Woolly Bear

**Woolly Bear** is the twenty-eighth episode of the second season and the 58th episode overall. It is based on the story of the same name from the twenty-sixth Railway Series book, Tramway Engines.

## Plot

In summer, long hay grows beside the line and work gangers cut it and rake it into heaps to dry in the sun. Percy then collects the hay in empty trucks and takes them to the station. There, Toby collects the trucks and takes them for the farm animals in the hills.

One day, Percy arrives at the station and starts to tease Thomas for thinking he was a ghost. Thomas retorts that Percy is a "green caterpillar with red stripes", which makes Percy angry. Thomas then reminds Percy that he has been late at the station every afternoon throughout the week. Percy tells Thomas that it is the hay that is making him late, but Thomas is not interested in Percy's excuses and Percy leaves.

Percy grumbles to himself during the afternoon that he is only ever late by a few minutes, but nevertheless, he and his driver decide to head to the station early after going to the Docks to drop off some trucks. At the docks, however, there is trouble; a loose crate of treacle hanging over Percy drops and splatters all over him. The workmen at the harbour try to clean him up, but Percy has to leave and is still very sticky when he does.

Soon, Percy comes to the hill where the hay is laying, and by now it is very windy, which blows the hay up and onto the track. The line climbs here, so Percy's driver advises him to take a run at it. But Percy's wheels keep slipping on the hay and he must wait for the line to be cleared. While he does so, the wind blows some of the hay onto Percy and it clings to his sticky boiler.

At the station, Thomas waits impatiently for a very late Percy. Suddenly, all the passengers start laughing when Percy arrives, as he is now completely covered with hay, apologizing for his late arrival. Thomas laughs, saying Percy has crawled out of the hay. Percy does not know what Thomas is talking about, but Thomas tells him that seeing him like a hairy caterpillar is worth being late.

Percy runs back to the shed, where his driver shows him what he looks like in a mirror. Now Percy knows why everyone was laughing at him, stating that he looks like a woolly bear. He asks to be cleaned before Toby arrives, not knowing that Thomas has already told Toby everything.

In the end, it does not matter; when Toby and Thomas arrive, Percy is still a long way from being cleaned, causing the two to make jokes about woolly bear caterpillars and other creatures that crawl about in hay. Percy does not find these jokes very funny at all.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Percy
* Toby *(does not speak)*
* Annie and Clarabel *(cameos)*
* Troublesome Trucks *(cameos)*
* The Fat Director *(mentioned)*

## Locations

* Tidmouth
	+ Tidmouth Yards
* The Branch Line Cutting
* Suddery Castle
* Brendam Docks
* Suddery Hill
* Elsbridge
* Ffarquhar
	+ Ffarquhar Sheds

## Trivia

* Thomas calls Percy "a green caterpillar with red stripes" in this story. The line derives from a criticism Wilbert Awdry made towards C. Reginald Dalby's illustrations in the eleventh Railway Series book, Percy the Small Engine.