Thomas and the Special Letter

**Thomas and the Special Letter** is the twentieth episode of the fourth season and the 103rd episode overall. It is based on the story The Fat Controller's Engines from the twelfth Railway Series book The Eight Famous Engines.

## Plot

After taking his last train of the day, Thomas meets up with Percy and Toby and it turns out that all three engines have been asked to report to the Tidmouth Sheds after the day's work is done. Thomas thinks something is happening and is surprised to see BoCo, Mavis, Oliver, Donald, Douglas, Bill and Ben all travel past, also heading for the sheds; Thomas, Percy and Toby are now very curious and follow the others.

At Tidmouth Sheds, the Fat Controller silences his engines whistling excitedly to tell them he recently received a letter from a little girl who lives in a London, on the Mainland. She writes that she and her friends would like to meet Thomas and his friends and invites them to their local station. The Fat Controller tells the engines that a lot of children would like to meet them, so he will be taking his eight main engines to London and putting them on display. The Fat Controller's engines blow their whistles excitedly again, prompting the Fat Controller to command silence again and he states that while the eight engines are gone, the rest will all be running the railway and asks to show them what to do.

Oliver is due to take charge of Thomas' Branch Line and Thomas shows him what to do using some other coaches, as Annie and Clarabel will be going with Thomas to the city. Thomas gets overexcited and boasts about his race with Bertie to Oliver. But when he tries to demonstrate how he stopped just short of the buffers, he accidentally smashes through them and a fence, rolls down a slope and crashes through a brick wall, much to Oliver's surprise. No one is hurt, but Thomas' front end is badly damaged from the impact. The Fat Controller is called and sends some workmen to repair Thomas, but warns them that, unless he can be repaired in time, they will have to go to the city without him. While the other engines see Thomas being rescued, he is very sad and worried that he will miss out on the trip.

The next morning at 8:00 AM, the other engines are all ready to leave (with Percy and Toby traveling on flatbeds) but there is still no sign of Thomas yet. The Fat Controller agrees to wait one more minute for Thomas before they must leave. Finally repaired, Thomas puffs in just in time with Annie and Clarabel and the cavalcade of engines leave for their trip to London. After having arrived at the city safely, the engines and coaches are lined up in a special shed, where many children come to meet them. Thomas tells Percy how glad he is that the little girl wrote to the Fat Controller, citing that pure happiness can come from nothing more than a letter.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Edward
* Henry
* Gordon
* James
* Percy
* Toby
* Duck
* Douglas
* Annie and Clarabel
* The Fat Controller
* Donald *(does not speak)*
* Oliver *(does not speak)*
* Bill and Ben *(do not speak)*
* Jinty *(does not speak)*
* BoCo *(does not speak)*
* Mavis *(does not speak)*
* Henrietta *(cameo)*
* Bertie *(mentioned)*

## Locations

* Elsbridge
* Tidmouth Sheds
* Knapford Yards
* Ffarquhar
* Sir Topham Hatt's Office
* Vicarstown
* London
* Hackenbeck Tunnel *(mentioned)*

## Trivia

* This is the first episode where the North Western Railway engines numbered 1-18 have appeared and/or spoken all together in an episode.
* The city is name-dropped in the Sodor Stories version of the episode, as London, similar to the original book. This is different to the official TV Series episode, where Britt Allcroft changed it to just “The Big City”.
* The dialogue in the opening scene at Elsbridge was rearranged, so that Percy is questioning “how can something be up when it’s down” instead of Toby. It just feels more believable for Percy to misunderstand what Thomas said that the much older and much wiser Toby.
* Thomas' accident is similar to a crash when an LB&SCR E4 0-6-2T tank engine No. 32493 also crashed into a wall, but the tank engine ran off from the turntable and crashed into the wall at Southern Region sheds.

## References to Other Stories

* Thomas talks to Jinty that he had a race with Bertie.
* A picture of Duke from Bulldog can be seen in Sir Topham Hatt's office.