Bowled Out

Bowled Out is the seventeenth episode of the fourth season. It first aired on Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales in 1996 in the US.

Plot
An engine shortage has arisen and the only engine available is a diesel, who insults the engines almost immediately after arriving. The engines are furious, but cannot think of a plan for revenge. There's no need though, because the diesel sucks an inspector's bowler hat through an air-intake vent just after starting. Duck and Stepney take his train, and reach Crovan's Gate in record time. Stepney leaves the next day, and while a grand ceremony is held in his honour, the diesel creeps sulkily away with only two things left to remember him by: a bad smell, and a battered bowler hat.

Featured characters

 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Duck
 * Donald and Douglas
 * Stepney
 * The Diesel
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Thomas (cameo)
 * Edward (cameo)
 * Percy (cameo)
 * Skarloey (cameo)
 * Sir Handel (cameo)
 * Rusty (cameo)
 * Bertie (cameo)
 * Annie and Clarabel (cameo)

Goofs

 * When the Diesel arrives, James swaps tracks from the left of Donald and Douglas to the right and then back again.
 * A pipe can be seen on the Diesel's air-intake in the close-up of the inspector's hat.
 * When The Diesel breaks down he has his air-intake covered, but when the inspector notices his hat his air-intake cover is off.
 * In the shot of Duck and Stepney puffing up Gordon's Hill, look at the middle coach and you'll see a red and blue wire.
 * In the same shot, the track in front of the engines appears to sink just before they roll over it.
 * At Callan, James has Stepney's whistle sound.
 * In the British narration Stepney says "James says he's as sick as boiler sludge and sulking in the shed!" but Gordon should have said that, since Duck and Stepney arrived after James left.
 * The Diesel shouldn't have been allowed to leave without permission.
 * In the DVD description it says that the Diesel came because Daisy was unwell, but in the actual episode it doesn't say that at all.
 * On the VHS cover of Thomas and the Special Letter and other Thomas Stories, Gordon is seen next to Stepney instead of Henry.