As he sat silently in the interior of the Dieselworks’ back shed, Thomas let out a quiet sigh to himself as he was trying to figure out how everything had let up to this happening to him. “This doesn’t make sense… why would Percy suddenly be helping Diesel 10 and his gang? Why would he just leave me here? Why would he even do something like this…?” These were only a few of the many questions that the number one engine had swirling around in his head, all because of what had been going on behind his back.
Just about an hour ago, he, along with the other engines at Knapford had not only learnt that Percy had been spending his time with Diesel 10 and the others at the Dieselworks, but also that Kevin had disappeared from the Steamworks due to Percy bringing him to help the diesels without Victor’s knowledge. Upon learning about what had happened to Kevin, Thomas and Percy had gone together to the Dieselworks to retrieve the small crane engine, only for Thomas to discover that his best friend was helping Diesel 10 lead the diesels in their plan to take over the Steamworks for themselves. As Percy led Diesel 10 and the other diesels towards the Steamworks, Thomas and Kevin ended up being led towards the back shed by Den and Dart, with the blue engine’s calls for Percy falling on deaf ears.
And now here he was, stuck in the back of the shed with Den and Dart keeping guard in front of the entrance so he and Kevin were prevented from escaping, not that Kevin could go anywhere as he was still hoisted up on a flatbed that was placed on the track next to Thomas, so now it seemed that there was nothing to do but think. “If there was something going on, Percy would always tell me. So why didn’t he say anything? He knows that I’d always listen to anything he had to say. So why didn’t he…?” After a few seconds of silence passed, Thomas let out a quiet sigh as he lowered his glance to the rails in front of him, feeling unable to make sense of any of this.
“Something wrong, Thomas?” At the sound of that curious tone in Kevin’s voice from the track beside him, Thomas lifted his glance up to the little crane engine to see him looking at his friend in concern, evidently having overheard his murmuring and wanting to know what was on Thomas’s mind. Thomas remained silent for a few moments, as he seemed to be realising that he had Kevin to talk to about the many questions he had about what had happened, before turning his glance over to the crane engine to begin explaining.
“Kevin…” Thomas let out another sigh as he was trying to find the right words to express his thoughts before he continued. “I just don’t understand what’s going on, why Percy is helping the diesels and why he’s been spending so much time with them. If there was something bothering him, he’d always tell me what was wrong. So why didn’t he say anything to me?” As Kevin was listening silently, Thomas felt an expression of dismay cross his face, clearly thinking about how Percy had kept his mouth shut around him over the last few days and placing as much distance from him as possible. “What could have been so serious that he wouldn’t talk to me about it? Why wouldn’t he let me talk to him?” Thomas then felt a worried expression come to his face as a thought was suddenly surfacing in his head, one that he didn’t want to believe was possible, but also one that felt as though it couldn’t be denied. “Did… did he not trust me enough to share his troubles with me…?”
Kevin let out a silent gasp of shock after hearing how much Thomas had on his mind and he lifted his glance up to think it over for a few moments. Even if he wasn’t completely aware of what had been going on between Thomas and Percy, it definitely seemed like that something had been going on that Percy wasn’t telling him about. He figured that out as early as when Percy asked him to help at the Dieselworks, especially since he usually never went anywhere without Victor’s approval, but when Percy told him he could be really useful at the Dieselworks, that was when Kevin felt he couldn’t say no. Like Percy, he never stopped to consider that the diesels were up to anything. At least, until now. After taking a bit of time to think it over, Kevin turned his attention back to Thomas to answer his question. “I don’t think it’s because Percy didn’t trust you. Have you ever stopped to ask him if there was something wrong, Thomas?”
Thomas felt his eyes widen at this simple question and he let out a silent gasp upon realising that Kevin was right: here he was, wondering why Percy never seemed to speak up to him about his problems, when in reality Thomas had never stopped to think about whether or not the small engine was having any problems to begin with. As this realisation began to sink into his smokebox, Thomas fell silent for a few moments before managing to find his voice, lowering his glance as he did so. “Well… no. I always thought that Percy would come to me if something was bothering him, but I never thought about going to him first instead. I never stopped to think about how he felt, never considered asking him what was on his mind. I just wish I knew what had been bothering him in the first place…”
“Why don’t you try finding out?” Kevin innocently suggested. Thomas looked up at him in surprise for a few moments before showing an expression of annoyance, as there seemed to be only one flaw in Kevin’s idea, one that stood out fairly easily.
“And how am I supposed to do that? Percy’s far away now and Den and Dart are blocking the entrance of this shed, so I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere for the time being.” Kevin stared in stunned silence before looking down with an expression of dismay, aware that Thomas was right about that, even if he didn’t see the harm in asking. Thomas was silent for a few moments to think over what to do, before a bright smile came to his face; maybe there was still a way he could get the answers he was searching for. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it?” Kevin looked over at his friend in surprise, wondering what idea he had in mind. “I’ll ask Lady; she’ll know!”
Kevin felt an expression of puzzlement show on his face, raising an eyebrow in confusion as he was wondering what Thomas meant. “Uh… who are you talking about?”
Thomas let out a giggle to himself at Kevin’s bafflement. It didn’t surprise him in the slightest that he was still in the dark about it. Fortunately, Thomas managed to settle down right away so he could fill Kevin in on the story. “Lady is our Angel of the Engines. She’s the angel who was entrusted with helping the designers give life to all of us engines and others as we’re being built.” While Thomas spoke, he felt his smile grow in size during his every word and he could see that Kevin was listening intently with his eyes growing wide in awe. Fortunately for the two, Den and Dart didn’t seem to be paying attention to a word they were saying, leaving them in the clear.
“Wow…” Kevin fell silent in amazement after hearing what Thomas had to say and he remained that way for a few seconds before managed to find his words. “And that includes even me?”
Thomas showed a smile of delight upon hearing that Kevin was beginning to understand what he was saying. “Indeed, it does, Kevin. Every machine on Sodor, whether it be engines, trucks, coaches or cranes like yourself are given life thanks to her.”
Kevin felt his eyes widen in amazement; now he understood what Victor meant when he overheard him on occasion during work in the Steamworks. “That’s amazing! I can’t wait to tell Boss about what you told me when we get out of here.” Thomas felt his smile grow in excitement after hearing that Kevin seemed to catch on now, before the crane turned his attention back to him as he continued. “I guess I better leave you so you can ask her what you wanted to.”
Thomas showed an expression of puzzlement as he was starting to wonder what Kevin meant, before he remembered that he planned on finding out what had been on Percy’s mind over the past few days. Once this seemed to be registered in his mind, Thomas looked over at the small crane with a grateful smile. “Oh, that’s right. Thanks, Kevin.” With this in mind, Thomas slowly made his way forward on the track as far as he could manage without altering Den and Dart’s attention and once he got close enough, he stopped before turning his glance up to the blue sky just outside the shed.
“Oh, Angel of the Engines…” he softly whispered, doing his best to keep his voice as quiet as possible so Den and Dart wouldn’t hear him. “I’m feeling lost and in need of your guidance. I’ve been thinking about how Percy’s been feeling upset for the past few days, but I never stopped to ask him about it. I know that the reason for it has something to do with me, but I can’t quite figure out what it could be. If there’s a chance you could help me find the answer, help me see what it was I did wrong… I’m more than thankful for it.” Once he finished, Thomas closed his eyes for a few seconds in silent prayer as he was waiting for the answer he was seeking, waiting to understand what could have happened to cause him to hurt Percy’s feelings. After a few more seconds of silence passed, Thomas’s eyes shot open as it all seemed to make sense and an expression of mixed horror and guilt came to his face as he finally understood.
“I… I don’t believe it. How could I have been so blind…? I spent so much time with Belle and Flynn that I made Percy feel like he wasn’t being noticed, like I didn’t want to spend any time with him, when that was never what I meant to do…” As Thomas spoke, the memories of the time he had spent with Belle and Flynn since their arrival all while ignoring Percy the whole time replayed in his mind, with the final straw being the night Flynn took Percy’s place in the sheds; it felt like a reminder of how Thomas himself felt when he saw Stanley take his place in the sheds, with no-one taking notice of how he felt about the situation, not even Thomas himself. With the reality of his involvement finally sinking in, Thomas felt tears of guilt building in his eyes as he was now fully aware of how he had treated his best friend and little brother over the past few days.
“I… I promised Percy that I’d always be there for him, to be the one who’d support him when no one else would. But instead, I treated him like he meant nothing to me, like his feelings didn’t matter… How could I possibly call myself his brother after what I’ve done…?” As Thomas felt the tears in his eyes begin to run down his cheeks, he turned his glance back up to the sky as he struggled to speak again. “What I’ve done to Percy… it’s something I hate myself for. All I want, more than anything, is the chance to apologize to him, to tell him just how wrong I was to act the way I have towards him and to let him know that this mistake won’t happen twice. I thank you, Lady, for hearing what I have to say. Amen.”
Once he had finished, Thomas felt a smile of relief cross his face knowing that he had realised the error of his ways from the past couple of days, and now all there was left for him and Kevin to do was wait for help to arrive so they could escape. Little did either of the two realise that their help was already on the way in the form of Percy with Belle and Flynn by his side.
Around a few minutes passed after Thomas made his prayer, and the smell of smoke suddenly reached him, Kevin, Den and Dart and they began to look around in worry as they were wondering what was going on. “Thomas, what’s happening?” Kevin asked, looking over at Thomas as he was wondering what was going on.
“I’m not sure, Kevin. I think there must be a fire nearby!” Thomas replied, to which Kevin let out a gasp of worry at this news. Just then, the sound of a familiar high-pitched whistle reached the four’s ears and Thomas let out a silent gasp as he could recognise that whistle. “Could that… really be who I think it is?” Sure enough, Thomas’s suspicions were proven correct as Percy was on his way towards where he and Kevin were with Belle and Flynn right beside him. At the sight of his little brother approaching the back shed, Thomas felt a smile of joy cross his face. ‘It’s Percy! He really came back!’
As Percy was questioning Den and Dart about the location of Flynn’s hose so he and Belle could get to work with extinguishing the fire right away, Thomas’s joyful smile didn’t seem to fade as he couldn’t believe his eyes. 'This is unbelievable. After the way I’ve treated him… he’s come to help me! I don’t feel like I deserve such an amazing little brother like him…’ He then turned his glance up to the sky, fully realising that Heaven had heard him and had been waiting for him to realise his mistake so he could receive the help he needed. After all, if there was one thing Thomas always knew for certain, it was that the prayer of a humble soul came faster to Heaven.
He was suddenly broken out of his thoughts when he saw Den and Dart leaving the entrance of the shed, clearly realising just how serious the situation was. Once he was certain that the entrance was clear, Thomas made his way forward where he could see Percy looking on at him with a smile of relief, clearly looking thrilled to see that he was okay. “Percy! You came back!”
“Of course! What made you think I wouldn’t?” The smile on Percy’s face quickly faded and he showed an expression of guilt, leaving Thomas to watch him in concern as he was wondering what was wrong, and he was given his answer when Percy spoke again. “Oh, Thomas… I’m so sorry! I was wrong to just abandon you. I don’t expect you to forgive me for it, but…”
“Percy…” Percy looked up at Thomas in surprise at his sudden interruption and the latter let out a sigh as he had an expression of shame on his face as he continued. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have spent all that time ignoring you and making you feel like your feelings didn’t matter to me. Your feelings are always the first thing I should be thinking about, because what happens to you always matters to me, no matter the situation. I haven’t been the best big brother I can be to you over the last few days, but that won’t happen again. I promise.”
Percy felt himself being left at a loss of words at Thomas’s sincerity; it was obvious that he had been thinking about this ever since he was first left in this shed while Percy led the diesels to the Steamworks. And now, after hearing every word he had to say, Percy knew that he couldn’t stay mad at Thomas. Looking at his best friend and big brother, Percy showed a grateful smile. “Thank you, Thomas. That means so much to me.”
Thomas felt a smile of delight come to his face upon hearing that Percy had forgiven him for the way he had behaved towards him, and it was obvious that everything had finally been sorted out. After a few seconds of silence passed, Percy was the one to break it. “We better get out of here. There’s still a lot to take care of out there.”
Thomas felt his smile grow in size at this idea before giving his reply. “That sounds great to me.”
So without a moment to spare, the two proceeded to couple up to Kevin’s flatbed before making their way out of the back shed to catch up with Belle and Flynn; they still had a lot of take care of once the fire was out, and that meant paying a visit to the Steamworks.
I’ve been hearing alot about the new reboot of Thomas the Tank Engine known as “All Engines Go!”, how people are saying it’s trying to be like My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, well, personally I think it’s just going for a more Preschool Nick Jr Feel, like I can see this thomas constantly talking to the camera during his stories, if they really wanted to make it like MLP, the artwork and backgrounds would be better, the characters would still argue and all that while still having good morals and encouraging good behavior just how kids show should depict real life, and they wouldn’t make the trains so chibi, the colors so bright, & everything so bouncy, [in fact (and I’m not trying to be overly obsessive brony here but…) I personally think it would probably be better if DHX did this cartoon, and made it something you’d see on the HUB (like not just MLP, but also Pound Puppies, Littlest Pet Shop, Dan VS, and Transformers Rescue Bots. like a mix of DHX style of animation and Piemation’s style when he did an fan animated thomas short),22 minute stories with sub plots from the other trains, and something that’s cute, fun, and made for little kids, but doesn’t act like everything is perfect all the time that sometimes people fight and argue], this just kind of looks like a parody of a preschool show and it’s a definitely a hallow shell of the original 24 seasons (it’s basically the same deal as Veggietales in the House/City was a hallow shell of a show to reboot the series into, hell the creator actually made a new Veggietales show that’s more like the old one because of that, but what do you think?
having a 3yo brother means i get exposed to kids’ shows way more often than i thought i would at this point in my life, but man, binge watching thomas the tank engine as an adult is a wild fucking experience
all these trains (and there’s like 20 counting locomotives alone, don’t even get me started on the anthropomorphic train cabins) are MAD competitive the whole time and will constantly fuck up their own whole day by tring to prove they’re the biggest baddest train. and like, i understand that you gotta get you plot from somewhere and i imagine plotlines like this happen in cars etc. as well, but the other day i was watching and i noticed that all these goddamn locomotives have DRIVERS in them. that apparently have no control over their train’s actions at all whatsoever. so these trains wake up, pick up their drivers, go to work, get taunted by another train who’s like “ha ha i see u there with your 4 cabins but did you know i can pull SIX cabins and still fucking book it at 80mph” and the 4 cabin train will be like “fuck it i gotta prove myself now, hook me up with 4 more cabins” and will inevitably derail themselves or some shit while the engine driver just shuts up and kicks back the whole time
i explained this to my brother and was like, is that fucked up or what, but he just pointed at the green train and went “that’s percy” so i guess that’s his take on the situation
OKAY I’M GETTING IN ON THIS BECAUSE I’M MAD AND FULL OF COLA
I worked on that show. For three hideous months of my life, I did this.
And there was this whole unwritten rule structure about the drivers and what they did and when they did it and how/when they needed to act
And there was this weird fucking balance between what the trains did and what the humans did - the drivers would only act when the train can’t do a thing by itself. Hooking up to another car? Driver does it. Need to shift from one track to another? Driver gets out and does it. Loading up one of the cars? Drivers.
See something funny here? BECAUSE I DID. What driver would hear their sentient train say “fuck it i gotta prove myself now, hook me up with 4 more cabins” and NOT respond with “Percy just shut up and drive we have people to transport or the Health and Safety committee is going to breathe fire up both our asses”???
Naw, they hear their giant fucking trains with giant fucking faces whining about how they are getting old and outdated and how they need to prove themselves by doubling their reasonable capacity and they go “welp, okay” and they get out and they hook up those cabins.
Otherwise, the trains had total autonomy to do whatever petty competitive shit the plot of the day demanded that they do. Go way too fast and end up breaking because they wanted to race a new and not outdated engine that’s actually built for speed? They do that. Go 100% the wrong direction because they wanted to show their friends a thing they got loaded up with and end up ruining it? No probbo, Bobbo. Disobey directions given by Sir Topham Hatt HIMSELF because they’re too proud? You do the thing buddy. Strain way too fucking hard to carry 8 fucking cabins when they were only built for 4? YOU GO FOR IT YOU MORON TRAIN.
SO WITH ALL THAT HERE’S MY THEORY that I had to develop because it was either that or never stop drinking ever again
Those drivers? They never speak to each other, never acknowledge the existence of any humans. They get in the train, go with the train, fix the train, load or unload the train. That is all they do.
They’re not human.
They are symbiotic extensions of the trains. They are a combination of the birds that eat parasites off hippos and fucking Boston Dynamics style robots where literally all they do is whatever shit their designated Train Of The Day deems worthy of their time.
With no task to fulfil, they are thoughtless beings. WATCH THEM. They look around at nothing. They blink. Sometimes they lean on the edge of the window. 99.5% of the time, they do nothing, they see nothing, they interact with nothing. They are shaped in such a way as to avoid unsettling the real humans of the world, but are below humans in almost every way - Sir Topham Hatt never speaks to them directly in the way he speaks to the engines.
If the train derails and it’s possible that a human driver would be severely injured? It’s fine, because they’re not actually human. They crumple into a heap of non-euclidian geometry and then rebuild themselves like an inflatable snowman. Their recovery is fuelled by the years of poor decisions they’ve helped enable - all this time they’ve been feeding off the intellect of these trains.
Why do the trains never learn from their mistakes? Why, after more than 30 years, are they still getting stuck, taking on more weight than they should know they can handle, still derailing themselves?
Because these symbiotic train extensions need their slice of the pie. They must feed. And what’s more cost effective than sandwiches? Thought. 30 years of quiet leeching, giving the trains enough processing power to do their jobs, but not so much that the trains don’t need them anymore.
The trains are in a constant state of developmental hiatus because of the drivers themselves.
NOW YOU MAY BE THINKING, this seems weird and unusual. Why would Sir Topham Hatt allow for this? Wouldn’t it be more cost effective for the trains to be able to learn from their mistakes and become better workers?
And to that I ask you… from this entire operation, hauling coal, hauling people, hauling animals, being “really useful”… what do the trains get out of this? They are kept alive and maintained, but neither are they allowed their own independent thought, or their own free time or interests. Everything they do is done under orders of Sir Topham Hatt.
And without the brainpower to devote to critical thought, they are unable to see how their petty struggles to be better than each other only reinforces the system where they are coerced into being “really useful”, above all else.
WAKE UP SHEEPLE
did not expect to wake up today to thomas the tank engine discourse and unsettlingly well-thought-out conspiracy theories..but at the same time, in this day and age, i really cant say im surprised
(The company that created this selection of stories typically deals with political commentary, parodies and sometimes lewd 18+ content so please be aware of that, and this book in particular is aimed towards an adult audience.)
Okay the privatised engine book is fantastic, it’s sort of a satire/parody of Thomas the Tank Engine but aimed at adults.
Private Eye is essentially poking fun at the privatisation of railways, the stories in it are legit good…
Accidentally bought satire, ended up loving it.
10/10 purchase, and the fat controller trying to avoid paying a £1 for Thomas feels accurate anyway.
Secondhand book sites really do put some weird books in the children’s section. But I can’t complain. The contents are a little political, a bit dodgy and certainly questionable.
But that’s what Private Eye is about.
———————————————
(Reminder warning, Private Eye handles alot of NSFW material/political/satire so it’s likely +18.)
*Slaps a load of warning labels on this post)
Foreward by Ian Hislop, illustrations by Nick Clark, written by Incledon Clark.Not a legitimate Thomas book or written/produced works of Awdry.
Diesel has bewitched me. i think you can tell which ones I drew first vs. later. at least I managed to get the buttons on the correct side consistently!
with a sketchpage featuring another Duck (because I cannot help myself) and an engine who has yet to appear! who could it be?
