand.

At this point Thomas yelled out.

"STOP!, THEIF!" he called out. The men jumped and scrambled into the lorry and drove away. Thomas's crew rushed back over to his cab, his fire was still lit and he had a bit of coal and water left, with a whistle and a roar, Thomas chased after them.

The men drove on the tracks in an attempt to reach the road outside the quarry.

Thomas caught up quickly as steam engines were much faster than lorries, the men in the lorry began to throw all sorts of objects they could find at Thomas, cans, wrappers and even a wrench.

"OUCH!" Thomas yelled as a wrench hit his buffer,"You don't need to throw stuff at me, im not a bin!".

The entry to the dirt road leading away from the railway soon came into view.

"We have to stop them here!" Thomas's driver called out,"If not we'll lose them".

"I know!" Thomas replied, he thought quickly and an idea came into his funnel.

"Bump them!" said Thomas.

His driver stared,"Are you mad!?, that'll-".

"JUST DO IT!" Thomas barked.

His driver agreed and Thomas sped. He gave the lorry a lit bump, it was only small but had a great deal of effect.

Winter had recently started to begin and frost and ice had already started to form, making everything very slippy. The lorry soon spun out of control, flew off the rails and landed in a small ditch close to the line, Smoke started to spew out from it's engine.

The men in the lorry had been knocked unconsisous from the impact, as Thomas stopped beside it, he found out who it was and he beamed with triumph.

"Well, well, well, would you look at that?" Thomas smirked as Owen's face was filled with anger and embrassment.

The Driver went up the line to phone for help. The police soon arrived and took the men and Owen into custody.

Thomas and his crew had to go up to Farquhar with the police to answer questions about what had happened by the time Thomas arrived back at Elsbridge, Edward was waiting for him.

"Well Thomas" Edward chuckled,"You've certainly had an adventure!".

Thomas smilied with fatigue,"You could say that" he muttered.

"Your being praised as a hero by everyone on the branch" said Edward.

"I am?" Thomas said suprised.

"Of course you are" said a voice, Thomas jumped as The Fat Director walked up to him.

"Oh dear" Thomas thought,"What will he say?".

But The Fat Director was smiling,"Well done Thomas" he beamed,"Im very proud with your peformance on this line and your efforts last night, you've proven to me that your a very capable engine and that your no longer just a cheeky little tank engine".

Thomas's face lit up,"Oh thank you sir" and he let out a happy 'peep peep' on his whistle.

Thomas soon returned to the yards at the big station a couple days later, he later learned that Owen and the men had been hired by a rival stone company owner on the mainline who hated the owner of the Anopha Quarry as he wanted to try and buy the quarry himself, but the Anopha family got to it first.

He blamed the Anopha Family for this and wanted revenge, so he tasked the men with stealing the quarry's equipment and files to make them look bad and to hopefully gain control of the quarry, he was put behind bars as a result.

As for Owen, he was sold to a farmer who lived near the Skarloey Railway to be his new hen house, he's sure he'll be back on the roads soon, but between you and me, i don't think that's very likely, don't you?.