A/N This is based on a blend of model and The Adventure Begins rendition of this story.

Hello, it's me, Thomas again and I shall tell of the first time I pulled a freight train. According to my fellow engines, I wouldn't stop being a nuisance. Night after night, I kept the other engines awake saying things like "I'm tired of pushing coaches. I want to see the world."

The other engines didn't take much notice because I was a little engine with a long tongue to them, even if Edward and Henry were my friends even in those days.

But one night Edward came to the shed. He was a kind little engine and felt sorry for me, as a friend.

My friend told me, "I've got some freight cars to take home tomorrow. If you take them instead of me, I'll push coaches in the yard."

Tender engine though he was, he was smaller than many other tender engines and liked shunting. "Thank you, I said to my friend, "that will be nice." He was giving me a chance to "see the world.", as I said I wanted.

Next morning we asked our driver and when they said "Yes,", I ran off happily to find freight cars.

Now, I never pulled cars before and didn't know what they were like, but I knew now I needed to wait to be coupled up.

Edward knew all about freight cars. He warned me to be careful, but I was too excited to listen, so I just said something about how I knew about being coupled up now.

The shunter fastened the coupling, and when the signal dropped, I was ready to pull the train my best friend at that time gave me. I thought of him shunting and how he once told me he liked it. The conductor blew his whistle.

"Peep! Peep!" I answered with my whistle, and started off.

But, unlike me, the freight cars weren't ready. I don't know why. "Oh, oh, oh!" they screamed. "Wait, Thomas, wait."

But I wouldn't wait. I didn't want to be late because if I'm late, I don't feel like a Really Useful Engine. "Come on, come on," I puffed.

"All right, all right, don't fuss, all right, don't fuss," grumbled the cars.

I began going faster and faster. "Wheeeeeee!" I whistled as I rushed through Henry's tunnel.

Then I was out into the open countryside once more. I rumbled past fields and I clattered through stations with the train Edward gave to me. We were going where he told me the train was to go. It felt good to be out of the yard and on the rails, made me feel like a proper engine.

"Hurry, hurry!" I called to the cars. I was feeling very proud of myself. But my cars grew crosser and crosser.

At last I slowed down as I came to Gordon's Hill.

"Steady now steady", warned Driver as we reached the top. He began to put on the brakes, so we wouldn't go down the hill too fast.

"We're stopping, we're stopping," I called to the cars.

"No, no, no!" answered the cars, bumping into each other, "Go on, go on."

Before Driver could stop them, they had pushed me down the hill and were rattling and laughing behind me.

I tried hard to stop them from making me go too fast, but I wasn't at all sure just how to handle them at that time. "Stop pushing, stop pushing," I hissed, but the car took no notice. Maybe it was because I wasn't an engine they knew

"Go on, go on," they giggled in their silly way.

The cars were making me go much too fast and at any moment I would reach the next station. "There's the station. Oh dear, what shall I do?" I cried. I wasn't so happy or proud anymore. I was now upset with Edward's cars for being troublesome.

We rattled staight through and swerved into the good yards. I shut my eyes, due to how I was feeling at that moment. "I must stop."

I opened my eyes and saw I had just in front of the buffers. There watching me was Sir Topham Hatt. I wondered how much he saw and what he thought of me in that moment.

"What are you doing here, Thomas?' he asked me.

"I've brought Edward's freight cars," I answered.

He asked me, "How did you come so fast?"

"I didn't mean to. I was pushed," I said to him.

"You've got a lot to learn about freight cars, Thomas. After pushing them about here for a few weeks, you'll know almost as much about them as Edward. Then you'll be a Really Useful Engine. He was given this train because of his knowledge of cars."

So there I was, in the yard with my mentor, Edward. He taught me what he knew about cars during our weeks in the yard.

A/N Thomas dislikes being late according to something I read once online, which I included here.