The Missing Coach was originally going to be the seventeenth episode[2] of the second series, but it was cancelled during production of filming. It was to be based on the stories "Hullo Twins!" and The Missing Coach from The Railway Series book The Twin Engines.
Plot
Work on the railway has become harder, so the Fat Controller orders a new goods engine from Scotland. However, two identical twin engines arrive instead. When the Fat Controller learns about this, he goes to meet the engines, named Donald and Douglas, and discovers they have lost their numbers. The Fat Controller has numbers painted on their tenders and has Duck show them around, but still plans to find out which engine should be sent back.
That night, Gordon and Henry tease the Scottish Twins for their whistles, so Donald and Douglas sort them out.
Sometimes, the Express has a special coach for passengers traveling on Thomas' branch line. Whoever takes away Gordon’s coaches must remember to collect Thomas' special one and leave it at the bay platform at Tidmouth for him to collect. Douglas offers to do this job for Duck one afternoon, but worries about being sent away and shunts the empty express coaches and the special one, still full of passengers, into the carriage siding. Shortly thereafter, Thomas arrives and panics when he finds that his coach is missing. The angry passengers emerge from the siding and complain to the Fat Controller.
The two engines switch tenders, hoping to trick the Fat Controller into thinking they were not involved with the incident. Once Donald is coupled to Douglas' tender, he leaves with his goods train while Douglas stays behind with Donald's tender. The Fat Controller and the passengers question Douglas, who pretends to be Donald and tells them his cover story. The Fat Controller appears to have fallen for it, but after the passengers have left, he watches Thomas fetching his special coach from the siding and swings around and excoriates Douglas.
Characters
- Thomas
- Henry
- Gordon
- James
- Duck
- Donald and Douglas
- Sir Topham Hatt
- Engine Inspector
- Annie and Clarabel (do not speak)
- The Foreign Gentlemen (do not speak)
- Percy (cameo)
- The Spiteful Brake Van (cameo)
Locations
- Island of Sodor
- England (mentioned)
- Scotland (mentioned)
- Wales (mentioned)
Trivia
- During an interview with Sodor Island Fansite shortly before his death, David Mitton said that the episode was halfway through filming when Britt Allcroft decided to have it cancelled, as she thought the plot would be too difficult for children to understand (most likely due to the twins switching tenders) and lacked action. Mitton also mentioned that he was in possession of all the film negatives for the episode.
- In an early dialogue and visual script for the episode owned by Twitter user TomsProps, the episode is referred to as "Hullo Twins!"[4]
- Three shots originally filmed for this episode were used in the episodes Saved from Scrap and Break Van.
- The scene of Henry and Gordon being confronted by Donald and Douglas at the sheds is not present in either of the leaked scripts for the episode.[5][3] It is unknown whether the scene was added into later drafts or cut from the story after the scenes at the sheds had been filmed.
- Had this episode been produced, it would have been:
- The first episode to feature tender engines switching tenders. Because the episode was cancelled, this honour instead went to the tenth series episode, It's Good to be Gordon.
- The only episode in the television series to mention the Express by its name in The Railway Series, the Wild Nor' Wester.[5]
- The first episode of the television series to mention England and Scotland by name, and the only to mention Wales by name.[5]
- It is uncertain if Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell composed the music for this episode, as O'Donnell stated in an interview that he had no recollection of the episode whatsoever.
- While the special coach was a red express one in the original story from The Railway Series, the episode used a third class Orange Stroudley Coach instead.
- Despite this episode's cancellation, Thomas' special coach can be seen with the green express coaches in Percy and the Signal and Duck Takes Charge.
- While this episode fits the category of the four ideas in series 2 that were otherwise cancelled in the final decision (the other three being Percy's Promise, Gordon Goes Foreign and Double Header, “Percy’s Promise” and “Double Header” eventually filmed for Series 3, the latter changed to “Time for Trouble” with a line from Gordon recycled from “Gordon Goes Foreign in the opening), this is the only one to make it into the stages of filming before being cancelled midway.
Goofs
- Gordon's eyes are misaligned when he and Henry jumped.
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 | ||