Down the Mine

**Down the Mine** is the twenty-ninth episode of the first season. It is based on the story of the same name from the eighth Railway Series book, Gordon the Big Engine.

## Plot

One day while Thomas is waiting at Lower Tidmouth, Gordon pulls in with some trucks after recently causing trouble by falling into a ditch which made him disgraceful. As soon as Gordon stops, Thomas jokes about him smelling of ditch water. Before Gordon can respond, Thomas leaves with his coaches.

Annie and Clarabel are shocked at Thomas' rudeness and scold him for it, but Thomas does not care. He is pleased with his clever joke though and heads off to collect trucks at the lead mines, leaving his coaches still in shock. The mine was made a long time ago by miners who dug tunnels under the ground to look for lead. The tunnels' roofs are strong enough to hold up the weight of trucks, but not engines. At the points, there is a "Danger" board warning engines not to enter the area.

Thomas has often tried to pass the board, but has always failed. This time however, he has made a plan. When his fireman leaves the cab to change the points, Thomas bumps the trucks hard and knocks his driver off the footplate allowing him to pass the board. Then he moves over the unsafe rails, which collapse and leave him lodged in a small chasm feeling very silly.

Then the Fat Director arrives, having seen everything. Thomas is in tears and begs for help. After telling Thomas off for his naughtiness, he begins to think about how to get Thomas out. A crane would be too heavy for the ground to support, so he decides to call in Gordon to pull Thomas out. Thomas feels uneasy about this, given how much he laughed at Gordon for his own accident.

Shortly after hearing about Thomas' situation after, Gordon heads to the rescue laughing. Arriving at the scene with a winch attached to his buffer beam, Gordon promises to have Thomas out in no time. A long cable is fastened between them and after a lot of hard work and pulling, Gordon manages to finally free Thomas from the chasm. Thomas apologises to Gordon for his cheekiness earlier. Gordon accepts Thomas' apology but admits to him that hearing of the accident made him laugh. Now both engines are in disgrace, so they agree to form an alliance and help each other in the future. With that, the two engines are coupled together and head back to the sheds.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Gordon
* Annie and Clarabel
* The Fat Director
* Troublesome Trucks *(do not speak)*

## Locations

* Lower Tidmouth
* Knapford
	+ Yards
* The Lead Mines

## Trivia

* The events of this episode directly continue into the next episode, Paint Pots and Queens. The events of this episode are later mentioned by Thomas in the second season episode, Percy Takes the Plunge. Furthermore, there is a full-on flashback to this episode in Blue Mountain Mystery.
* According to Britt Allcroft, this episode and the third season episode, All at Sea are her favourites.
* This episode marks the first time a danger sign is used. Coincidentally, the one shown in this episode would later appear in the second season episode Percy Takes the Plunge, where Thomas references the events of this episode.
* This episode is based on a real event that took place at Lindal-in-Furness in 1892. Though in this particular event, the collapsing mine hole was so deep all that was recovered of the Furness Railway engine, number 115, was its tender.