Gordon Takes a Tumble

"No one was hurt, but poor Gordon felt very...undignified."

- The narrator

Gordon Takes a Tumble is the seventeenth episode of the sixth season.

Plot
Gordon brags to Salty that it is not "dignified" for express trains to take trucks, but when Gordon is later told to take trucks he swears to do it how an express engine should. He races along the mainline until he is accidentally diverted onto an old, rickety branch line, but he still goes fast even after he sees a "go slow" sign. The old rails finally give way and Gordon tumbles off the tracks and ends up bursting through a shed and stops in front of a scarecrow. Once he is repaired, Gordon is sorry for getting "too big for his buffers".

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Salty
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Annie and Clarabel (cameo)
 * Butch (cameo)

Locations

 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Brendam Docks
 * The Lighthouse

Trivia

 * Stock footage from The Fogman is used.
 * In the Michael Brandon narration, Gordon says "Whoa!" and "Ahhh!" while he is derailed.
 * This is one of the few episodes of the sixth season to be re-narrated by Michael Brandon.
 * In Norway this episode is called "Gordon Gets a Tumble". In Denmark it is called "The Superior Engine". The Japanese title is "Gordon Has Slipped".

Goofs

 * In the first scene, Clarabel is facing the wrong way.
 * In the shot of Gordon on the old branch a cable is attached to his coupling.
 * When Gordon derails his trailing wheels are slightly coming off.
 * When Gordon's trucks come off the rails they come off differently in certain shots.
 * As the trucks derail and tumble down the slope the ground bounces up and down.
 * The guard should have been seriously hurt by the derailment.
 * Gordon's driver was negligent to not slow him down, so The Fat Controller should have blamed his driver and the signalman.
 * No matter how fast Gordon was going when he was on the rails, he cannot possibly go such a long distance after he was derailed. To add to that, Gordon never seems to stop or even slow down after hitting all those things.
 * A wire is visible pulling Gordon at one point when he is derailed.

Merchandise

 * Take-Along (discontinued)