I do not own Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. They are strictly the property of both the Awdry Family and Britt Allcroft, this story is purely for entertainment and not profit.
Episode 13: Thomas and Terence, Original Airdate: 20th November 1984
It was a cool evening on the Island of Sodor. The days work was over and Thomas, Lucy, Howard, Tanya, Annie and Clarabel were heading over to Terence and his mother's farm. A few days earlier Terence had met the Billinton family whilst they were shopping at Tesco and had invited them to dinner.
Thomas and Howards cars soon arrived at Terence's farm. They exited the cars and went knocked on Terence's door, a minute he answered and smiled at the sight of his guests.
"Ah Thomas, Howard, Tanya, Annie, Clarabel and little Lucy" said Terence happily, "I'm so glad that you could come, come on in".
The Billinton's entered the farmhouse where they smell of Terence's mothers cooking hit their noses. Terence's mother poked her head out of the kitchen and smiled when she saw when she saw her and Terence's guests.
"Ah Billinton's" called happily, "I'm so happy that you were able to have dinner with us".
"That we are Mary," said Thomas.
"Say Tanya, could you please come into the kitchen and help me with something?" Mary asked.
"Sure, thing Mary" said Tanya kindly as she went into the kitchen.
"Mom said that dinner will be about ten more minutes" informed Terence, "why don't we all wait in the sitting room?".
The Billinton family then followed Terence into the sitting. Thomas set Lucy down on the floor where she played with Terence's border collie. Thomas sat down on the couch with Terence, Thomas watched Lucy play with Terence's dog and smiled happily.
"How Lucy been lately, you know with what happened to Lady?" asked Terence gently.
"She's doing good" said Thomas his expression then turned sad at the mention of his beloved girlfriend and Lucy's mother, "although she does miss Lady terribly".
"Did they catch those scoundrels?" asked Terence wondering at what became of Lady's abductors.
"I'm afraid not," said Thomas solemnly, "because they had those balaclavas on, we don't know who those thugs were and from what I've heard Boomer is now back in America".
"You mean he's gone back to Shining Time?" asked Terence.
"No, I don't think so, Burnett nor Billy Twofeathers never mentioned it when they rang" replied Thomas to Terence's question.
Everyone was quiet for a short moment. As they waited for Tanya and Mary to finish getting the dinner ready, Lucy waddled over to her father as Thomas picked her up and sat her down in his lap.
"Story daddy?" asked Lucy hopefully.
"A story then Lucy," said Thomas.
"I think that a story would cheer us all up," said Howard.
"Alright then, but which story shall I tell?" asked Thomas
"How about the one when you and I first met, and I had to help you out of the snow?" asked Terence.
"Snow daddy?" Lucy asked her father.
"That Lucy is something that happened to me when I first started working on the North Western Railway" said Thomas as he smiled at his daughter and began the story.
(Story Begins)
Autumn had come to the Island of Sodor. The leaves on the trees changed from green to a variety of colours including red, brown, yellow, orange and rust, whilst the fields went from yellow stubble to brown earth. Despite it though Thomas and his father, Howard were both still hard at work although the workload was a little easier since the summer rush had ended and not many holiday makers came to the island.
"You know dad its kind of quiet now that the summer rush is over" Thomas told his father one day, "makes it a bit easier for us and the others".
"Well, I have to agree with you on that Thomas" replied Howard, "with very few holiday makers coming to the island we don't have to rush everywhere".
Whilst Thomas' E2 was puffing along the branch line they passed a field where they saw an orange tractor hard at work ploughing. Later whilst on their return journey as they passed the field again the signal was red and so they stopped, they then noticed that the tractor was right by the fence next to the line.
They then saw the farmer who wore an orange coat, trousers, black wellingtons, and cap oiling his tractor when he looked up at them. They recognized him as the same farmer who helped James the day that he crashed into the field after his brakes had failed, the farmer then saw them and gave them a friendly smile.
"Hello there" greeted the farmer warmly.
"Hello there" replied Thomas to the farmer, "aren't you that farmer who helped James after his engine crashed into that field?".
"That I' am" said the farmer, "my names Terence, I'm ploughing".
"Nice to meet you Terence" said Howard, "I'm Howard and this is my son Thomas".
"Well, it's very nice to meet the pair of you," said Terence.
Thomas looked at Terence's tractor. He noticed that its wheels were very strange looking.
"No offence Terence but your tractor's wheels looked kind of ugly," said Thomas.
"Thomas" scolded his father sternly, "I'm very sorry for what Thomas just said there Terence".
"Its quite alright Howard" laughed Terence not looking offended, "I know my tractors caterpillar tracks may not be the fanciest of things, but they do get the job done and I' am very proud of them".
Just then the signal turned green, telling Thomas and Howard that it was time for them to continue with their journey.
"Time for us to go now, it was nice to meet you Terence" said Thomas to the farmer.
"And it was nice to meet you two, hope to see you around here or Ffarquhar sometimes" Terence called as they puffed away.
As the days went on Thomas and Howard would often pass Terence's farm. Sometimes Terence would be working in the fields next to the line and although Thomas and Howard would wave hello to him and he to them, Thomas still didn't see the point in his tractor's caterpillars.
"I just don't see the point in them" Thomas said to Lady and Burnett when he was visiting their house one day, "the only vehicle that needs caterpillars are excavators, but cars, lorries and buses can manage just fine without them".
"Well, you see Thomas, the caterpillars on Terence's tractor are designed specially so that it can work in very muddy fields where an ordinary tractor would get stuck" Burnett explained.
"Burnett's right Thomas" said Lady, "and that's also the reason that the army fits their tanks with caterpillars to keep them from sinking into the mud on battlefields".
"Say wasn't your father a tank driver during the Korean War Burnett?" asked Thomas.
"That he was Thomas, that he was" replied Burnett.
What Thomas didn't know was that very soon he would see for himself how useful caterpillars were. Winter soon came to the Island of Sodor and with it came heavy thick snow, the lines and roads were completely covered and were made very slippery by the ice.
Due to the heavy snowfall Sir Topham Hatt had ordered snowploughs for the engines so that they wouldn't get stuck in the snow. Gordon and James both thought that their engines were too important to wear such things but they both reluctantly accepted Sir Topham Hatt's decision. Edward and Henry both had their engines snowploughs fitted with no fuss at all.
The Billinton's very excited as it would very soon be their first Christmas on of Sodor since they moved to the island from Brighton. One that day when Thomas came into the Ffarquhar station he noticed the workmen had a snowplough for his engine.
"Is that for my engine?" asked Thomas.
"Afraid so said the workman, "Sir Topham Hatt has order that all engine drivers wear snowploughs due to the weather".
Although Thomas did not like the idea of his E2 wearing a snowplough he knew that health and safety was both very important and always came first on the North Western Railway, so he allowed the workmen to fit the snowplough on his engine.
However, the snowplough didn't seem to fit properly. All day long it would shake and bang which caused Thomas and Howard concern, later when they arrived at Knapford Station Thomas told Sir Topham Hatt about the snowplough.
"I'm afraid we can't do anything at the moment young Thomas" Sir Topham Hatt told him, "However we'll take a look tonight and see what we can do".
However, by the time Thomas had brought his E2 back to the shed at Ffarquhar, it was so damaged that the workmen had to take it off. Thomas and Howard both woke up early next morning and tried to help the workmen make the snowplough fit but it was just too damaged to do so.
"We're afraid that you will have to do without it today I'm Mr. Billinton" said the foreman, "there is just no way that you'll be able to use it in this condition".
Although Thomas was happy that his E2 wouldn't have to wear it today, he couldn't help but feel a little worried about the snow. Howard also shared his son's concern, later that day as they were pulling out of Knapford Station.
"The snow is light here" Howard told his son, "But it's sure to get deep in the valley".
And soon both Thomas and Howard's concerns would soon be justified. Later whilst Thomas' E2 was puffing down the branch line they went through a tunnel, but when they came out of the other side, they saw much to their shock a large drift of snow. Thomas quickly slammed on the engine's brakes, but it was too late.
CRASH
Thomas' E2 crashed into the snow drift and was stuck.
"Oh, dear we're stuck" said Thomas in shock.
"Don't worry Thomas, we'll just simply revere the engine out of the snow" Howard tried to reassure his son.
They tried to reverse the E2, but it was no good, its wheels slipped on the icy rails, and it was stuck fast in the snow drift. The guard went back for help whilst the passengers got out and tried to help Thomas, Howard, Annie and Clarabel dig the snow away but try as they might more only fell until Thomas' E2 was nearly buried. Thomas then gave up digging in despair.
"Its no use" Thomas said tearing up, "my E2 will have to stay here until its frozen".
Thomas then began to cry as Howard, Annie and Clarabel did their best to comfort him. Twenty minutes later a red bus came to rescue the passengers, after they had left the Billinton's heard a chugging noise they turned to see much to their surprise Terence's tractor driving through the tunnel with the guard riding alongside.
"I hear you are in a little bit of a bother?" Terence asked the stranded engine driver.
"Yes I 'am as you can see," said Thomas.
"Well don't you worry Thomas" said Terence kindly, "I'll have your engine out before you know it".
First, they uncoupled the coaches from Thomas' engine and Terence pulled them away to the other side of the tunnel. Then he came back and hitched his tractor up to Thomas' E2's rear coupling, by now the heat from its boiler had melted some of the snow and although its wheels still slipped. Terence's tractor tugged and slipped, slipped, and tugged until it had at last pulled Thomas' E2 from the snow drift ready for the journey home.
Terence then reversed his tractor back through the tunnel as Thomas, Howard, Annie and Clarabel got into the engines cab before Thomas reversed it through the tunnel and coupled it up to the coaches. Terence watched from the side before Thomas walked up to him and shook his hand.
"Thank you for helping us out Terence" said Thomas, "your tractors caterpillars are sure splendid".
"No problem, mate," replied Terence to Thomas' kindly thanks.
With that Thomas hopped back into his engines cab and puffed back home, whilst Terence went back to his farm.
(Story Ends)
"Dinner" Tanya called from the kitchen as Thomas finished his story.
"And bang on the dot" said Terence as he, Thomas, Howard, Annie and Clarabel stood up and Thomas took Lucy in his arms.
"Shall we" said Thomas they left the sitting and went into the dinning room to enjoy a nice tasty dinner.
I'm so sorry that it took nearly six weeks. I promise to try and never let it happen again, anyway please be so kind and leave this story a preview and as always see you next time.