Sleeping Beauty

"Excuse me. Are you a vandal? Driver told me vandals break and smash things."

- Duke

Sleeping Beauty is the second episode of the fourth season. It aired in the US on the Shining Time Station episode Second Chances in 1995.

Plot
After a hard day's work, the engines return to the shed and ask Thomas to continue the story of Duke.

While Duke was in his shed for many years, he was certainly not forgotten and recently a team of people visited the Fat Controller intending to find and rescue Duke. The team was prepared with maps and knew where to look, so the Fat Controller agreed. Everyone set off to the mountains in a train and began the long search. As the days passed, the search grew harder and there was no sign of Duke, but the rescuers were just as determined to find him.

Finally, the search ended, quite by accident, when one of the team fell through the roof of Duke's shed, having not realised he was standing on it. Duke wakes up and asks the men if they are vandals, but they assure him that they are there to rescue him and reunite him with Stuart and Falcon. After digging him out of the shed, they took Duke to his new home, the Skarloey Railway. Falcon and Stuart - now Sir Handel and Peter Sam - were ready to greet their old friend, who complained that they woke him up and started to tell them about the older days.

The two engines laughed at this and told Duke that they were all due to go back to work tomorrow and they could keep Duke in order. Duke pretended to be cross, but he could not be happier to be back at work with his friends.

And that is the end of Thomas' story. All the engines agree that it was a great tale and how glad they are that it really did have a happy ending.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Henry
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duke
 * Falcon
 * Stuart
 * Sir Topham Hatt (does not speak)
 * Gordon (cameo)
 * Skarloey (cameo)
 * Rheneas (cameo)
 * Jem Cole (cameo)
 * Farmer Trotter (cameo)

Locations

 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Sodor Gold Company
 * Skarloey
 * Rheneas
 * Skarloey Railway Slate Quarry
 * Arlesdale
 * The Skarloey Railway Viaduct
 * Crovan's Gate

Trivia

 * This episode is based on the story of the same name from The Railway Series book, Duke the Lost Engine.
 * Stock footage from Granpuff is used.
 * The Chinese version of this episode credits George Carlin as the narrator.
 * Many whistle sounds are missing in the American version of this episode.
 * This is the first episode to use a larger model for a Skarloey Railway engine.
 * The title refers to the fairy tale story of a princess who falls asleep for one hundred years.
 * In the Netherlands, this episode is called "The Clean Sleeper". In Japan, this episode is called "Find the Sleeping Beauty". In France, it is entitled "The Beauty in the Sleeping Wood". The Welsh title is "The Sleepy". The Finnish title is Seven Sleepers Shooting".

Goofs

 * The audience wouldn't know who Skarloey and Rheneas are, since they weren't introduced until Four Little Engines.
 * In the last scene of Falcon and Stuart, Stuart is tilted slightly.
 * It is unclear how Falcon and Stuart got into the yard, as their lines began at a wall and there were no points leading to their tracks.
 * In the British version, Skarloey, Rheneas, and Sir Handel have the same whistle sound. Also, Duke has Sir Handel's whistle sound.
 * In the American version, when Duke arrives at the Skarloey Railway, Stuart has Smudger's whistle sound and Falcon has a different whistle sound.
 * When Skarloey starts his journey, he is facing forwards, but when in every shot after that, he is facing backwards.
 * At the end of the episode, the narrator says "And soon, they were all asleep too", but James and Henry are still awake.
 * Thomas should not have carried on telling the story of Duke without Duck, as he was there to hear first part of it in the previous episode.