A Thomas Promise (magazine story)

**A Thomas Promise** is a magazine story illustrated using images from the *All Engines Go* series.

## Plot

Thomas is out playing a stacking game with Carly and Sandy, with Percy as a spectator. After beating his record and recovering his nearly fallen stack, Thomas gets his flatbed stolen by a newly arrived Diesel, who intends on beating Thomas and succeeds with help from Carly and Sandy. Severely annoyed by this, Thomas attempts to take back his flatbed, but neither he nor Diesel intend on letting go, and their couplings end up snapping, the force sending its load of sleepers flying into the air. They then fall as a cage around Percy, a house around Diesel, and a pile on Gordon's line, the latter of which forces him to jump, though it gets caught between his tender and cars and breaks his rear coupling. Sandy then inspects the cars, and Gordon reveals that before his coupling was broken, he was delivering a load of recyclables to Whiff's Recycling Plant. Feeling bad for the incident, Thomas promises to finish the delivery for Gordon, but the train is too heavy for him to pull alone. He ends up sharing half of the train with Diesel so that they could have a race, and wanting to see who wins, Sandy follows after them, with Carly and Percy close behind.

As the two make their way to the Recycling Plant, Thomas manages to beat Diesel to the Tunnel of Zoom. Sandy, Carly and Percy hear his whistle from the tunnel, and as Thomas exits, Diesel manages to overtake him, blinding him with smoke before switching the tracks to send him off course. As Carly, Percy and Sandy look for him, they see him in trouble; Diesel's switching had left him on a collision course with Kana. Forced to jump over her to avoid a crash, he ends up losing some items that fly over Sandy, Percy and Carly. Diesel chuckles about his advantage, but catching up behind him, Sandy tosses a traffic cone and hits a switch, sending Diesel down a different route. Thomas is then reloaded with his runaway items as he switches onto the right track, only for Diesel to switch himself onto the track next to him and race him towards the steep hill. Thomas proves to be carrying a lighter load, but Diesel, determined to win, transfers a heavy refrigerator from his train into Thomas', weighing down the tank engine and causing his cars to break away. Although Percy manages to avoid both the cars and Thomas, Carly accidentally switches them onto a track heading towards a mud pit, leading to both falling in and Thomas feeling dejected. As Carly winches him out, she, Percy and Sandy give him words of encouragement, and Thomas is back on his mission.

Thomas continues his way back up the hill, and determined to help him keep his ‘Thomas Promise’, Percy, Sandy and Carly all bank him up the slope. Making it to the top, Thomas spies Diesel waiting impatiently for a boat to pass through the open Quickdraw Bridge. Unfortunately, in his haste to win, Diesel is oblivious to his train losing it's contents. Seeing this, Thomas ultimately decides to stop and keep his promise to deliver *all* of Gordon's cargo. With the help of Percy, Carly and Sandy, Thomas picks up all of what Diesel leaves behind. Diesel ultimately beats the others to the Recycling Plant, but upon seeing Thomas's large load, is shocked to see his cars empty. The others eventually explain what happened, and as Gordon thanks Thomas, the little blue engine gives his gratitude to his friends, including a very surprised Diesel. Sandy later repairs Gordon's coupling, and as he sets off Thomas and Diesel begin another race, with Sandy, Percy and Carly not far behind to watch.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Gordon
* Percy
* Diesel
* Kana
* Carly
* Sandy
* Whiff (*story quiz only*)