Thomas and the Trucks

Thomas and the Trucks, retitled Trouble for Thomas in American releases, is the sixth episode of the first series. It is based on the story of the same name from The Railway Series book, Thomas the Tank Engine.

Plot

Thomas is fed up with his job of shunting coaches and complains endlessly to the other engines about it every night saying that he wishes to see the world for a change, even though the others take little notice. One night, Edward comes to the shed and feels sorry for Thomas. Edward offers to let Thomas take his goods train, while he shunts coaches for him. Thomas happily agrees.

The next morning, their drivers agree and Thomas sets off happily for the yard. Troublesome Trucks talk a lot, do not attend to what they are doing and often play tricks on engines who are not used to them. Edward is well aware of this and has warned Thomas to be careful but he is to excited too listen. Thomas gets his train ready and starts to pull, but the trucks are not ready. Despite their cries to stop and wait, Thomas just ignores them as he puffs out of the station rather stubbornly.

Thomas goes faster and faster passing through Henry's Tunnel and the junction along the journey, but the increased speed makes the trucks very cross and they decide to play a trick on him. Thomas eventually slows down while climbing Gordon's Hill, but as his driver is about to apply the brakes at the top, the trucks begin to push Thomas down the hill. Thomas loses control of the trucks as they rush into Maron. He swerves into a siding at the goods yard and shuts his eyes until finally he stops in front of the buffers, narrowly preventing an accident.

The Fat Controller, having seen everything, questions him why he came in so fast. When Thomas explains that the trucks pushed him, the Fat Controller states that Thomas has a lot to learn about trucks and that after pushing them about in the yard for a few weeks, he will know much more about them and will he be a Really Useful Engine.

Characters

• Thomas
• Edward
• Sir Topham Hatt
• Troublesome Trucks
• Henry (does not speak)
• Gordon (does not speak)
• James (cameo)
• Stephen Hatt (cameo)

Locations

• Tidmouth Sheds
• Knapford
• Henry's Tunnel
• The Goat Field
• Elsbridge
• Gordon's Hill
• Maron
  • Maron Bridge
  • Maron Signals Runby
• The Viaduct (deleted scene)
• Hackenbeck Tunnel (deleted scene)

Trivia

• The events of this episode were retold in The Adventure Begins.
• At the beginning of the A Big Day for Thomas release of this episode, Mr. Conductor's whistle from Shining Time Station can be heard.
• In PBS Kids Sprout airings of the episode and on Thomas and Friends Classic Volume 1, the music at the end is played twice.
• Stock footage from Thomas' Train and a deleted scene of Edward and Gordon are used.
• In a deleted scene, Thomas' train has a tanker, one van, three open trucks and a brake van.

Goofs

• In some American releases, notably those on PBS Kids Sprout, Best of Thomas, Thomas and Friends Classic Volume 1 and the official Thomas & Friends YouTube channel, the episode's audio is out of sync.
• At the beginning, because of an alternate shot, Gordon is in the middle of the shed with Thomas and Henry to the left and James and Edward to the right, but in the close-ups, Thomas is in the middle, Gordon and James are on one side and Edward and Henry are on the other. This appears to be unused footage shots for the episode Edward and Gordon, as the engines are all in the same positions. Because of this alternate shot, Edward is smiling while the others are frowning. In fact, Edward is clearly shown frowning along with others just before the narrator says: "The other engines didn't take much notice," even though he is said to feel sorry for Thomas.
• The narrator says that the guard blew his whistle and a whistle sound is heard, but the guard is only holding a green flag.
• In the close-ups of Thomas pulling a truck, the rest of the train is missing.
• When Thomas hits the buffers in the siding, there is a second track because the same truck close-up is used.
• On early American home video releases, when Thomas puffs up Gordon's Hill, a technician's voice is heard saying "Look out for the train!" and the music and sound effects are briefly muted as it is said.
• Throughout the episode, when Thomas is pulling the trucks, they change their position rapidly. The number of trucks also change, such as when Thomas leaves Knapford, he has three vans. However, when he goes through Henry's Tunnel, he has two vans for the rest of the episode. Also, as Thomas comes out of Henry's Tunnel, the tracks bounces and the front GWR van also changes into a utility van.
• In the restored version, the scene of the trucks bumping Thomas is not cut properly. As a result, the buffering sound effects are out of sync.
• When Thomas hits the buffers on the siding, the close-up shows him with black buffer housings and a different-looking brake pipe.
• In the close-up of Thomas hitting the buffers, his buffer beam is black as opposed to red.
• The narrator refers to the siding as the goods yard when Thomas bumped into the buffers.
• When the narrator says, "When he opened his eyes..." Thomas' eyes are wonky and his face is slightly crooked.
• In a rare picture, the edge of the set can be seen behind Thomas and the trucks.
• In a deleted scene, a truck overlaps a small portion of James' face.
• For a brief second, when Thomas flies through Elsbridge, John Attwell's hand can be seen in the top right corner of the screen, grabbing the footbridge to prevent the camera from hitting it, and the left pair of tracks come to an end.
• In a deleted scene, Thomas does not have a lamp on his running board.
• In the second close-up of the troublesome truck, Knapford cannot be seen behind it. The same thing happens in the close-up of Thomas' whistle.

In Other Languages

Merchandise

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Books Name Published Publisher Highlights Photo Thomas and the Trucks Dean and Son ? Board book Thomas and the Trucks 1990 Buzz Books Buzz book Troublesome Trucks 2010 Egmont My Thomas Story Library book Also known as Thomas meets the Troublesome Trucks Troublesome Trucks 2017 Egmont Engine Adventures book Re-release of the My Thomas Story Library book Magazine stories 1987 - Thomas and the Trucks 1998 - Thomas and the Trucks!

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