The stations are preparing for the Most Beautiful Station competition and Percy has to collect some trucks from Maithwaite. On the way, he has to stop by an old mine. He is spooked when he sees a mine chimney sinking into the ground and when he tells Donald and Douglas, they claim it is the naughty gnomes which makes him feel even more scared.
Later, when Percy is to collect garden gnomes for a station from the same mine he passed the day before, he sees the warehouse sink and is convinced it is the naughty gnomes. He bumps into some trucks and garden gnomes fall out when the side door opened. Percy is terrified and runs back to Lower Tidmouth station, where the Fat Controller explains that in fact the gnomes were garden gnomes and that the buildings were just sinking into old mine shafts. Percy then returns to the mine to pick up the gnomes, learning that they were not scary like he thought they were. The next day, Lower Tidmouth wins the Most Beautiful Station competition, due to the fact that they had the garden gnomes.
A scrap Thomas and Lorry 2 model are seen at the mine.
Several of the miniature garden gnomes were preserved by The Coffey Man Preservation after they were all sold from the Prop Store in Los Angeles. The miniatures later made special appearances in the Thomas Creator Collective videos.
Large scale models of the garden gnomes were used in the close-up shot of Percy when he reverses away from them.
When the quarry mine is first shown, the garages next to the shed in the sixth series songBoo! Boo! Choo-Choo can be seen next to the scrap model of Thomas.
A small sample of Boo! Boo! Choo-Choo can also be heard when Percy learns that the garden gnomes were not scary.
The LT building from TUGS appears as one of the mine buildings.
A sign translated in Welsh says the Most Beautiful Station Competition took place in 2004.
Goofs
In the long shot of Percy leaving Tidmouth Sheds, the steam platform blows steam too late.
In the close-ups of Percy during the scene of the Fat Controller telling him about the gnomes (except when he says "Garden gnomes?"), the sky is grey.
The narrator said that Percy "buffered up" to the trucks, but he stopped some distance away from them.
When Percy enters Dryaw and when he leaves to return to the vans, his steam platform is visible.
The narrator says that Percy steamed back to Lower Tidmouth station, even though he had not come from there in the first place. The Fat Controller had not even told Percy to take the garden gnomes to Lower Tidmouth station before that.
The shot of Percy puffing towards the mine while the narrator says "Percy hoped the signal at the junction would be green" is an alternative shot of Percy racing away after the mine's chimney has sunk, as one of the mine's buildings is visible on the left.
In the first shot of the gnomes tumbling out of the vent van, there is a noticeable film cut as there is a fade effect causing more gnomes to appear all of a sudden.
