Word of the Great Railway Show spread across Sodor like wildfire. The Fat Controller was making the arrangements necessary to send a few of his engines to the show to compete on behalf of the Island of Sodor. The trouble was...no one knew who was going! As the Fat Controller worked in his office, Duck stood outside, watching with anticipation.

"It's gonna be special!

It's gonna be great!

Off to the Mainland without coaches or freight!" He sang, and soon enough, Oliver, Sidney, and Ryan rolled alongside him to try and call through the window.

"Please sir!"

"I beg you!"

"I just have to know!" The Fat Controller stepped out of his office and was surprised to be bombarded by all four engines singing at once.

"Will you won't you take me to the Railway Show?" He scowled at the four engines.

"We have a railway to run! I will tell you who I am sending when I have decided who I am sending!"

"Yes, sir…" The four engines rolled away, but the Fat Controller was surprised to hear a whistle as Henry bustled into the station, pulling a long heavy goods train, and visibly struggling, but smiling nonetheless as he sang.

"Take me, Sir!

I pull the heaviest trains!

I'm such a mighty engine, Sir,

It's never a strain!" Henry groaned as he tried to shift the heavy trucks out of the station, but a laugh suddenly rang out and James rushed into the station alongside him, freshly washed and smirking.

"It's not a tough decision, though I'll have no complaint

if you don't decide to send me to preserve my red paint!" To James's surprise, the Fat Controller tapped his chin in thought and wrote something down on his clipboard.

"Mmm...precisely!" The red engine's eyes widened and he spluttered.

"Well, urm, I didn't mean not to take me, sir!" However, before James could continue, he heard a laugh as Philip raced in where the last of Henry's trucks had been, beaming eagerly.

"Haha!

I know I'm kinda small, Sir,

but I'm not a beginner.

I had a race with Gordon once,

and I was the winner!" James rolled his eyes at Philip's familiar anecdote, before some stone trucks came surging into the station, ramming Philip out of the way and covering James' paintwork with dust.

"AHHHH!" Philip screamed as he disappeared from the station.

"Mind my paintwork!" James snapped to the engine pushing the trucks, who was revealed to be Thomas. The Fat Controller raised an eyebrow as Thomas grinned at him.

"You ought to pick me, Sir,

I am your number one!

I can shunt trucks most easily,

I can shift any tonne!" To Thomas' surprise, the Fat Controller had turned on his heels and gotten into Winston, driving away in a desperate attempt to escape requests to go to the show.

However, no matter where the Fat Controller went, there were always engines talking about the Great Railway Show:

"It's gonna be special

It's gonna be great

Off to the Mainland without coaches or freight!" Toby, Mavis, and Rosie sang at the Ffarquhar Quarry, and the Fat Controller reversed away in Winston as fast as possible. The Shunting Yards weren't much help in this regard either.

"Please Sir, I beg you,

you can't tell me no!" Stanley, Charlie, and Stafford harmonized together in the Shunting Yards. The Fat Controller tried to reverse, but Winston was stopped by Philip again.

"Ouch!" The inspection car yelped. The boxcab grinned buffer to buffer as he looked at the Fat Controller.

"Will you won't you take me to the Railway Show? Hey, I-" The Fat Controller had already sped away from him, but was cut off by Diesel and Daisy up ahead.

"New engines!"

"Long engines!" Emily and Edward joined in at Wellsworth.

"Tough engines!" Percy and Paxton added at Knapford Harbour.

"Strong engines!" 'Arry and Bert chorused at the Ironworks; the Fat Controller couldn't catch a break!

"Everyone who's any engine's eager to go!" Salty, Porter, Bill, and Ben sang up at the Fat Controller as Cranky held him and Winston in the air. The Fat Controller looked at Cranky, who simply rolled his eyes.

"I'm not goin' anywhere." He released the slack in his cable.

"AHHHH!" The Fat Controller and Winston screamed as they descended. They found no further luck at the dump.

"Will you won't you take us to the Railway Show?" Harvey gestured to a sculpture made out of scrap metal sitting on the line between them, spelling the words "SHOW PLEASE?", while Samson, Whiff, and Scruff grinned eagerly. The Fat Controller promptly slammed his head into Winston's dashboard. However, he gasped in horror as he found himself and Winston being pushed along the line by Norman.

"It's gonna be special, it's gonna be great!" He sang, as Donald and Douglas rolled alongside.

"Leavin' behind all our coaches and freight!

Please Sir, we're beggin';

Ya just can't say no!" The three engines whipped the Fat Controller and Winston back towards the Shunting Yards, where everyone was staring at him. Thomas, Henry, and James were straight ahead, and sang first.

"Will you won't you take us to the Railway Show?"

"Will you won't you take us to the Railway Show?" The other engines chorused. Well, all except one…

"Will you won't you take me to the...Railway Show…" Philip crooned, stopping and slowly petering out when he realized that the others were laughing at him. He blushed in shame and looked at his buffers. The Fat Controller loudly cleared his throat, catching the engines' attention.

"I have not decided who I'm taking yet, but if this keeps up, then none of you are going! All of you get back to work at once!" The engines looked at each other in embarrassment and slowly started to leave. At last, The Fat Controller had some peace and quiet. Winston rolled away, leaving an upset Philip behind.

Soon, the engines were all back at work, including Philip. As he shunted about the yard, he saw the other engines still excitedly talking about the Great Railway Show. Philip sighed sadly, rolling alongside James and Henry.

"I wish I could go to the Great Railway Show…" James and Henry looked at each other.

"You? Go to the show?" James laughed, "You're just a tiny little boxcab! How can you possibly compete?"

"I can do it!" Philip protested, starting to push his heavy trucks forward. His cheeks turned red from the exertion. "See, see?" he grinned giddily, reversing back beside them, "I'm very strong, and fast too! I even beat Gordon in a race-"

"We know," James cut in, rolling his eyes.

"Oh…" Henry glared at James before speaking.

"There's no use even trying to get the racing spot, Philip. Everyone knows Gordon's going to get it, so most of us didn't even bother. Whoever the Fat Controller decides, they'll be going with Gordon." James smirked.

"And me!" Henry raised an eyebrow.

"I recall Emily being a pretty high contender for the Best in Show representative too, James." The red engine pouted. Suddenly, the engines heard a whistle, and Gordon rolled into the yard, frowning. James looked to Henry and smirked.

"Here comes the sourpuss parade!" He snarked. Gordon rolled towards the water tower, his scowl remaining on his face, and gently rolled to a stop. Henry, James, and Philip watched him with interest, before Philip looked at Henry.

"Why is he in such a bad mood? He's for sure going to the Great Railway Show!" The boxcab whispered. Henry and James shared a glance before the bigger engine spoke.

"He's competing against his brother…"

"Oh. I guess I would be pretty upset if I had to compete against one of my brothers or sisters too. I-"

"No, Philip. Gordon's brother is The Flying Scotsman." James hissed. Philip gasped.

"GORDON'S BROTHER IS THE FLYING SCOTSMAN!?" Henry and James tried to shush Philip, but the entire yard heard him. Gordon groaned and rolled his eyes from the water tower.

"The famous Flying Scotsman? Wow! I never knew that! He never mentioned it bef-"

"Gordon and his brother aren't on the...best of terms." Henry quickly interrupted. Philip raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?" James snorted.

"Doesn't like being one-upped I expect. Scotsman's faster, bigger, and stronger than him, and lords it over him all the time. He's only competing in the show because Scotsman challenged him." Philip thought for a moment.

"Well, maybe he needs some cheering up! I'll go talk to him!" Before Henry or James could do anything, the little boxcab dashed away towards Gordon. The big engine groaned as Philip sidled alongside.

"Hiya, Gordon!"

"Ugh."

"You seem pretty down, having to compete with your famous brother, the Flying Scotsman, and all-" Philip stopped his gushing when Gordon cleared his throat, his teeth gritted in bottled up rage.

"Not helping, Philip." Philip blushed, before speaking again.

"Anyways, Gordon, I think that you can beat him if you put your mind to it! You can do anything that way! Willpower, driver calls it! And-"

"Philip, may you please fetch my coaches?" Philip stopped again to see a still annoyed, but significantly more somber Gordon. He looked away.

"Oh, yes. Right away, Gordon." He honked his horn and rolled away, as Gordon sat at the water tower, brooding, remembering Scotsman's taunting words from earlier that day.

"If you can't beat your own record, how can you beat me?" Gordon looked to his coaches, which Philip was shunting away to be taken to the platform, and gained a determined expression.

"I'll beat my record, and then I'll beat you!" Quickly, he rumbled away towards the platform, preparing for yet another go at his speed record.

Chase: Here's Chapter 2, complete with a modified "Will You, Won't You"! As probably my personal favorite song in the canon special, the whole sequence was a blast to rewrite and re-assign characters to, making the combinations that pop up make more sense. Plus, characters who didn't get a line in the actual song such as Ryan, Rosie, Toby, and Mavis get a shot to appear where they didn't in the special proper, as well as setting up the major characters who aren't Gordon. Philip's main plot, as you may have guessed, is his desire to go to the Railway Show, but we're handling it in a different way than the actual special did...how are we doing this? Find out next chapter!

Don: In terms of changes from the original, "Will You Won't You" is far more comedic as it's The Fat Controller trying to escape from his engines begging him to be put in the show. It was a lot of fun to visualize, but the major change is, as previously mentioned, Philip's expanded role. In the original, he was simply there because... uh... the team liked Philip, I guess. But in this version, he's a main character, essentially taking over Thomas' role as the engine who really wants to go.

How will Philip wanting to go to the show, and Gordon's attempts to break his speed record again, go forward? Find out in the third chapter: New Arrivals, Shooting Stars!