Thomas' Milkshake Muddle

"If you shake milk for long enough, it turns to butter!"

- The ice cream factory manager

Thomas' Milkshake Muddle is the fourth episode of the ninth season.

Plot
It is the day of the children's summer party and all the engines want the job to take the children. However, to Thomas' disappointment, Emily is taking the children. Thomas' jobs are to collect milk from the dairy and take it to the ice cream factory and then to collect butter from the other side of Sodor and take it to the bakery. Thomas collects the milk churns and goes slowly and carefully until he reaches a junction where Emily calls him a "slowcoach". Thomas explains that it's important for him to go slowly, but Emily snubs him as he could be taking the children if he wasn't so slow. Angry, Thomas decides to prove Emily wrong and she challenges him to a race to the next signal.

During the race, Thomas speeds up with the churns in his trucks rattling about. His next signal is green, so he gets ahead of Emily and carries on to the ice cream factory, neglecting to slow down. At the ice cream factory, the manager is shocked to see the milk is almost butter due to Thomas' careless speeding. So he orders Thomas to get more milk and go slowly. Thomas hurries back to the dairy, only to find a very angry Fat Controller waiting for him. Time is running out and, with no butter yet at the bakery, there will be no cakes for the party.

Thomas feels very guilty about the trouble he caused. Once at the ice cream factory, though ordered to take the buttered milk back to the dairy, Thomas has a much better idea. He goes even faster with the churns of buttered milk all the way to the bakery. When Thomas arrives, the baker is confused to see milk churns until Thomas tells him to look inside and to the baker's surprise, the buttered milk is now butter.

Thomas returns to Tidmouth Sheds where the Fat Controller sees him. Thomas is worried about getting into trouble again, but the Fat Controller is pleased that, thanks to Thomas' idea, he made amends and is sent to the children's summer party as guest of honour.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Emily
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * James (cameo)
 * Percy (cameo)
 * Molly (cameo)
 * Gordon (cameo)
 * Stephen Hatt (cameo)

Locations

 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Sodor Dairy
 * Sodor Ice Cream Factory
 * Gordon's Hill
 * Maithwaite
 * Bluff's Cove
 * Bluff's Cove Junction
 * Peel

Trivia

 * A London, Midland, and Scottish Railway poster is seen at Maithwaite.
 * In Sweden, this episode is named "Lots of Milk". In Denmark, it is called "Thomas is Up the Butter". In Norway, it is titled "Thomas Gets Milk Problems". In the Netherlands it is named "Thomas Makes a Milkshake". The Japanese title is called "Slapstick Milkshake". It is called "Churning Unknowingly" in Gaelic.
 * This episode aired in the US before Molly's Special Special, so the audience would not know who Molly is.

Goofs

 * When Thomas first arrives at the ice cream factory, his last truck is missing.
 * Thomas should have stopped at the signal.
 * When Thomas left the ice cream factory his trucks were on the far left track; but when he came back his trucks were on the middle track.
 * How could Thomas be going as fast as the time he pulled the jet engine?
 * Bluff's Cove Junction has three tracks running through, when there should be four.