A Surprise for Percy

"A really useful engine should never be surprised by surprise."

- Percy

A Surprise for Percy, retitled A Big Surprise for Percy in American releases, is the twenty-first episode of the fifth season.

Plot
Percy has been working at the coal mines for several weeks and is fed up with the work. Toby and Bertie try to cheer him up, to no avail. Then one day, Percy is pulling some trucks up to the yard, when they break away. Percy and Bertie chase after them and workmen manage to put chocks under the trucks' wheels after they slow down going up a hill. After that, Percy decides that one should never be taken by surprise.

Characters

 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Bertie
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Henrietta (cameo)
 * Farmer Trotter (cameo)

Locations

 * The Coaling Plant
 * Mountain Village

Trivia

 * Stock footage from Put Upon Percy is used.
 * This is the only episode in the fifth season to have different titles in the UK and the US.
 * When the trucks first sing, music is used in the US and Japanese versions but not the UK version.
 * Much of the footage during the runaway is sped up.
 * In a picture from filming, a truck's left (viewer's perspective right) buffer is missing.
 * In Japan, this episode is called "Percy's Surprise".
 * The load that Cranky drops on Percy from "Cranky Bugs" is seen on the ground to the right of the screen when the trucks at the coal mine sing.

Goofs

 * The backdrop is visible during a close-up of Percy struggling up the hill.
 * Just before the truck's coupling breaks, Percy's piston appears to be broken.
 * In the bird's-eye shot of the trucks, a wire can be seen pulling the trucks forward.
 * In some shots of Percy pulling the trucks up the hill, his first red stripe is out of place.
 * The mine at the coal yards appears to be active, but the mine shaft collapsed in Put Upon Percy.
 * In one scene Sir Topham Hatt and Bertie park at the end of the stone wall, but in the next scene they are nowhere to be seen.
 * The trucks should have derailed at bends due to their speed.
 * There was a brakevan coupled to the runaway trucks, so if the guard was still on board, he could have used the handbrake to stop the train earlier.
 * Throughout the runaway, Bertie is smiling.
 * In real life, the men would have needed more than two wooden blocks to keep the trucks from rolling back into the village.
 * In a close-up of the trucks racing up hill, the brakevan is at the wrong end of the train.
 * When this episode aired on Storytime with Thomas, the UK title was used.
 * When Percy goes in between the two lines of trucks, the first truck on the viewer's right is coming off its wheel frames.