Eric and the Signal

Rafael G. Hamilton

May 31, 1997 (PR)

July 21, 1997 (US/CAN; DVD)

July 26, 1997 (PR; DVD)

July 30, 1997 (UK)

July 31, 1997 (UK; VHS)

September 26, 1997 (AUS/NZ)

September 30, 1997 (AUS/NZ; VHS)

December 12, 2000 (JPN)

December 16, 2000 (JPN; VHS)

**Eric and the Signal** is the first episode of the First Season of Pride of the Southern Pacific. A new small switcher named Eric becomes Mr. Hunter’s new recruit. However, he tricks the bigger engines, only to get into trouble.

## Plot

One day, Daniel E. Hunter, the Yardmaster of Los Angeles Yard, tells a story about his grandfather running the same yard he runs.

It was the 1950s, and Los Angeles was one of the busiest railroad cities in the United States. Mr. Hunter, who was the Yardmaster for the SP Los Angeles Yard, has ten engines. Those were: Four Mixed-Traffic locomotives which were Addison and Mark, two GS-6 locomotives, Vince, a 2-8-2 “Mikado” and Nathan, a 4-6-2 “Pacific”. A Express Locomotive, named Christopher (or Chris for short), a Southern Pacific GS-1. Elizabeth and Grayson, two express diesels that pull the Sunset Limited together to New Orleans. A cheeky switcher locomotive named Frank. And two freight locomotives whose names are Hudson, a 4-10-2, and George, a 4-8-8-2 AC-12 “Cab-Forward”. They were a good team, but they couldn’t agree on everything but still proud of their work.

It was morning, and the engines had their first big break. During the briefing at the roundhouse, Mr. Hunter says he has ordered a new yard switcher named Eric. Eric is a small switcher locomotive that is used for yard switching and short freight trains. Then, the engines get assigned to their jobs, where they get to take their trains.

Mr. Hunter also introduces the Union Pacific, whose yard was run by Mr. Wilson, and they were still rivals at the time. Mr Wilson then gives a briefing to his own locomotives at their roundhouse.

One morning, he gets Addison’s train ready, but as Addison departed, she decoupled from her train. They keep on going until Addison and her driver notice that their train hasn’t coupled, they go back and couple up. Addison tries to insult Eric but she keeps getting cut off by her driver pulling the whistle.

Next, Eric fools Nathan by telling the latter that Mr. Hunter has given him a day-off, which Nathan falls for. Because of this, Vince has to pull a heavy freight train for Nathan, much to his dismay. After Mr. Hunter returns from breakfast from South Pasadena, California, he is shocked to see Nathan sitting in the roundhouse all by himself. He then spoke severely to both Eric and Nathan after Nathan told him what happened.

That isn’t all, it was Mark’s turn. When he attempts to depart at Glendale after Elizabeth and Grayson pass, Eric couples up to the back of his train and starts going the opposite direction as Mark. Mark has a hard time going forward, but he finally makes it and finds out that Eric was pranking him. Finally, he pranks Chris by giving him old coal hoppers instead of his express coaches. He finds out later.

Later that night, Mark, Addison, Chris and Nathan were discussing about how to get back at Eric. They come up with an idea where they claim that there are new “reversing signals” on the Bakersfield Branch. They tell Eric, and he thinks he won’t fall for it.

One day, Eric has to take a small freight train to Bakersfield. When he sees a red signal, he starts reversing, but his driver tells him that all signals have the same meaning. Just before Eric can cover-up the incident, Mark is seen passing by with Iron Ore. Mark had seen everything.

The next night, the engines were laughing about Eric falling for the trick. Eric, who was watching from a distance, runs away and hides in the yards. Frank then gets concerned about his whereabouts and leaves to find him. He searches all around the yards for Eric, and comes across Hudson, who doesn’t know about the location of Eric.

The next morning, Eric is found, who crashed into a siding and ran into a ditch. He is then pulled out of the water by Frank, Nathan, Chris, Mark and Addison, who were all looking for him. Later, Mr. Hunter has told his engines that they have learned a lesson, Eric also has been repaired and has joined the Southern Pacific fleet.

## Characters

* Daniel Hunter
* Mr. Hunter
* Frank
* Nathan
* Mark
* Addison
* Chris
* George (cameo)
* Hudson
* Eric
* Mr. Wilson
* John
* Alan (cameo)
* Brandon
* Bernard (cameo)
* Fred
* Zachary (cameo)
* Ethan and Ernest (cameos)
* Geoff (not named, cameo)
* Jack (not named, cameo)
* Owen (not named, cameo)
* Albert (cameo)
* Brian (cameo)
* Sean (cameo)
* Westley (cameo in deleted scene)

## Locations

* Los Angeles
	+ Southern Pacific Roundhouse
	+ Union Pacific Roundhouse
	+ SP Los Angeles Yard
	+ UP Los Angeles Yard
	+ Fire Department
	+ Friedman’s
	+ Los Angeles Locomotive Works
	+ Los Angeles Coal Mine
* Bakersfield Branch
	+ Bakersfield
	+ Glendale
* South Pasadena (mentioned)