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The Adventure Continues is a special episode running for approximately forty-five minutes and is an adaption of the second three books of The Railway Series, which were previously adapted for the first series in 1984. It was made to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the franchise.

Plot[]

A long time ago, there was a little railway known as The North Western. Edward is a blue engine who shunts coaches for Gordon the Express Engine, Henry the Green Engine and James the Red Engine. There was also a little engine named Thomas.

Thomas the Tank Engine is enjoying his new life running the branch line, of which he is very proud and considers the most important part of the railway. His two coaches, Annie and Clarabel, agree with him. Thomas loves them both very much, although they are both old and need new paint. When taking trains, Annie can only take passengers. But Clarabel takes passengers, luggage and the guard. Thomas and his coaches often sing to each other while taking trains and journeys often proceed smoothly. Annie and Clarabel know how important pleasing Sir Topham Hatt is to Thomas and whenever he is angry, he is not angry at them.

Apparently, life has been harder at the yard since Thomas left to run his branch line. With no tank engine to shunt or fetch coaches for them, Henry, James, and Gordon must shunt in the sidings and fetch their own coaches which soon makes them very cross, causing Sir Topham Hatt a great deal of trouble. In addition, while Thomas, being a tank engine, does not need a turntable, the larger tender engines do, as it's dangerous for them to go fast backwards.

One day when Thomas met Terence plowing the field, he meets him. Winter came with dark clouds full of snow, Thomas damaged his snowplow and then he ran into a snow drift and Terrence pulled him out.

When Gordon arrives at the junction, a group of boys joke around and taunt him by calling him a tank engine. Thomas, who is waiting at the junction, laughs and suggests that Gordon should "scrap his tender and get a nice bunker." James flies by with his train and laughs as well. Gordon warns James that he may also stick on the turntable, but he claims that he won't because he's "not so fat as him." When Thomas is ready to race with Bertie, he races against him and then finally, he wins.

He stops at Elsbridge Station. Thomas impatiently waits at the station for Henry who is running late so he can pick up passengers. James has recovered from his accident and now has a new coat of red paint. He starts learning how to pull passenger trains with Edward. At the platform, he accidentally showers water over Sir Topham's nice new top-hat and then, afraid of the consequences, starts off suddenly.

Eventually Henry feebly arrives, complaining that his system is out of order. As far as Thomas is concerned, Henry's only problem is his own laziness. Thomas, desperate to leave, dashes out of the station as soon as the guard blows the whistle. But Thomas goes so fast he does not give the guard time to get aboard, leaving him behind. The guard waves his red flag, but it is no use and Thomas is well on his way and out of the station. During James and Edward's run, James almost forgets to drop off his passengers and to top everything off he disturbs an old lady with his hiccups after remembering about the horrible time when James crashed. James is scared of what Sir Topham Hatt will say.

Thomas sings to his coaches as usual, but Clarabel does not sing as she is crying that her guard has been left behind. Annie tries to tell Thomas that they have not got a guard aboard, but Thomas is in too big of a hurry and does not listen. The two coaches try to apply their brakes, but they cannot without a guard. Luckily, Thomas stops when he reaches a red signal. He and his crew wait for the guard to find out what is the matter, but of course, he was left behind and only Annie and Clarabel know that and they were crying "We've left him behind!" over and over again. Soon the passengers notice the guard running down the tracks, trying to catch up to Thomas. He was very hot, so he has a drink to cool down and tells everyone what happened. Thomas apologizes for the incident, but the guard assures Thomas it was not his fault. The signal drops and Thomas and his crew proceed the trip. With the guard back aboard, both Thomas and his coaches feel reinvigorated and manage to reach the end of the line in record time. Thomas was at the site of the river fishing, later, steam hissed from the safety value in the alarming way and Sir Topham Hatt arrived at Ffarquhar and they had a picnic super of fish and chips and fished out of Thomas' boiler.

That night, Sir Topham Hatt visits James in the shed and severely warns him that if he can't behave, then James will be punished by being painted blue. James hates the idea of losing his red coat. The next morning, rather than calming down, James gets very angry and takes it out on the coaches while bringing them to the station. He grumbles about having to fetch them on his own, unlike Gordon. To make matters worse, none of the passengers dare go near James, which makes him even more angry.

One windy afternoon after lamenting to Thomas about the recent work, Gordon arrives at the other end of the line with his train and heads for the turntable. The turntable is by the sea, so the wind is very strong and unless an engine is perfectly balanced on the turntable, it becomes difficult to turn. Gordon is in a bad mood and is unable to get perfectly balanced, and neither his driver nor fireman can get him to cooperate. After trying again and again, they give up and he is forced to pull his next train tender first.

James pulls the coaches very roughly and runs too fast for comfort. Eventually, the coaches force James to stop. His driver explains that James' rough treatment has caused a leak in a coach's brake pipe. The crew inspects the damage and the guard's one and only recommendation are to plug the leak with newspaper and a leather bootlace. However, none of the crew have a leather boot lace on them. The guard asks the passengers to step out of the train to see if any had a leather bootlace and soon finds a man with one, who initially refuses to give it up. The guard explains that without the boot lace, the train cannot continue. The other passengers get very angry, both at the railway and at the man. Under pressure, the man finally hands over the boot lace and the damage is temporarily repaired allowing James to finish the journey.

James, sadder and wiser from the experience, carefully proceed on his way, knowing that he is going to be in a lot of trouble with Sir Topham Hatt and takes care to never bump coaches again.

One day, after being in the shed for serval days, James was alone in the shed and Sir Topham Hatt told him he needs to pull the Troublesome Trucks, he felt much better. Thomas gave him the trucks and James angrily puffed away with the trucks. When they reached Gordon's hill, the coupling came loose and one of the trucks ran down the hill. Edward gives James the trucks back and he doesn't need a push. Sir Topham Hatt is pleased that James pulled the trucks and he deserves to keep his red coat. When James takes the Express since Gordon can’t do it, Gordon got switched on the main line and onto the loop.

That night in Tidmouth Sheds, Gordon, James and Henry were upset because they think everyone laughs at them. That's when Gordon got an idea: going on strike. When the big engines went on strike, they refuse to get their coaches and so Edward is brought in to shunt for them. However, poor Edward is met with hostility and so Sir Topham Hatt buys a gray saddle tank engine, which he christens Percy. The big engines still refuse to shunt and fetch their coaches, so Sir Topham Hatt shuts them up in the sheds and brings Thomas to work with Edward on the main line while Percy runs Thomas' Branch Line.

After several days in the sheds for being naughty, the big engines finally see sense and agree to get their coaches ready, so Sir Topham Hatt lets Thomas, Edward and Percy play on the branch line. Thomas takes Annie and Clarabel for a run and Edward takes some trucks to the quarry, leaving Percy alone. He strays onto the points, and Gordon scares him when he rushes into the junction. Percy flees, and eventually, exhausted, runs in a sandbank. Gordon later commends him for preventing an accident and Percy becomes the brand new station pilot at Tidmouth.

Characters[]

Characters Introduced[]

Cast[]

UK[]

  • John Hasler as Thomas
  • Rowan Atkinson as Edward
  • Pierce Brosnan as Henry
  • Neil Crone as Gordon
  • Rob Rackstraw as James
  • Nigel Pilkington as Percy
  • Keith Wickham as Glynn, Bertie and Sir Topham Hatt
  • Christopher Ragland as the Troublesome Trucks
  • Lucy Montgomery as the Troublesome Trucks and a Lady
  • Kerry Shale as the Troublesome Trucks
  • Teresa Gallagher as Judy, Annie and Clarabel
  • Tim Whitnall as Jerome
  • Tom Stourton as Terence
  • James Corden as Jinty and the Narrator
  • Matt Wilkinson as Pug

US[]

Transcript[]

Trivia[]

  • This special marked the first of a few things:
    • The first appearance of Jinty and Pug.
    • The first appearance of the Wellsworth & Suddery tank engines.
    • The first appearance of the Workshop Engines in the television series since Season 1.
  • This special marked the only occurrences of a couple of things:
    • The only special to date in where Donald, Douglas and Flying Scotsman do not appear.
  • Ryan and some humans appear, despite them not being introduced at the time.
  • This special is a follow-up to The Adventure Begins.
  • This special is an adaptation of the Railway Series books, James the Red Engine, Tank Engine Thomas Again and Troublesome Engines.
  • The events of the first series episodes James and the Coaches, Troublesome Trucks, James and the Express, Thomas and the Conductor, Terence the Tractor, Henry and the Elephant, Tenders and Turntables, Trouble in the Shed, Thomas Goes Fishing, Percy Runs Away and Thomas and Bertie are featured and remade.
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