Thomas and the Kite

Thomas and the Kite is a magazine story.

Plot
Every day Thomas chuffs up and down his branch line and he never gets tired of the same journey as every day is different, but sometimes Thomas does wish he could try something new. On windy days, he would sometimes see children flying kites on the hillside and, one day, Thomas tells his driver that he would like to fly a kite. The driver tells Thomas that engines don't fly kites, but Thomas is sure that they could, given the chance.

Later that week, Thomas sees a kite being flown by a boy. The kite is bigger than any other Thomas has seen and the boy had made it himself out of string, wooden poles and cloth. Unfortunately, the string is not strong enough to hold such a big kite. As Thomas watches, the string breaks and the kite flies away. As Thomas puffs on down the hill, he sees the kite blowing in front of him. Gradually the kite drops beyond a rise in the track. The driver thinks the kite may have landed on the rails, so he proceeds slowly. As Thomas puffs cautiously around the bend, he sees the kite on the rails ahead. The driver grabs the kite, but then scratches his head; they have nowhere to store the kite as it is too big to fit in the cab. Thomas' fireman has an idea. So they double up the remaining string to make it stronger and then attach it to the cab. Thomas is delighted to finally get a chance to fly a kite. The kite is then returned to the boy on the return journey.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Annie (cameo)
 * Clarabel (mentioned)

Goofs

 * Why couldn't they put the kite in Annie or Clarabel?
 * It is said that the kite is given to Clarabel to carry back to the little boy. This makes no sense as Clarabel is a carriage and why couldn't they have put the kite inside Clarabel in the first place?