Granpuff

**Granpuff** is the first episode of the fourth season and the 84th episode overall. It is based on the story of the same name from the twenty-fifth Railway Series book, Duke the Lost Engine.

## Plot

On one cold wintery night on the Island of Sodor, the howling wind keeps the engines in the shed awake. Edward decides that what the engines need is to listen to a mysterious story, albeit with a happy ending. Thomas then tells the others a story his driver had told him recently:

In the story Thomas tells, there were three engines who lived on their own railway called the Mid-Sodor. Their engines were named Duke, Stuart, Falcon and Freddie. Duke was the oldest of the four and had been named after the Duke of Sodor. Duke felt very proud of this and decided it was his responsibility to keep the younger engines in order. While other engines came and went, Duke outlasted all of them. Stuart and Falcon gave Duke the nickname "Granpuff" and were very fond of him, but did sometimes tire of hearing about His Grace and would occasionally tease him.

Duke soon warned Stuart and Falcon one day that if they did not behave, they would end up like Smudger; Duke told them that Smudger was a conceited and careless engine, who ran roughly and often derailed, spilling his loads. Duke tried to warn him, but Smudger simply did not care and laughed at Duke. However, he stopped laughing one day when the manager told him they were going to make him useful at last. From then on, the only running Smudger did was as a generator behind the shed. He was never able to move again.

Stuart and Falcon began behaving better and all three remained friends for many years. However, this all came to an end one day when their railway closed down. As a result, the engines were all put up for sale. Stuart, Falcon and Freddie were bought, but no one wanted to buy an old engine like Duke. Stuart and Falcon promised Duke that they would find another railway for him to run on.

Duke's crew oiled and greased him one last time, put tarpaulins on him and bid him a final goodbye as they locked him in his shed and left to find new jobs. Duke went to sleep, waiting for the day he would be able to run again. As time went by, torrents of rain washed soil down from the mountains and trees and hedges grew over the shed. Nobody would know that a small shed was there, nor an engine asleep inside it.

Percy is disappointed and tells Thomas that his story does not have a happy ending. Thomas assures Percy that there is one, but it will have to wait for another night.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Edward
* Percy
* Duck
* Duke
* Smudger
* Falcon
* Stuart
* Henry *(cameo)*
* Gordon *(cameo)*
* Freddie *(does not speak)*
* Mid-Sodor Railway Manager *(does not speak)*

## Locations

* Tidmouth Sheds
* Arlesdale
	+ Arlesdale Shed
	+ Arlesdale Mines
* River Arle
* Cas-ny-Hawin
* Ulfstead Road
* Ballamoddey
* The Mountain Road

## Trivia

* Duke's nickname "Granpuff" originated from Wilbert Awdry's nickname given to him by his grandchildren due to the smoke from his pipe looking like that of a steam engine.
* This marks the first appearance of the narrow gauge engines in the series (from Mid Sodor Railway (in the form of Duke, Peter Sam (as Stuart), and Sir Handel (as Falcon).
* The story of Smudger converted into a generator comes from the real-life event when Ffestiniog locomotive Palmerston was spared as a stationary boiler up until 1993.