The New Crane

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**The New Crane...**is the sixth episode of the first season of BE87's Shorts.

## Characters

* Narrator
* Sir Topham Hatt
* Lady Hatt (**Debut**)
* Ten Cents
* Hercules
* Cranky
* Thomas
* Percy
* Top Hat
* Lorry (non-speaking cameo, not named)
* Mattel (mentioned)
* Pipsqueak (**Debut**)
* Salty
* Murdoch
* Douglas
* Henry (non-speaking cameo, not named)
* James (non-speaking cameo, not named)

## Locations

* Hatt Manor
* Brendam Docks
* Thomas' Branchline (mentioned)

## Plotline

The episode begins at Hatt Manor, where Sir Topham Hatt prepares to wolf down a jelly-filled doughnut. However, Lady Hatt catches him with the pastry and confiscates it. She complains that her husband is overweight to the point of emptying out the pantry, and decides to put him on a diet. Mortified and distraught, Sir Topham Hatt announced that he's filing for divorce and runs off.

Over at Brendam Docks, the engines and Star Fleet are busy working on a surprisingly smooth work schedule. They are highly content with how the day is going, while Top Hat and Hercules hope that Sir Topham Hatt will come and congratulate them on how efficiently their working. However, the mood is soon soured when the Fat Controller storms in to the harbor, still furious over his wife's actions. He overlooks how smooth the schedule is going and accuses the machines of barely working at all. Completely frustrated, he makes an irrational decision to buy another crane to make the harbor "more busy and lively." The other machines are confused by this decision, as the harbor runs smoothly enough. Meanwhile, Cranky is anxious that this "new crane" might actually replace him; though Hercules tries to reassure the crew that Sir Topham Hatt will change his mind and apologize to them once he takes some time to calm down.

However, Hercules is quickly proven wrong as the Fat Controller has a large yellow crane installed right in the center of the tracks shortly after. Cranky and the Star Fleet are completely dumbfounded by the whole situation, as not only has new crane been completely silent since its arrival, but its positioning ends up blocking the line, making it almost impossible for the engines to navigate through the docks.

Percy offers to go talk to Sir Topham Hatt about moving the new arrival, but the latter doesn't completely understand the problem, saying that the engines could just go around the crane. Percy begs him to reconsider, as the crane is just standing there and slowing down the work flow. Sir Topham Hatt reluctantly agrees to move it, apologizing for thinking so carelessly earlier.

However, the Fat Controller makes an even more careless decision and places the new crane in the middle of ocean instead. Still frustrated by the arrival's presence, Cranky and Top Hat complain about its continuing refusal to speak to them. Ten Cents tries to reason with them, suggesting that the new crane might just be shy; though Cranky counter-argues that it could be ignoring them. Top Hat tries to test for deafness, but mistake-ably performs a blind test by raising his non-existent fingers, which Thomas scoffs at. However, Cranky eventually writes all of the options off and decides that the new crane if merely "pointless, and adds nothing to this railway," which Top Hatt believes Cranky placed before on Twitter.

All of a sudden, the new crane slowly turns around and reveals his face. He slowly wakes up, revealing that he had been napping the entire time. He introduces himself, ironically enough, as Pipsqueak, and offers to get started on work by lifting an exceptionally large crate. While everyone initially has their doubts, they become amazed as they watch Pipsqueak lift the crate over a nearby barge with ease; something that even Cranky has never been capable of.

Impressed, the engines and the Star Fleet happily welcome Pipsqueak to the dockside team. He decides to show his new friends a trick, actually picking Cranky up by his base and lifting the smaller crane up in the air. While the others laugh in amusement, Cranky reluctantly welcomes Pipsqueak right before the larger crane accidentally drops him, ending the episode.

## Trivia

* This is the first episode to use the BE87 Shorts intro, and includes stock footage from "Who Killed Gordon", "Get Lost Thomas!", "The Lost Tape Pt. 1", "Thomas Meets Top Hat and Hercules", "The Replacement", and "Vehicle Couplings". Each following short intro contains footage from every video prior.
* Since the introduction of Lady Hatt in this episode, clay figures have appeared in the shorts. Lady Hatt's model has been reused as the Queen of Who-Gives-A-Crap-Land, and other random female figures.
* This episode also begins with the running gag of Topham being put on a diet and threatening to divorce Lady Hatt.
* When Pipsqueak reveals his face, Big Mickey's reveal, in the Season 21 episode "New Crane on the Dock", is played, sound effects and all.
* Top Hat speculates that Pipsqueak's name is either Big Boy, Ginormous, or Brad. Two of these names reference American steam locos, with Big Boy being the nickname for the UP 4000 class engines, and Brad being an American designed tank engine (Southern Railway's USA S100, to be exact), made popular by the SiF team.
* The Breakdown Train rescue theme from Season 1 of the TTTE series is used when Pipsqueak lifts the very large package.
* In the scene just before Pipsqueak proves his strength, a slight and subtle bit of foreshadowing towards "RIP Cranky" is given, wherein Murdoch states that "Not even Cranky can lift that crate without straining". Ten Cents also makes a reference to this fact as well, stating "Not even Cranky can lift that big of a load". In the following Short, Cranky tries to lift the crate, but his arm breaks off, and he almost plunges straight off the set.