The Great Railway Show had arrived, and Team Sodor was meeting at the Steamworks before heading on their way to the showgrounds. The Fat Controller was standing proudly alongside a photographer, who was preparing to take a picture of the engines. James, Thomas, and Henry all stood in one proud line, while Stephen had been hoisted onto a flatbed and was currently placed alongside Henry. Vinnie stood off on a siding, out of frame and brooding. Some of the other engines had come to say good luck, and were very impressed with the lineup.

"You look like a proper team!" Edward chuckled. Percy grinned cheekily.

"Well, they would, but Gordon isn't here quite yet, is he?" He remarked. Emily raised an eyebrow.

"You'll be late if you don't leave soon! Where is Gordon?" She asked the Fat Controller. He quickly ran up to the door of the Steamworks and called in.

"You almost done, Victor?" Soon enough the reply came.

"Yes, sir! He's just about ready for his grand unveiling! Out you go, Gordon!" The engines heard a familiar whistle, but quite an unfamiliar engine followed it. Everyone present's jaws dropped when they saw the engine that came out of the Steamworks. Even Vinnie seemed mildly impressed.

"Gordon?" Edward asked, astonished.

"You're-" Emily began.

"Streamlined!" Percy interrupted, excitedly. Sure enough, Gordon was. He had a slick, sky blue livery, complete with dark blue, red, and silver stripes all around. By his own request, he had the insignia of a star on his running board, and his number was in a dark blue circle on his tender. He looked very smart.

"You did a fine job on Gordon, Victor. I'm very proud of you!" The Fat Controller looked at Victor, who smiled modestly. However, before he could respond, Gordon cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, sir, but while I am streamlined, I would like to be known as the 'Shooting Star'!" He grinned grandly. Percy raised an eyebrow.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" He replied, but no one seemed to notice. The Fat Controller then turned to address the engines lined up in front of the Steamworks.

"James, Thomas, Henry, Stephen, and Gordon-"

"Shooting Star, sir."

"Yes, Shooting Star, my apologies. You have all been chosen to represent Sodor, in the Great Railway Show. However, this also means that you'll…" As the Fat Controller gave his speech, Kevin tried to get a view from inside the Steamworks. In an attempt to see the speech, he rolled over to a corner. He suddenly saw something that made him turn white as a ghost.

"Oh no." He whispered under his breath. Quickly, he dashed towards Victor, who was listening attentively to the Fat Controller's speech on sportsmanship.

"Victor! Victor!" He hissed. Victor shushed him.

"Kevin, don't be rude! The Fat Controller is speaking!" He replied back. Kevin's eyes quickly darted between the object in the corner and Victor before trying to speak again.

"But, Victor-"

"It can wait, Kevin!" Kevin rolled towards the object, and picked it up with his hook. Quickly he dashed towards Victor again.

"Victor!" He hissed again. Victor rapidly shushed him. Kevin groaned nervously, and quickly began dashing around the back of the engines, waving the object around as much as he could. The Fat Controller was just finishing his speech.

"...and that's why I know that you all shall represent Sodor splendidly!" The ending of this speech was greeted with cheers and whistles, drowning out Kevin's calls to get everyone's attention. The photographer grinned as he readied his camera, and Kevin swerved violently, waving the object around rapidly.

"Say 'Sodor'!" The photographer called. Team Sodor grinned.

"Sodor!" If they had studied the photograph, they would have seen Kevin losing his balance and toppling over in the background. The little crane groaned, but was even more distraught when he realized where the object he had been holding went.

"Oh no!" The object rolled across the floor and under a piece of machinery. Kevin grimaced in fear. Outside, the Fat Controller climbed aboard James' cab.

"Off we go, everyone!" He called. Edward, Percy, and Emily whistled as they reversed out of the way, allowing Team Sodor's engines to begin heading off for the show one by one. They each whistled triumphantly as they began their journey down the line. Victor looked to his right, and was surprised to see Vinnie waiting with a scowl on his face.

"Aren't you going with them?" He asked. Vinnie glared at him.

"I ain't bein' associated with dem, so I'm givin' 'em a bit of a headstart." He replied. Victor rolled his eyes.

"Well, while you're waiting here, do you want me to check anything over? Your wheels, your brakes-"

"Don't talk about my brakes." Vinnie snapped, and whistled before rolling away from the Steamworks. The other three engines present watched him leave, before Edward looked at Emily.

"Huh."

"What's wrong, Edward?"

"Nothing, I just thought that Philip would be here. He always seemed so excited about the show…"

Team Sodor puffed down the line, approaching Vicarstown. Several crowds of people had come to see them pass through and started cheering and waving. James, who was in the lead, beamed proudly.

"Thank you, thank you! See, didn't I tell you all? I'm winning the hearts of everyone!" Thomas rolled his eyes.

"They're cheering for all of us, James." James smirked back.

"Whatever you say…" The engines slowly rolled through, smiling at the crowds. A little boy pointed at Stephen.

"Look, daddy! It's 'The Rocket!'" Stephen noticed this and winked at him.

"Pe-yow!" He grinned. Thomas grunted enviously.

"Why do you get to be on a flatbed? Pushing you is hard work!"

"Well, lad, I can't exactly puff to the Mainland under my own power. It'd take me weeks!" Stephen laughed. "Besides, consider it training for the shunting competition." Henry chuckled, though Thomas didn't understand and merely huffed. The people on the platform then noticed the now-streamlined Gordon at the back of the parade. Gordon smirked.

"I know, I'm quite the sight, aren't I? Don't worry, everyone!" He called. "You'll see me in the paper when I win the race!" Immediately, they started cheering louder. Everyone present rolled their eyes. Team Sodor puffed out of the station and towards the bridge. Vinnie slowly entered the station, trying not to be noticed. However, he heard a small buzz on the platform.

"Who's this?"

"He's massive!"

"Is he a new engine?" Vinnie looked away, but this only encouraged the crowd to try harder to be noticed.

"He doesn't talk much." The little boy from earlier commented. "Hello?" He called at Vinnie. The big engine's eye twitched and he picked up speed before the boy could say anything else. The Sodor engines in front all whistled loudly.

"Look out, Great Railway Show, here we come!" Thomas grinned, and the rest of Team Sodor all cheered in agreement.

Later that day, Philip arrived at the Steamworks, coming to drop off some spare parts.

"Hello, Victor." He greeted somberly. Victor grinned at him.

"Hello, my friend! A pleasure to see you! A shame you weren't here earlier, you just missed everybody leaving for the Great Railway Show!" He remarked. Philip became even sadder.

"Yeah. I guess I did." He rolled away to put the trucks on a siding, leaving a confused Victor behind.

"Was it something I said?" He asked, looking in the direction Kevin would be, only to notice the little crane rummaging under a machine, desperately trying to strongarm his hook underneath it.

"Kevin? What are you doing? You've been acting so strange all day-"

"I got it!" Kevin whooped happily as he managed to pull a familiar golden object from underneath the machine. His joy over retrieving the object was quickly interrupted by Victor.

"Kevin, what is that?" He asked in horror. Kevin looked at it.

"Oh, right. It's Gordon's safety valve, Victor! He must have been rushing us so much we forgot to apply it!" Victor went pale.

"Oh no. He's competing in a race! His boiler will heat up and he could explode! We just sent a ticking time bomb to the Great Railway Show!" Kevin gasped.

"Panic! AHHHHHH-"

"I can't take it there, the narrow gauge tracks don't go that far! We have to stop him! We need someone to help Gordon! WE NEED SOMEONE TO GO TO THE GREAT RAILWAY SHOW!" Victor cried as Kevin drove circles around him screaming. At the back of the Steamworks, Philip had just left his trucks on a siding when he heard Victor's yelling.

"Hmm?" Suddenly, an idea flew into Philip's radiator. He quickly dashed inside the Steamworks.

"Victor! I could go to the Railway Show!" Kevin, still screaming and running in circles, promptly swerved to avoid Philip, overbalanced, and somersaulted towards the corner of the building. Philip and Victor winced at the sound of Kevin landing on a pile of spare parts.

"I'm okay!" The woozy crane called, upside down upon the pile. Victor looked to Philip.

"You, Philip? But, we need someone fast-"

"I am fast! I could catch up with them in no time, I promise! Please, Victor!" Victor looked conflicted.

"Well-"

"Please!" Philip begged, tears beginning to appear in his eyes. Victor took a deep breath and sighed.

"Alright, Philip. Get to the show as quick as you can!" A workman handed Philip's driver the safety valve, who placed it in the cab. Philip honked his horn.

"Thank you so much, Victor! I'll get to the show, you'll see!" He called as he left the Steamworks.

"Find Gordon and bring him the safety valve!" Victor called back, concerned.

"Will do!"

Philip was bursting at the seams with excitement as he dashed along the Main Line towards the Vicarstown Bridge. He rolled through Vicarstown Station, where Emily was waiting with the local.

"Philip, where are you going?"

"To the GREAT RAILWAY SHOW!" Philip cried, overjoyed. As he sped towards the bridge, he began to sing.

"It's gonna be special! It's gonna be great!

I'm off to the Mainland without coaches or freight!" As Philip approached the bridge, he noticed it was up, and a ship was passing under. He braked to a halt, but simply sat impatiently for the ship to go by.

"I begged and I pleaded, and now I shall go!

I am helping Gordon at the Railway Show!" The bridge slowly began to lower, and Philip got more and more giddy as he imagined everything he would see.

"I'll see new engines, past engines, strong engines, FAST engines...

Everyone who's any engine's getting to go!" The Vicarstown Bridge was finally down, and Philip began to roll across, picking up as much speed as he could.

"Now I am helping Gordon at the Railway Show!" The boxcab dashed onto the Mainland, towards the Great Railway Show.

Chase: The decision of having Philip be the engine to take the safety valve to the show instead of Thomas was one we had made since the beginning, and we knew we wanted Philip to have Thomas' role of wanting to go to the show. His reprise of "Will You, Won't You" (known as "I am Helping Gordon at the Railway Show") was a fun way of us to keep the tension in this moment high without having to go through the canon special's awful bridge jump sequence. We personally thought him having one more roadblock before heading off to the show was a better move to escalate the tension; you don't need to defy gravity in order to keep a movie exciting!

Don: Speaking of Gordon's safety valve, we made sure to properly establish why he didn't have it fitted. In the original, Gordon was simply too impatient to finish his safety check, whereas here, Kevin forgets as Gordon rushes him through the job. Kevin actually has quite a bigger role than I initially expected, more so than Victor, at least. It's been fun writing his comical shenanigans and giving him more to do, as it gives the Steamworks scenes a bit more flavor than just Gordon anticipating beating his brother time and time again.

Philip's off to the Railway Show, and we're about to be reunited with the international engines again! But what are they all like? And how do the competitions work? Find out in the ninth chapter, "Meet Who to Beat", which may have a few faces you aren't expecting!