Bulgy Rides Again

**Bulgy Rides Again** is the ninth episode of the seventh season and the 160th episode overall.

## Plot

Holidaymakers are coming to Sodor, but Thomas and Emily are at the Steamworks for maintenance and find that there are no other engines available during the summer holidays. When the Fat Controller needs to find a way to carry more passengers, Thomas says that this is "A double-decker problem” which gives the Fat Controller an idea; he goes to Bulgy, the double-decker bus, who is still a hen house after the accident with the bridge. The Fat Controller gives Bulgy another chance to be back on the road and Bulgy is delighted.

Bulgy arrives at the Cronk Garage, meeting Henry and Emily with their local trains, and tells them that he is going back on the road. When Emily thinks that he should help the Farmer McColl to deliver his vegetables around the island, Bulgy insists on taking passengers instead. After being repainted in the garage, his driver takes him back to his field, where his previous residents, the hens, think he looks splendid. While Bulgy is sleeping, the hens miss their home, and so, one by one, they creep aboard and sleep on his luggage racks.

The next day, Bulgy picks up some passengers at Tidmouth to take to Vicarstown, driving so smoothly that the hens do not wake up. Everything is going fine, until he has some trouble getting past Trevor. When Bulgy turns, he almost hits Tom Tipper’s Post Van and swerves, and suddenly loses control. It suddenly wakes up the hens, which frighten the passengers and cover them with feathers and eggs. The passengers are angry over this incident and want to complain to the Fat Controller. Bulgy tells them that it was not his fault, but they still did not believe him.

When Bulgy is sent to be cleaned, he is angry at both the hens and the passengers. Emily tells him that the farmer still needs help to sell his vegetables, for which Bulgy thinks being a vegetable bus is a good idea. Thomas then adds that he is now maintained, along with Emily, and are ready to carry passengers again. As a result, Bulgy is repainted green and turned into a mobile vegetable stand. Bulgy cannot be happier, as now he does not have to put up with hens or passengers.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Henry
* James
* Emily
* Bulgy
* The Fat Controller
* Trevor *(does not speak)*
* Gordon *(cameo)*
* Duck *(cameo)*
* Oliver *(cameo)*
* Peter Sam *(cameo)*

## Locations

* Bluff’s Cove
* Lakeside
* Henry’s Tunnel
* Sodor Steamworks
* Bulgy’s Bridge
* Cronk
* Cronk Repair Garage
* Tidmouth
* Elsbridge
* Lower Tidmouth
* Vicarstown *(mentioned)*

## Trivia

* This episode, the 160th episode of the series, is exactly 78 episodes after the third season episode, Bulgy, which was the 81st episode.
* This episode marks a few milestones for Bulgy:
	+ His only appearance in the seventh season.
	+ His first speaking appearance and speaking role, let alone starring role, since his introduction in the third season episode, Bulgy.
	+ His last speaking role and the last time he is referred to by name until the fifteenth season episode, Unscheduled Stops.

## References to Other Stories

* The narrator says that Bulgy was turned into a hen house in a flashback.