Train Stops Play

"They have their uses. They can save the wear on a poor car's wheels!"

- Caroline changing her opinion on trains

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

Plot
Stepney is puffing past a cricket field with some "empties" when a batter hits a "six" and their only ball lands in a truck. Stepney does not realise and, when his driver sees Caroline racing after them with the desperate cricketers inside, he mistakes them for joyriders and speeds up, much to Caroline's annoyance. At last, Caroline arrives at the station and the men get their ball back, but Stepney's driver notes Caroline looks exhausted and suggests that Caroline be rolled onto a flatbed. The cricketers ride back in a brakevan and Stepney and his crew watch the end of the game.

Characters

 * Percy
 * Stepney
 * Caroline
 * Thomas (does not speak)
 * Toby (does not speak)
 * Henry (cameo)
 * James (cameo)
 * Duck (cameo)
 * Donald or Douglas (cameo)
 * Bulgy (cameo)
 * The Vicar of Wellsworth (cameo)
 * Farmer Trotter (cameo)

Locations

 * Bulgy's Bridge
 * Knapford Harbour
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Shunting Yards
 * Elsbridge Cricket Field

Trivia

 * This episode is based on the story of the same name from The Railway Series book, Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine.
 * In Germany, this episode is called "No Game Without the Ball". In the Netherlands, it is named "Train Catches Ball". In Italy, it is "Interrupted Game". In Japan, this episode is called "Suspended Game". The Welsh title is "No Ball - No Game". It is called "Ball Game Off" in Finland. The Danish title is "Train Stops the Game". The Spanish title is "Do Not Stop The Game".
 * Edited scenes are used in The Red Balloon song. One shot superimposes the red balloon above the cricket field, and another shows the cricketers smiling.

Goofs

 * After Percy arrives with his trucks, his roof is lifted.
 * As Stepney arrives at Knapford Harbour, Thomas is seen leaving with some trucks, but he was still at Tidmouth Sheds when Stepney left. Also, his first truck derails before it goes off screen.
 * It was said that Stepney collected empty trucks from the harbour, but when the ball lands in one of his trucks, straw appears in it.
 * Studio equipment is visible in the shots of the cricket field.
 * Stepney has Rheneas' whistle sound.
 * At Knapford Harbour, Henry and James' eyes are wonky.
 * One of Percy's lamp irons is crooked.
 * When Stepney first arrives at the Cricket Field Caroline is not in the car park, but she suddenly is there when the batsman hits the ball.
 * When the narrator says "She doesn't think trains are silly now", paint chips are visible in Stepney's running board.
 * When the ball lands in the truck, it lands on top of a very thin layer of straw so that it lands with a thump on the wooden floor of the truck. However when the players retrieve the ball, it is nestled under the straw which now seems to be a rather thicker layer.