I do not own Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, they are the property of the Awdry Family and Britt Allcroft. This story is purely for entertainment only.
Episode 8: James and the Coaches, Original Airdate: 30th October 1984
It was a cool day overcast day on the Island of Sodor. Thomas, Howard and James had both being working together in the shunting yard all morning, although James hated doing goods work and preferred to pull coaches, he did it without fuss as he knew that if Sir Topham Hatt wished for him to pulls a goods train then he would do it.
Soon they were both done their work and when Thomas looked at his watch, he saw that it was time for lunch. He and James both parked their engines in siding and sat down in the workmen's canteen and took out their lunches. Thomas had some ham and cheese sandwiches with a bag of walkers and a flask of tea, Howard a bowl full of pasta leftover from last night's dinner and James' lunch consisted of a packet of John West Mediterranean style salad which he heated up in in a microwave that was in the canteen and two Cadbury's chocolate bars.
The two engine drivers and fireman sat down at one of the tables and began to tuck into their food.
"There's nothing better than some tasty John West fish for lunch" said James with his mouth full of food.
"You know it's considered rude to talk with your mouth full James" said Howard as he took a sip of water.
Thomas just smiled as he, his father and James had their lunch. As they talked about what had being going on the North Western Railway the past few weeks when the door to the canteen opened a small toddler came waddling in.
"Daddy" cried the toddler happily.
"Lucy" said Thomas in surprise as he got up and took his daughter in his arms, "what are you doing here?".
"I bought her to see you of course" said Tanya as she entered the canteen.
"Well, you certainly picked a good time to visit" said Howard smiling as he kissed his wife.
As Thomas took his daughter in his arms he sat back down in his chair with his lunch. James had unwrapped his first Cadbury bar and was about to eat it when he noticed Lucy looking at his second one, giving the little girl a smile, he took out the second and handed it to her.
"Here you go Lucy" said James as she took the Cadbury bar from him.
"Now what do we say to Uncle James?" Thomas asked his daughter.
"Thank you, Uncle James," said Lucy happily as Thomas unwrapped the bar and broke off a bit and gave it to her.
As the group ate their lunch James looked at the clock. Since engine drivers had a one hour lunch he wondered if Thomas would use it to tell his daughter one of his stories.
"Say Thomas are you going to Lucy one of your stories by any chance?" asked James.
"Not unless Lucy wants one," said Thomas.
"Story, story, story" clapped Lucy excitedly.
"Well, I guess Lucy wants one" said Tanya with a smile.
Thomas then smiled, since he had finished his lunch, he thought of which story to tell. Then he noticed James and he immediately knew which story to tell, one that involved James of when he first came here.
"Say Lucy" Thomas asked, "how would you like to hear the story of how Uncle James once needed bootlaces to fix his coaches?".
James paled at hearing the story that Thomas was going to tell.
"Oh please, anything but that" begged James.
"Uncle James bootlaces, Uncle James bootlaces" said Lucy clapping.
James just groaned at the fact that his honorary niece was going to hear the story of the bootlace incident. Thomas just grinned at James' reaction as he began the story.
(Story Begins)
James Hughes was enjoying his life on the island of Sodor. He had known been on the island for three weeks, his engine now had some proper breaks and also a lovely coat of red paint. However, he still had a lot to learn about the railway. One day both he and Edward were standing by the engines when Sir Topham Hatt came up to them.
"Your engine is a special mixed traffic engine young James" said Sir Topham Hatt, "which means that it can pull both passenger trains and goods trains, but you must learn by your mistakes".
James knew what Sir Topham Hatt meant. It had been two weeks since his accident, he had been coming down the hill whilst pulling a heavy goods train. However, his engines wooden brakes had caught fire and his engine had crashed into a field but know it had been repaired and given the proper brakes it had needed.
"Now I want both you and Edward to pull a passenger train together" said Sir Topham Hatt.
"Where do you want us to take it Sir?" asked Edward.
"To Maron Station please" said Sir Topham Hatt, "and then you can bring it back to Knapford".
"We won't you down Sir" said James eagerly.
Sir Topham Hatt smiled before turning and walking away, but what neither of them knew was that James eagerness had gone to his head. Later James brought four green express coaches to the station platform and waited for the passengers to board.
Soon Edward buffered his engine in front of James', as they waited for the guard to blow his whistle some passengers on the other platform begun to take pictures of his engine on their phones, this of course made James feel as important as Gordon.
"Well, I guess that these people think that my engine is the finest around" he said to himself.
As he did some poses that the passengers also took pictures of, there was trouble. Sir Topham Hatt was standing nearby when James accidently released a valve which whished steam from his engine, a shower of water landed on Sir Topham Hatt's nice new top hat ruining it. James shut off his engines steam before looking at Sir Topham Hatt who was trying to wipe the water of his top hat.
Just then the guard blew his whistle and both he and Edward began to puff out of the station. James was glad at this as he didn't want to see Sir Topham Hatt's reaction to his little misshape. Soon James and Edwards engines were charging down the mainline, after a while they came to their first station Dryaw. However, James' excitement caused them to overrun the platform with the last two coaches being at the platform.
"Look out James you've just overrun the platform" called Edward sternly.
"Sorry Edward" James called back.
"We have to back up and let the passengers out" called Edward as they began to reverse their engines so that the passengers could get out.
Later James had calmed down a bit and presently they both came to Elsbridge Station. Thomas was already there with Howard, Annie and Clarabel. The four of them were standing on the platform waiting for their next journey where they saw James and Edward coming in. Thomas smiled as he saw James hop down from his engine.
"Hello James," said Thomas.
"Hello Thomas" replied James.
"I see that you are doing well," said Thomas.
"That's right, ever since Sir Topham Hatt gave my girl here some proper brakes, things have run a lot smoother" said James happily.
Just then a guard blew his whistle, signalling that it was time for Thomas to depart.
"There's the guard Thomas" said Howard told him, "Sir Topham Hatt is relaying on us to run this branch line".
With that Thomas and Howard hoped into Thomas' E2 and they set off, Annie and Clarabel both waved Edward and James goodbye through the windows. Three minutes later the guard blew the whistle that told Edward and James that it was time for them to depart as well.
Presently they both passed the field where James had had his accident. The fence was mended and the cows were back, they also saw the farmer on the orange crawler tractor who had helped James that day. They blew their engines whistles and the farmer waved back at them. Soon they came to Maron station which signalled the end of their journey and where they both got some lunch from the station café and had a rest before heading back to Knapford, as they had their food Edward noticed a worried look on James' face.
"What's the matter James?" asked a concerned Edward.
"I'm just wondering about Sir Topham Hatt" replied James.
"Why?" asked Edward wondering why James would be worried about their boss.
"Because of this morning" replied James.
Edward then knew that James was talking about spraying water on Sir Topham Hatt's top hat. Soon they had finished their lunch and soon set off with their last passenger train back to Knapford, James still worrying that Sir Topham Hatt would be cross with him and he was right. The next morning Sir Topham Hatt spoke severely to him.
"I don't know what you were thinking about yesterday James, but if you can't behave yourself then I shall take away your engines red coat and have it painted but. Do I make myself clear?" said Sir Topham Hatt sternly.
"Yes Sir" said James meekly.
With that Sir Topham Hatt turned and walked away to his car and drove off. Later James brought his engine to Knapford to collect his passenger train which consisted of four orange branch line coaches, however by then his worry had turned into anger. He bumped the coaches quite angry which concerned the guard and the stewards.
"Gordon never has to fetch his own coaches and his engines painted blue" said James through clenched teeth.
Soon the passengers had board the guard blew the whistle and James set off with a jerk. Soon his engine was puffing down the, he wanted to go faster but the guard would not let, so he bumped the coaches as he went along. This made the guard and the stewards very worried with the way he was handling the train.
"If James doesn't calm down soon" said one of the stewards concerned, "there's bound to be trouble".
"I hope that it doesn't come to that" replied the guard.
But he had spoken too soon. As James neared the tunnel where Henry's engine had been bricked up in, he suddenly found his train going slower and slower until it came to a complete stop. This of course made him annoyed as the guard came up to his engines cab.
"What is going on?" asked James angrily, "why have we stopped?".
"The brakes are hard on" said the guard also angry, "you've bumped the coaches enough to make a leak in the brake pipe you idiot".
James' anger then vanished realizing what he had done. Soon of the passengers and the stewards hopped down from the coaches to see what the problem was, James and the guard looked over the brake pipe that had the hole in it.
"How do you suppose we mend it?" asked James.
"Oh its quite simple really, all we'll need is some newspaper and a leather bootlace" said the guard.
As the guard took out some old newspaper that he had in the brake coaches. He then wrapped the paper around the hole, but neither he, James nor the stewards had leather bootlaces, so he decided to ask the passengers if any of them had one. He then noticed a smartly dress named whose name was Jeremiah Jobling trying to hide his feet, he soon learned that he in fact had some leather bootlaces.
"Excuse me sir" asked the guard, "but may we borrow your bootlaces to help repair the damage done to this coach please?".
"I won't" said Jeremiah sternly, "its not my fault that careless oaf damaged the coaches and I for one am not going to give my bootlaces over because of his foolishness".
"Well, I guess then that the train is now not going to go anywhere" said the guard in annoyance at both James careless and Jeremiah inconsiderateness.
This of course made the passengers very angry. Now they were not going to reach their destinations thanks to both James and Jeremiah.
"This is a bad railway" said a blonde female passenger angry to James and the guard.
"You're a bad man" snapped a dark skinned male passenger to Jeremiah.
"Okay then you win" said Jeremiah in defeat as he took his bootlaces and handed them to the guard.
The guard then wrapped the bootlaces tightly around the newspaper. Please that everything was under control the passengers began to board the coaches again, just before the guard got back into the brake coach Jeremiah stopped him for a moment.
"Promise me that I'll get my bootlaces back?" asked he asked the guard.
"Don't worry as soon as we reach the terminus, I'll ask for a replacement coach and you can have your bootlaces back" promised the guard.
Jeremiah was satisfied with this and got back into the coach and the guard into the brake coach. James hopped back into his engine and set off, dreading what Sir Topham Hatt was going to say once he heard the news.
But he was a sadder and wiser James and took care never to both let his anger get the better of him and to bump coaches ruffly again.
(Story Ends)
"Sir Topham Hatt angry with Uncle James?" Lucy asked as Thomas finished his story.
"Oh, Sir Topham Hatt was very angry with Uncle James" smirked Thomas as he looked at James who looked as if he wanted the ground swallow him.
"But Uncle James was given a chance to be good again" said Howard to his granddaughter.
"Daddy tell story?" asked Lucy.
Thomas smiled before looking his watch. He saw that lunchtime for him, Howard and James was over and that the three of them had to go back to work.
"I wished I could Lucy but daddy, granddad and Uncle James have to back to work" said Thomas.
Lucy looked disappointed as she wanted to hear the story, But Thomas just how to cheer her up.
"But daddy will tell you they story at bedtime" Thomas said to his daughter.
"Daddy promise?" Lucy asked hopefully.
"Daddy promise," said her father.
Thomas then kissed his daughter on her forehead as she and Tanya left the canteen, whilst Thomas, Howard and James went back to work.
Done. Now I know that I publish my chapters a month a part. But starting from either tomorrow or Tuesday I'm going to try and write two chapters a week and hopefully have this story finished by Christmas. So please leave a preview and as always see you next time.