…
Britt: That was quite successful!
Starr: I see we'll be focusing on James for a bit.
Carlin: This should be quite fun.
Starr: I see James becoming a favorite soon enough.
…
A jazzy tune played as James puffed by.
He was enjoying his new life on Sodor, but he had a lot to learn. Like numbers after 5 and other types of colors.
"Alright, you're a special mixed traffic engine like Edward and Eagle are." said STH.
"Wonder what that means." pondered James while Eagle shunted some trucks in the background.
"That means you can pull coaches and trucks quite easily, but you must learn from your mistakes." advised STH, making sure James knew his limitations.
James knew what STH meant by that, as he could still remember his terrible accident on the first day he was finally acknowledged by name.
…
A little bit later, Edward decided to mentor James and show him the basics of pulling a passenger train.
"Be careful with those coaches, James. Those are gonna have real people soon! They don't like being bumped" warned Edward.
James made the unfortunate mistake of ignoring Edward as he shunted some express coaches in Knapford while Eagle passed by from the opposite way pulling a slow goods.
Some people came to admire James.
"Everyone thinks I'm a real splendid engine!" he thought.
He made the other unfortunate mistake of suddenly letting off a bunch of steam.
"Ah! Lobster's done!" said James' driver.
A shower of water then fell on STH's brand new top hat just as Edward backed up to double head the train with James.
"Uh oh." James thought worryingly.
But lucky for him, the guard blew his whistle, and James thanked God for this.
He then quickly thought they better go, as he gave Edward a rather hard push.
"Go on! Go on!" said James anxiously
"Don't push back there!" replied Edward.
The coaches grumbled, as James had given them a minor beating earlier.
"Don't go so fast!" protested a coach.
Except James didn't listen.
…
At last, they had made it to the next station, which was Dryaw. But James had made the train overlap the station.
"Nonononono go back go back!" cried Edward.
"Sorry sorry." replied James as they both backed the train up to let the passengers out.
No one knew about Sir Topham's new hat getting drenched in water, much to James' relief.
…
The two engines soon made it to Elsbridge station after taking a wrong turn offscreen, while Thomas was waiting for them, he was having a talk with Annie and Clarabel.
"Thomas, I don't think you should be sharing booze with Gordon or Henry." advised Annie.
"I know I know, but there's something in it that gets me riled up." sighed Thomas.
"Ah, even little engines can do big things, like live a little." giggled Clarabel.
Thomas then spotted James and Edward.
"Bloody hell, you two got here faster than Gordon through here." muttered Thomas. "Anyways, hello James, feeling better?"
"Yeah, totally better!" answered James quickly.
"You know, I don't know what's gotten into him." said Edward.
"Maybe the brain damage from his accident is getting to him." replied Thomas as the guard blew his whistle. "And I've got to go! I don't know what Sir Topham Hatt will do without me to run this branchline."
Thomas whistled and left, puffing off importantly. Also don't mind the fact that Clarabel was facing the wrong way.
…
Edward and James passed the same field where James had his accident last episode. The fence was mended, and the cows were grazing and eating the remains of destroyed trucks.
"Doing well back there, James?" asked Edward.
"Yeah, doing just fine." replied James.
The two engines ended their journey at Maron station and rested before setting off for home. James was still anxiously wondering what Sir Topham Hatt would say about his new top hat.
…
Next morning, James found out as STH spoke severely to him.
"Overlapping a station?! If you can't behave properly like Thomas or Eagle do, I shall take away your red coat and have you painted blue instead." he said angrily.
James, unsurprisingly, didn't like that at all, as he'd be confused for Edward a lot.
….
At Knapford Station, James was rough with the coaches, which happened to be a few orange branchline coaches. The orange coaches also happened to be Annie and Clarabel's friends.
"What the hell?!" shrieked an orange coach.
*I thought Eagle was pulling us today." said another orange coach.
"Yeah, I like him better than this arsehole he calls a brother." remarked another orange coach.
"SHUT UP! Don't talk, now come on!" said James angrily. "Gordon never has to go fetch his own coaches." he thought to himself. "And that blunder's only painted blue."
To make James even more cross than he already was, nobody came near him, for fear that he'd roar at them, not in a literal way. Plus most of the other people on the platform had climbed aboard Eagle's passenger train, which consisted of a few other orange branchline coaches.
"Brother, you shouldn't be rough with those coaches. They have feelings, you know." warned Eagle.
"Really? I don't see them having faces like we do." remarked James as he puffed off.
"I'll show them. Gordon's not the only one who can pull coaches." he thought.
…
As James puffed down the line, 87546 was pulling a train of trucks in the foreground.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" said James.
"Stop! You're going too fast!" cried a coach.
"Yeah! Slow down, you red monster!" protested another coach.
James just laughed and tried to go faster, but the coaches wouldn't let him.
"We're going to stop!" protested the coaches.
On a pretty generic field with three railway lines, James felt himself slowing down, and soon came to a complete stop.
"What's the matter now?" asked James.
"The brakes are hard on, leak in the pipes most likely." said his driver. "You've banged the coaches-"
James' fireman briefly snickered.
"-hard enough to make a leak in anything."
The crew surveyed the damage.
"How are we gonna mend it?" said the guard.
"My mates had a similar problem like this before." said James' fireman.
"How'd they fix it?" asked the driver.
"They used a newspaper and leather bootlace." replied the fireman.
"But where's the bootlace coming from then?" asked the guard.
"I don't know, ask the passengers." said the driver.
James sighed sadly, and soon regretted banging the coaches.
Edward briefly passed by from the opposite way, pulling a slow goods. He briefly looked at James with disappointment.
The passengers all came out.
"Alright, I see you have a leather bootlace there." said the guard to a smartly dressed man, who was known by Jeremiah Jobling.
"Hmm, I won't." said Jeremiah.
"Well then, the train will just stop here until help arrives." said the guard.
The other passengers all said what a bad railway it is, and told Jeremiah how bad and horrible he was instead.
At last, he handed over his bootlaces.
The driver then tied a pad of newspaper tightly around the hole in the brake pipe.
James was able to pull the train.
"Gently this time, James." said his driver.
"I got it." sighed James as he puffed on.