Scratch Boiler

James is a proud engine. He likes pulling passenger trains more than pulling goods train. He thinks it's the only grand job on the Island of Sodor. "Shiny and great! Shiny and great!" James bragged to Arthur and Henry while pulling a passenger train one day.

"We know!" groaned Henry as James thundered past. Throughout the day, James continued pulling passenger trains. He felt happier than ever and never stopped bragging to the other engines about his paintwork.

"Look! Look!" he boasted to Oliver and Douglas, "My shiny red coat of paint!" "You'll be running into trouble," Douglas said to James. But James just ignored Douglas. "I hope not," Oliver whispered. But Oliver was wrong, so Douglas was right.

By the end of the day, however, James was about to get his 'just desserts'. He was on a part of the main line where a tree had grown overhead with many branches hanging above the line. James spotted the tree and remembered his mishap with a tree once, but he was too happy to think about it.

Just then, one of the branches from the tree hanging above James' line snapped and fell right on top of James. "Oh no!" James shouted, and put on the brakes, but it was too late.

The branch hit James' boiler and scratched his paintwork. "Argh!" cried James, "My shiny red paint!" James complained about his paintwork being ruined, but he had no choice but to get to his destination.

The moment James reached Kirk Ronan Station and dropped off his passengers, he left his coaches and puffed onto a siding.

James' crew examined the damage. James' boiler wasn't seriously damage, but the paintwork had been ruined. When another engine came to take the empty coaches away, James just returned to Tidmouth sheds. "I can't show my paintwork like this!" muttered James. But he returned home nonetheless. "Night, James," said Henry, "Care to show off your paintwork?" "No," James replied unhappily. "What happened?" asked Gordon.

"Tree," James answered with one word. He went unhappily to sleep. "I think you deserved it for bragging," Henry said to himself, "About your red paintwork."

"I don't know," said Oliver. The engines said no more for the rest of the night. The next day when the Fat Controller offered James to pull the express, he declined. "I can't do that job in this condition!" James cried, showing his scratched paintwork.

"Hmm," the Fat Controller thought, "Sorry James, but you can't have a repaint right now. Since you won't pull the express, you'll work with slow goods trains instead." "Fine, sir," moaned James. "Then off you go," ordered the Fat Controller. So James, with a scratched paintwork, pulled slow goods trains for the whole day.

Whenever James passed by an engine, he just ignored them. "Are you going to show off your paintwork?" one of the engines asked James. James just ignored it and continued on.

He passed by Henry, Murdoch, Thomas, Percy, Emily, Donald and Douglas without talking to them.

"I knew it would happen," Douglas said, "I knew it!" James said nothing for the whole day. By the end of the day, however, he will feel embarrassed. When James took a goods train to Vicarstown, he saw Spencer, waiting to take the Duke and Duchess home. "What is this?" asked Spencer, looking at James scratched boiler. James didn't answer.

"Well, it's not a proper engine with all those scratches," Spencer continued, showing off his shiny paintwork, "I am a proper engine. Look at my coat of silver paint now. Are you really James the shiny red engine or James the scratched engine. I don't know!"

Spencer then puffed away, bragging about his shiny silver coat of paint. James felt awful by what Spencer had said.

"That's what I did to my friends," he thought, "Bragged about my paintwork." When the day was done, James puffed sadly back to Tidmouth sheds. "Everyone," he said, "I'm really sorry about what I did yesterday. Especially to you, Arthur, Henry, Douglas and Oliver. Everyone else too." The engines listened to James.

"I shouldn't have done that," James continued on, "It was really foolish of me to do it. And now, I deserved what I got. Can-" "We forgive you," smiled Henry. "Really?" asked James. "Of course," smiled Arthur.

"And sorry about what happened to you," Douglas said with sympathy. "I know," James replied, "So I'm not going to do that again."

The engines agreed and went to sleep. In the next few days, however, James decided to pull goods trains. "I think this is all right for me," James said. He did do a few passenger runs, however.

A week later, James was finally given a repaint. The scratched parts of his boiler were smoothened and a fresh coat of red paint was applied.

In a few hours, James came out of the works with a new coat of paint. "That felt decent," thought James. He returned to Tidmouth sheds. "Hey, James," Henry said, "You got a new coat of paint."

"I know," James said, "From now on, I'll never brag about it ever again." "That's fine," Douglas said. The engines soon fell asleep. But the next morning, James decided to pull a goods train first thing in the morning.

But on his way to his destination however. "Argh!" James heard a groan. It was Spencer, now covered in coal dust. What happened was that Bill and Ben smashed a coal truck that was right near Spencer.

The impact from the two charging engines crushed the coal truck and covered everything surrounding it in coal dust, including the twins and of course, Spencer.

"My paintwork!" coughed Spencer. "This is your fault!" Ben shouted to Bill. "No, your fault!" Bill shouted to Ben. "Yours!" Ben shouted. "No you!" Bill shouted. The twins kept on arguing about who's to blame for the mishap.

"Uh, let me enjoy this moment," James said before leaving.