Thomas The Tank Engine - Ghost Train (Creepypasta Rewrite)

I can remember everything about this horrifying memory when I was little. It was 1986, and I was around 8 years old then, and I had a huge love for this one show about talking sentient steam engines. Everyone knows this show as, “Thomas The Tank Engine” or just now Thomas & Friends as it’s called by in recent years. It was a huge franchise in the U.K. Television and tons of people adored it, reading the books and whatnot. I mostly grew up with the Television adaptations and it has piqued my interest since it first released its first episode, including other kids my age. One specific episode I ended up seeing immediately made me not want to watch any other Thomas episodes due to how much it scared me as a kid. I never saw the full episode as I was too scared out of my mind to even continue on with it, so I’m not sure on how the rest of the episode played out.
It was the premiere of a new episode on 10 December 1986 titled, “Ghost Train”. It confused me a bit, given the release date, but who am I to complain? I thought whatever I was going to see that day, must be really good. I sat down by myself while my parents were in the kitchen, cooking some supper, as the intro ringed throughout my entire house. I bobbed my head to the theme song because in all honesty, It is really catchy and to some who have not heard it, I recommend you listen to it yourself. The episode opened up to what appeared to be a harbour, not at all like Brendam Docks which was a well-known location in the show. It seemed to be dark outside as the small ships were busy being loaded with crates. To accompany the scenery, there was no music at all, just the sound of boats and the sea, sloshing against the piers. The narrator explained, “A small branch line runs down to its only harbour, where it picks up visitors or carries goods that get shipped all over the world.” as the panned down the harbour, showing rather small ships compared to the ones you’d see in the backgrounds of Brendam Docks. 
It then slowly panned to show some old looking coaches by a platform, they were the same colours and looked like a typical express coach from the show, but they were more shaped like small branchline coaches, they were the same ones that engines would sometimes pull during the first season. The engine was then shown, and compared to the coaches, the engine didn’t seem recognizable from the show, nor did I recall him ever appearing in the show. “A couple engines worked on this line, one of them being a small saddle tank engine. His name was Timothy who was a kind hearted engine and meant well for the other engines.” The narrator explained, showing more of the engine than just the sideview. His face appeared wrinkled all over, obviously implying that he was a really old engine that worked on the line for so long. He didn’t have a visible number and the paint appeared to be a dull white colour, and it looked like it was starting to fade away. He had a bit of smudges all over the engine and it didn’t look like an actual Thomas character from the show itself. As I’m writing this, he almost resembled that orange tank engine named Billy from the show, the more I remembered, but it was more simple and boxy looking.
“This was going to be his last passenger train before the line closes down and Timothy wanted to plan something huge for the manager, including the visitors.” The narrator continued, showing the coaches once more as some of the passengers wave outside, albeit, not actually moving and just positioned to depict it since they were wooden models. They all had happy looking expressions, and they smiled with joy as the narrator commented on it. It then panned to Timothy’s cab as it showed Timothy’s driver hanging out. He spoke via the narrator, “All steam ahead, Timothy!” followed by the narrators, “Said the driver.” Then, it showed the front of Timothy again, and he looked back at his driver, replying, “Sure thing” The engine let out a small hiss as he slowly began to pull out of the platform with the sound of cheering from the passengers. 
The next scene showed Timothy running along the line like the world was about to end, speeding along with the clattering of the branch line coaches behind, the narrator remarking on how much Timothy loved to pull coaches filled with happy people onboard. It was all normal, showing more of the line Timothy was puffing on. Eventually, they were arriving at a station and it resembled Edward’s station from the show, or Wellsworth as the sign on the wall read. “Timothy was approaching the station at the end of the line as the passengers stood waving at the arrival. But then, there was trouble.” It panned to show Timothy’s inside the cab, his driver posing to be reaching for the brakes. But then shortly afterwards, cuts to their faces, and they were in shock. It cuts back at the station and shows Timothy and the coaches, rocketing past their destination and out of sight.
It was then where it started to get questionable, now with tension going on, and still no music playing in the background, it started to unnerve me a bit. I couldn’t tell what was about to happen, but it made me more intimidated and worried than it made me surprised. Timothy was still going fast with no signs of stopping, and the narrator explained, “Timothy’s brakes were faulty, and he couldn’t stop. He just kept going down the line.” It then showed his driver again, leaning out of the cab and exclaiming, “Timothy, what are you doing? we just passed the station.” in a confused yet scared tone of voice by the narrator. No form of response could be heard from Timothy to his driver. He didn’t even say anything at all… It felt like he was going faster and faster, but yet at the same time, he wasn’t.
To my horror, I watched as the scene showed the viaduct, but compared to the ones seen in the other episodes, it wasn’t finished being constructed and signs were seen on the tracks, warning not to pass. It was now already clear where this was going, and I kept trying to convince myself that it was going to be alright despite being extremely sceptical. It made me even more scared than I already was. “Timothy, stop! We’re getting way too close to the viaduct!” His driver shouted in horror, still by the narrator whose tone started to send shivers down my spine. Again, no response from Timothy as they were getting closer and closer to the viaduct. I had a feeling that I should turn off the TV, but I stayed glued to the floor, my eyes still locking onto the screen of the television. 
The passengers were shown, and they all had an expression of horror on their faces as they realised they passed the station and the engine was going way too fast. It showed a side view of Timothy’s boiler as he finally spoke after a bit. He said in a soft spoken tone by the narrator, “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” It then showed the viaduct again as sounds of Timothy’s puffing and clattering got louder and louder, showing Timothy and the coaches racing onto the viaduct, and went flying into the riverbed below as crashing sounds were now echoing throughout the living room. What made the scene worse was that the passengers screamed in agony as Timothy collided with one of the structures on the viaduct, and fell below with the coaches slamming into one another, being smashed and torn apart as they fell down with the engine. The sounds of agonising screams were not coming from the narrator, it sounded like actual people in pain. 
I couldn’t take it anymore, and I finally got up and ran to my room, keeping my eyes away from the TV as I stormed up the stairs. For a moment, I just sat in my room still hearing the screaming of the passengers even though my ears were covered, then it eventually went quiet. I kept my ears covered, not sure if the TV was still on or not, but I could care less or not. I just kept hearing the faint echoed screaming still ringing in my ears. My parents eventually came to check on me and asked me what had happened. My voice was still kinda shaky from what I saw, but I briefly explained to them what I had seen, they too seemed to be surprised. They knew that Thomas was a show tons of kids adored, and it was almost unbelievable that they would air something like that on TV, and for the rest of the day, I just sat in my room sobbing my eyes out in fear, I didn’t even know what to think.
My parents still let me watch the show even after the whole ordeal, trying to convince me that it was probably never going to be shown again. I still chose not to watch it for a long time because I couldn’t get over what I witnessed. I couldn’t even walk into the living room when Thomas The Tank Engine was on, fearing the episode might play again despite my parents telling me otherwise. I even went as far as to go through my backyard and around the house to go to school because of it. Eventually, I seemed to have forgotten about that incident and started to slowly forget Thomas The Tank Engine existed, not like I cared around then, I was starting to go to middle school anyway’s, so I chose to act my age and watch action shows like what all the other kids watched, and it stayed like that for a while.
It was recently I remembered the show again, and I wanted to binge watch all of the episodes like I used to as a kid. I had a fun trip down memory lane, until I saw the title card of the viaduct with the title reading “Ghost Train”. That same damn episode I saw when I was 8 years old. Memories about it were flooding back to me and it made me cringe at the sight of seeing that episode again, and I looked away for a moment, I looked back at the image embedded with the episode and something was different about it, the viaduct was fully constructed with breakdown cranes, and the scenery was all foggy looking.
This looked different, and all of a sudden, I was somehow no longer afraid of it, now curious than ever, I decided to click on it. Low and behold, the episode began, but it was really different compared to what I saw when I was 8. The beginning was heavily different from what I’ve seen, though I couldn't comment about the rest of the episode since I refused to watch the rest. The episode began on the same scene of the viaduct with breakdown cranes, the viaduct again, was fully constructed. It played some spooky music in the background and it showed an engine rolling along the viaduct as the narrator explained, “And every year, on the date of the accident, it runs again as a warning to others, plunging into the gap, shrieking like a lost soul!” as the engine was shown to run down the line.
The rest of the episode was just about Thomas and Toby, not believing in his friend Percy after telling the story. Later in the story, he hits a cartload of lime which makes him covered in white powder, appearing like a ghost. This prompts Percy into playing a trick on Thomas which works perfectly. The episode ends with Percy and Toby the next morning chuckling as he makes Thomas leave again in terror. I was confused mostly at the beginning of the episode, it didn’t start the same way it did when it first premiered, so what gives? I guess the more obvious answer was that it also scared kids as well, which probably had to have been omitted later or, or this some kind of addition to the story they wanted to do which I found out later, in the book series, it never shows it. What made it strange is that no one online, or in its community don’t even recall that opening in the episode.
I can’t tell if I was imagining that part of the episode or not, it has been a while since, but it definitely didn’t feel like some kind of nightmare, nor my imagination. I feel like I’m going crazy telling my story, and I have no way of proving its existence. I had a question about it, like what did that Timothy character mean by, “I’m sorry”? Was the accident really done intentionally by him? If so, what was his goal he attempted to achieve? Why would he even kill the passengers and himself? I had plenty of answers that made sense to me and why, however, there was one question that remained in my mind, and I still can’t seem to find an answer to: 
“Why the hell on earth would they even make it to begin with?”
Original Creepypasta by: Anonymous
Rewritten by: GWR And PRR Productions 2008
Category:Retake
Category:Remake
Category:Lost Episodes
Category:Thomas & Friends
Category:VHS
Category:1980s
Category:Preschool shows
Category:Kids shows