Thomas and the Runaway Car

"Oh no!"

- Arthur's horror at upsetting the fish

Thomas and the Runaway Car is the seventeenth episode of the eleventh season.

Plot
Thomas has been given the important job of taking the Fat Controller's new car to the Sodor Show. Gordon himself has the job of taking the bandstand to the show and challenges Thomas to a race. Gordon manages to get a head start and Thomas is impatient to start, and when he does he forgets to have the truck coupled on; ergo, the truck breaks away on Gordon's Hill. Thomas follows in hot pursuit, but cannot stop the truck from frightening Arthur or splattering Rosie with mud. In the end, the truck crashes into some buffers and the car goes flying into a haystack. When Thomas sees Gordon again, he asks the big blue engine to get Rocky to put the car back on the truck and to thank him gives him the car to deliver.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Gordon
 * Percy
 * Arthur
 * Rosie
 * Rocky
 * Sir Topham Hatt (does not speak)
 * Lady Hatt (does not speak)
 * James (cameo)
 * Cranky (cameo)
 * Stephen Hatt (cameo)
 * Bridget Hatt (cameo)
 * Jem Cole (cameo)
 * The Mayor of Sodor (cameo)
 * Dusty Dave (cameo)
 * Sodor Brass Band (cameo)
 * Alice (cameo)
 * Farmer Trotter (cameo)

Locations

 * Brendam Docks
 * Gordon's Hill

Trivia

 * The "new" car model is actually the same old one.
 * The crowd scene from Toby's Triumph is reused only with the people changed around slightly.
 * In Germany, this episode is called "Thomas and the Runaway". In Denmark it is "Thomas and the Unrestrained Car". And in Norway its title is "Thomas and the Car Chase". In Japanese, this episode is called "Car Escaped with Thomas".

Goofs

 * Gordon's buffer is wonky at the docks.
 * Gordon has coaches in one scene and a flatbed in the next.
 * At the top of Gordon's Hill the couplings clang and drop before the flatbed moves away; but it was said that the flatbed wasn't coupled up.
 * Arthur's fish train should comprise of refrigerated vans, not open-topped trucks.
 * When the flatbed speeds past Arthur he speeds up after his trucks clear the points.
 * When the flatbed passes Rosie it splashes mud all over her, but when Thomas runs by he does not.
 * The car was not secured to the flatbed, so it would have fallen off anyway.
 * Lady Hatt's model from The Green Controller is used in the crowd scene, but she is meant to be at the Sodor Show.
 * A brakevan should have been added to Thomas and Gordon's train.