I do not own Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. They are strictly the property of the Awdry Family and Britt Allcroft, this story is purely for entertainment and not profit.
Episode 12: Thomas goes Fishing, Original Airdate: 13th November 1984
It was a beautiful sunny day on the Island of Sodor. People were out and about whilst enjoying the lovely weather, they were going to the park and eating ice cream with their children, whilst others were walking their dogs.
Down along the banks of the River Els Thomas, Percy and Toby were fishing. It was their day off and so the three friends had decided to go fishing, they had even bought Lucy along with them. Right now, they were sitting along the riverbank in folding chairs with Lucy sitting on Thomas' lap and the trio had their fishing lines out and were waiting for the fish to take a bite.
"Ah this is the life" said Percy enjoying serenity.
"It sure is Percy" agreed Thomas.
"Its nice to have a day off and not to be working all the time," said Toby.
"And it means that I can both spend time with my daughter and take her to places" said Thomas smiling as he lovingly patted Lucy's head as she giggled happily.
As the three friends waited for some fish to nibble at their rods Lucy began to feel a little board with waiting.
"Fishy yet daddy?" asked Lucy.
"No fishy yet Lucy" Thomas said as Lucy pulled a pouted face.
"Fishing boring daddy" pouted Lucy.
Thomas just smiled at Lucy's pouting; she was so adorable when she did her pouting face. He then decided to tell her a story to help pass the time, but he couldn't decide which one to tell.
"You know I wish that we had a boat" said Percy breaking the silence.
"A boat?" asked Toby.
"Yes, and maybe a net or even a bucket," said Percy.
Thomas immediately perked up when he heard Percy say the word bucket.
"Did you say bucket Percy?" asked Thomas.
"Yes why?" Percy asked Thomas confused.
"Because it reminds me of something that happened to me when I first started working here," said Thomas.
"Story daddy?" Lucy asked hopefully.
"Story Lucy" smiled Thomas as Lucy clapped her hands happily.
Both Percy and Toby decided that they wanted to hear what story Thomas was going to tell Lucy.
"Now this story began back when I first started working on the North Western Railway" said Thomas as he began his story.
(Story Begins)
Thomas Billinton loved working on his branch line. There were many sights that he enjoyed seeing from the windmill to the branch line cutting, however there was one place that he looked forward to seeing most of all. That was the river Els, everyday during either his passenger runs or bringing trucks to and from Anopha Quarry he would cross the Elsbridge viaduct. Sometimes he would see people down on the riverbank finishing.
"You know we should go fishing on our day off you know son" Howard suggested to Thomas who then smiled at his father's suggestion.
Fishing was once of Thomas' favourite hobbies. When he was younger both he and Howard would have a competition to see who would catch the biggest fish. Tanya, Annie and Clarabel would then be waiting with a refreshing snack sandwiches and crisps for when they were finished.
Since he started working on the North Western Railway however, they rarely had the time to do so as the railway was very busy during the summer months with many tourists coming to Sodor to either ride its railways or to see its picturesque landscape. But whenever they had a day off and the weather was nice, they would invite either Lady, Edward, or Henry to go fishing with them. Gordon and James however refused to go as they both thought fishing was a ridiculous waste of time.
"You really should come fishing with me and dad one of these days" Thomas asked James one day whilst at Elsbridge station, "it's actually quite a relaxing experience".
"No thank you" said James with distain, "fishing has to be the most boring thing in the whole world, just waiting there doing nothing until you get a bite".
"That's not exactly true James" said Howard, "you could pass the time either by listen to music or by read a booking".
"Sorry but my answer is still no" James said haughtily.
One day Thomas and Howard had just dropped off the last passengers at Elsbridge station before they and Annie and Clarabel could take their lunches. Thomas' E2 was low on water and so they brought it to the water column, Howard was about to turn the handle to allow it the water to flow into the tanks when he noticed a sign that said, "OUT OF ORDER".
"How bother" said Thomas, "if we don't feel my engines tanks up so it will run out of water and stall on the line and Sir Topham Hatt won't like that at all".
"Cheer up son" Howard told his son, "We can get water from the river of course".
The stationmaster gave them a bucket which they could use to hold the water and they set off for the river Eels. They stopped Thomas' E2 on Elsbridge viaduct and began to lower the bucket into the water to fill it up and pour into the engine's tanks. The bucket they were given was old and had five holes in it, Thomas, and Howard both had to fill it, pull it up and pour it into the tanks as quickly as they could. Soon Thomas' E2's tanks were full, and they set off.
"That was tiring but at least my engines tanks are full," said Thomas.
"And now we can go on our lunches" said Howard to Thomas as they both smiled as they continued their journey.
However, as they neared Ffarquhar steam began to hiss from Thomas' E2's valves in a most alarming way.
"What the heck is going on?" asked Howard in shock.
"There's too much steam in the tanks" said Thomas in concern, "we better have this looked at immediately or the engine might explode".
Thomas then damped down the engines fire and continued slowly on. Once they reached Ffarquhar station, Howard uncoupled the engine from the coaches. Annie and Clarabel hopped out of the coaches and got into the cab with Thomas and Howard as they brought the E2 into a siding out of the way.
Once they stopped the engine and its fire had gone out, the four hopped down from the cab. Thomas took out his mobile and rung Sir Topham Hatt about what was happening, whilst Howard called over to some workmen who put a pair of signs on the engines front and back, the notices had "DANGER KEEP AWAY" written on them in red telling people to stay if in case something happened. Twenty minutes later Sir Topham Hatt arrived with a railway inspector to find out what the problem was.
"Don't worry Thomas" said Sir Topham Hatt kindly, "we'll some put your engine right".
"So, what exactly happened?" the railway inspector asked Thomas.
"I don't know Sir, one minute we were puffing down my branch line. Next thing we know steam was hissing from the valves" Thomas told the inspector.
"Sounds like the feed pipe is blocked, I'll just take a look in the tanks and see what the problem is," said the inspector.
A workman gave the inspector a ladder so that he could climb up to the tanks. The inspector then opened the cap of the tank and peered down; his eyes then widened in surprise when he saw what was in the tanks he then climbed back down.
"Sir Topham Hatt can you please come up here and tell me what you see in here?" asked the inspector.
"Certainly inspector" said Sir Topham Hatt.
Sir Topham Hatt then clambered up and looked in. When did he nearly fell off the Thomas' E2 in surprise.
"Inspector" Sir Topham Hatt asked when he had climbed down again, "can you see fish?".
"What?" Thomas asked in surprise as Howard looked on with shock.
Thomas and Howard both climbed up to Thomas' E2's tanks and peered in. Sure, enough there were 5 fish swimming in the tanks.
"Bless me how did they ever get in your engines tanks Thomas?" Howard asked his son.
"The river" said Thomas remembering earlier, "we must have caught them in our bucket".
"Well young Thomas" said Sir Topham Hatt as Thomas and Howard both climbed down from the engine, "it seems that you two have been fishing after all".
"It would seem so Sir" said Thomas bashfully.
"But fish don't suit your engine, we must get them out" Sir Topham Hatt.
Sir Topham Hatt then decided to give Thomas, Howard, Annie and Clarabel the rest of the day off so that they could get the fish out of Thomas' E2' tanks. They each took turns fishing them out with Sir Topham Hatt supervising the whole thing, when they had caught all the fish it was nearly supper them. One of the workmen got out a pan, whilst another lit a fire, Howard went and bought some chips from the local chipper and then they all had a lovely picnic super of Fish and Chips.
"Mmmm that was good" said Sir Topham Hatt as he finished his share.
"And quite delicious too," said Thomas as he put down his plate.
"But fish don't suit your engine Thomas, so you mustn't do it again" said Sir Topham Hatt.
"No indeed Sir" said Thomas, "engines and fish do not mix at all".
With that Thomas, Howard, Annie and Clarabel all hopped into Thomas' E2's cab and coupled up to the coaches. And then they all headed back home
(Story Ends)
"And ever since then, I've always made sure that they were no fish in my bucket" said Thomas as he finished his story.
Just then Thomas fishing caught something.
"Hey Thomas looks like you've got a bite," said Percy.
Thomas then started reeling his fishing line with excitement hoping that he had a descend bite. Sure, enough he saw a large trout wriggling on the end of his fishing line, pulling it in he took the trout off the line and looked at it with pride.
"Look at that" said Thomas proudly, "looks like you'll be having fish for dinner tonight Lucy".
"Daddy hurt fishy?" asked Lucy innocently.
Thomas then looked at his daughter after hearing her words. She looked at him with pleading eyes not wanting him to hurt the trout, he then looked at the trout before throwing it back into the water.
"Daddy no hurt fishy Lucy" Thomas said kneeling down to his daughter.
Lucy then hugged her father, happy that he had let the trout go. Both Percy and Toby smiled at the tender scene, just then Percy felt his fishing rod snag something.
"Hey, looks like I've got a bite too" Percy said standing up excitedly.
Percy started to reel in his fishing line. Whatever was on the end felt heavy, Percy hoped that it was something big.
"Oh, I've got a heavy one here" Percy said with excitement, "my fish is probably way bigger than yours Thomas".
Just then Percy yanked his fishing line out of the water with whatever was on the end of it. His excitement soon turned to disappointment when he saw that it was an old boot. He turned to see Thomas, Lucy, and Toby sniggering at his "catch".
"Looks like you did catch a decent bite" sniggered Thomas.
"You want it fried up and served with chips?" laughed Toby.
Percy just went as red as the paintwork of James' engine.
And done and I have to say I'm please with how it turned out. Anyway before I say my goodbyes, I would like to point out that someone is continuously posting please update on the previews. Now I'm not mad but I would rather instead of asking me when I'll update, I would rather you leave a preview voicing your options of my story. Could you all please be so kind to do that for me? Anyway as always see you next time.