Britt: Alrighty, that was enough focus on James for now.
Starr: Alright, I assume we focus on Thomas again.
Briit: Correct, Mr. Starr.
…
Thomas the Tank Engine was proud of several things, his branchline, his good looks, his ability to be his own boss. Speaking of his branchline, he thinks it's the most important part of the railway.
Annie and Clarabel mostly agree with him on this.
While Thomas can be smart sometimes, this is one of the times where he's an idiot, a lovable idiot.
While Anne tries to give Thomas some meaningful advice, being literally closest to him. Thomas doesn't listen to her much. Clarabel was pretty loopy sometimes, as it was the result of Thomas sharing some booze with her.
(Flashback, two hours before filming this episode)
Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel all rested in the Ffarquhar Sheds.
"Alright ladies, which one of you wants some booze?" asked Thomas.
"I don't. I plan on being sober." said Annie.
"Your loss." replied Thomas.
"I'll have some." said Clarabel.
Clarabel drank some booze.
"This might not be good." pondered Annie.
"Yeah it will." replied Thomas.
"Hey Thomas, why are there two of you?" asked Clarabel.
(End flashback)
Anyways, Annie can obviously only take passengers, but Clarabel can take passengers, baggage, and the guard, being the brake coach and all, or conductor for American audiences.
They are both old, experienced, and need new paint, but Thomas loves them very much anyway.
As they run backwards and forwards along the line.
When Thomas starts from a station, he sings "Oh come along, we're rather late! Oh come along, we're rather late!"
To which the coaches, primarily Clarabel (as Annie didn't feel like singing) would sing back "We're coming along, we're coming along!"
They don't mind what Thomas says to them, mainly because they know he's just trying to please STH like any of the other engines, and when Thomas is cross, he's not cross with them.
…
One day, Thomas had to wait for Henry's train. This made Thomas cross, as he had to wait 24 minutes for him. And to make things worse, Henry had been sick as a dog the previous night.
Thomas seethed impatiently.
"How can I run my line properly IF HENRY'S ALWAYS LATE?!" he groaned. "It's like he doesn't realize that STH depends on me!"
The guard chortled at the thought of STH depending on Thomas alone.
Thomas himself let out an impatient whistle.
He wanted to leave, but Annie wouldn't let him.
"Don't even think about it, Thomas." said Annie sternly.
"Besides, Henry's coming!" cheered Clarabel.
"Hmph, finally." muttered Thomas.
Sure enough, Henry finally came, spluttering as he puffed.
He soon came to a rough stop at the platform.
Thomas, unsurprisingly, was not sympathetic in the slightest, partially from not knowing what sympathy means.
"Where the hell have you been?! Did you get lost in Finland?!" asked Thomas angrily.
"That's because my system's out of order." groaned Henry. "I need a bigger firebox or something."
"Sounds like a you problem, you green fatso." remarked Thomas.
"I swear, you don't understand my case or know what I suffer through." spluttered Henry.
"I see you suffer through indigestion. You're too fat because of that! You clearly need exercise!" said Thomas.
Henry spluttered in fury as the guard blew his whistle, and Thomas started so quickly.
This had the unfortunate effect of leaving the guard behind.
As such, he quickly waved his red flag in an attempt to stop Thomas, but Thomas was already well out of the station in 5.3 seconds.
…
Clarabel was unfortunate enough to see the whole thing, as she liked her guards like any brake coach would.
"Come along, come along!" puffed Thomas. But Clarabel didn't want to come this time.
"I've lost my nice guard, I've lost my nice guard!" she wailed.
Annie tried to tell Thomas what had just happened, but Thomas wasn't in the mood for her nagging.
"We've got no guard!" cried Annie.
But Thomas was on a mission dammit, as he was hurrying down the line.
Annie and Clarabel tried to put on their brakes, but they couldn't.
"Where's our guard, where's our guard?!" they cried.
But Thomas didn't stop until he reached a red signal.
"Oh screw that signal!" said Thomas. *What's the matter?"
"I don't know." said his driver. "The guard will tell us in a minute.
They waited and waited, for like 13 minutes, but the guard didn't come.
"Peep peep peep! Where's the guard?" asked Thomas.
"We've left him behind!" wailed Annie and Clarabel.
Clarabel soon spotted the guard. He was running as fast as he could along the line for the past few minutes or so, with his flag in one hand and whistle in the other. He was unsurprisingly very hot from feeling like he had just ran a marathon. He then had himself a drink, and spent the next minute trying not to collapse from exhaustion.
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Guard." said Thomas.
"We all make mistakes and stuff." replied the guard. "And my name's Cecil."
"Welcome to Sodor, Cecil." said the driver.
"Anyways, the signal's down. Now let's make up for lost time." said the guard.
He and the passengers piled into the coaches, and Thomas cheerfully whistled as he took off once more.
A lone boy on Title Screen Bridge watched as Thomas went under. Allcroft and Mitton filmed a great shot of it.
Annie and Clarabel were both so pleased to have their guard back, they sang "As fast as you like, as fast as you like!"
"Now that's much better." said Thomas as he reached Maithwaite station at the end of the line and stopped.