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- “What's this? A cow? I'll soon settle her. Be off! Be off!”
- ― Henry
Cows, retitled A Cow on the Line on North American releases, is the second episode of the second series. It is based on the story of the same name from The Railway Series book Edward the Blue Engine.
Plot
Edward's old age is beginning to show due to having some worn out parts that make clanking sounds. One day, Edward is pulling some empty cattle trucks to a nearby market town. The trucks are making a lot of noise as is he by this point. Near the line is a field where some cows are grazing and they become provoked by the noise and smoke as they are not used to trains. As Edward and his train pass by the fence, a number of cows break loose, charge across the line and break a coupling, causing the last truck and brake van with the guard inside to be left behind. Edward believes the jerk he felt was the trucks misbehaving, so he continues on his journey. It is not until he arrives at the next station that he and his driver realise what happened.
Gordon and Henry hear about the incident and find it very funny. They laugh at Edward for letting a few cows break his train and brag that they could handle cows easily. Edward and Toby are indignant towards the larger engines; Toby knows they have never encountered cows like he has and do not understand the trouble they cause.
A few days later, Gordon sails through Wellsworth station with the Express, still making fun of Edward's cow incident. Gordon continues down the line, telling the coaches to hurry until he and his driver think they see something on an upcoming bridge. The driver shuts off steam and, as Gordon slows to a stop, he sees that it is a cow. He tries to shoo it but she refuses to budge; her calf has disappeared and she is lonely. Gordon's crew and passengers try to get the cow to leave but to no avail.
Henry soon comes by with his passenger train and also thinks that the cow can simply be ordered away but he also fails to make her move and he reverses back to Crosby. Once back at the station, Henry's guard tells the staff and Signalman about the cow blocking the line. The porter realises that the cow is Bluebell, declaring that her calf is at the station and that they will send her to the bridge in a truck pulled by Percy.
"That must be Bluebell. Her calf is here, ready to go to market."
Arriving at the bridge, Percy reunites the calf with her mother and the two cows are easily led away by the porter. Gordon and Henry make an agreement not to tell anyone about the incident but the story quickly gets around nonetheless. That night at the shed, Edward teases Gordon and Henry about their fear of a cow. Gordon defends himself and Henry, claiming that they stopped to prevent Bluebell from running up against them. Edward says that he understands but Gordon worries that Edward understands all too well.
Characters
- Edward
- Henry
- Gordon
- Toby
- Green Express Coaches
- Cattle Trucks (faceless)
- Percy (does not speak)
- Charlie Sand (not named, does not speak)
- Thomas (cameo)
- James (cameo)
- Mrs. Kyndley (cameo)
- One Control-meddling Boy (cameo)
- Sidney Hever (cameo)
Locations
Trivia
- This episode marks:
- The first appearance of both the Red Stroudley Coaches, Brendam Docks and Crosby Station in the television series and the first appearance of the line leading to Crocks Scrap Yard.
- The first time Edward's angry face is fully used since its debut in the first series episode Thomas and the Trucks, as well as Toby's cross face since it appeared only once in the first series episode Toby and the Stout Gentleman.
- The first to feature new laughing faces for Henry, Gordon and James which would be used frequently later on.
- Henry regains his wheel arches in this episode and his stepladders become solid.
- A promotional image shows Henry on the bridge without his coaches.
- This episode was shown alongside Daisy in an airing of Storytime with Thomas.
- In 1986, when originally first broadcast in the UK as a double bill with the previous episode, the credits showed the story title of the previous story credited. However, because this story's original end credits mention the previous story as being written by Christopher Awdry, when aired individually later from 1991, the end credits from Duck Takes Charge are used instead.
- In George Carlin's dub, the owl sound effect during the shot where Gordon is on the turntable in the final scene is much clearer. Two more owl sounds are also added when Edward starts teasing him and Henry about their mishap.
- This episode was never released on home video in South Korea.
Goofs
- In some scenes of Edward, his eyes are misaligned, including the ones with his angry face.
- In the first shot of Edward passing the cows, he hits a bush close to the tracks and he is pulling four cattle trucks instead of five.
- The narrator says that some trucks were left behind but only one truck and the brake van were left behind. This was due to using the original dub from the Railway Series story, in which six (or seven) trucks and the brake van are shown cut off from the back of the train in the second illustration.
- When Gordon comes through Wellsworth, he is pulling two brake coaches at the rear of his train. But when he crosses the viaduct, the middle coach has changed into a composite one.
- Gordon's wheels are still moving for a few more seconds after he stops on the bridge.
- The narrator says that Henry backed away nervously but he is actually smiling. When he is backing away, the bridge bounces.
- The Crosby porter has a big stain around his mouth, due to his original mouth being painted over with the wrong colour. Additionally, there was also a piece of sticky tac on his right arm (viewers' left).
- When Percy puffs past Crosby:
- He passes by Henry twice due to alternate angles being filmed of Percy passing by Henry and not timed correctly with the fade edits.
- His brake van's roof is slightly crooked and lifted.
- A set of points leads to nowhere.
- The track Percy is on wobbles.
- In the close-up shot of Percy watching the cows being lead away:
- His right eye is misaligned.
- A large lump of glue is keeping his middle lamp iron on.
- His face also appears to be a bit loose.
- A piece of sticky tac can be seen above his face.
- In the Japanese dub, Henry has James' whistle sound when he passes Gordon toward the end. This sound seems to have been taken straight off the sound effects track of Percy and the Signal since James' whistle sound is present with the puffing.
- Towards the end of the episode, Gordon's eyes are misaligned and he also has a bunch of scratches on his paintwork.
- The close up of Edward saying, "Well, well, well. Two big engines afraid of a cow?" is filmed after Gordon reversed in his shed, as Gordon can be seen next to him instead on the turntable.
- When this episode was originally released on the Thomas Comes to Breakfast 1998 VHS in Canada, it had no narration and only included the music and sound effects. This was later corrected on the 2000 VHS tape released in Canada.
In Other Languages
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Magazine Story
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Home Video Releases
Episode
References
| #01 Thomas, Percy and the Coal | #10 The Runaway | #19 Daisy |
| #02 Cows | #11 Percy Takes the Plunge | #20 Percy's Predicament |
| #03 Bertie's Chase | #12 Pop Goes the Diesel | #21 The Diseasel |
| #04 Saved from Scrap | #13 Dirty Work | #22 Wrong Road |
| #05 Old Iron | #14 A Close Shave | #23 Edward's Exploit |
| #06 Thomas and Trevor | #15 Better Late than Never | #24 Ghost Train |
| #07 Percy and the Signal | #16 Break Van | #25 Woolly Bear |
| #08 Duck Takes Charge | #17 The Deputation | #26 Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree |
| #09 Percy and Harold | #18 Thomas Comes to Breakfast | Cancelled: The Missing Coach |
| Cancelled: Gordon Goes Foreign | ||