Branch Lines

Branch Lines is the fourth episode of the first season.

## Plot

Every day, Lucky takes a local train from Raleigh Union Station down a branch line that goes through the countryside. The other locomotives in the yard have only ever traveled on the main line, and, one day, when Lucky is about to leave with his train, James strikes up a conversation with him, asking him about the branch line and who lives there. Lucky tells James of some of the locomotives he has met there, but has to leave before he can finish his story. Intrigued, James wishes he could travel on the branch line.

A few days later, James is resting in a siding, waiting for his next train, when Yardmaster Calhoun comes up to him. He says that Lucky has been delayed and that his branch line train will have to be taken by James. James happily agrees. He is so excited, in fact, that he goes off before he is able to get all of the instructions from the yardmaster.

At the station, Frank helps James back down onto the passenger train. The passenger cars, however, are displeased at being hauled by a new locomotive, and initially act cold towards Frank in particular. The train sets off just as Lucky pulls into the station. Lucky calls to James, trying to remind him to leave one of the express cars in the train in a specific location, but James doesn't hear him, and Frank is too distracted by the cars to hear.

Down the line, James sees the countryside and is very pleased. He does not like having to stop at every station, but he enjoys meeting cars and trucks at several of the stations. At a large town, he stops and his driver and fireman go to converse with the conductor to figure out what to do with the express cars behind Frank. While they do this, a Utility Truck sitting next to the line says hello to Frank. Frank, never having met a utility truck before, asks the truck - named Patton - what his purpose is. Patton tells Frank he fixes telephone lines, and Frank is quite intrigued. Just then, however, his driver and fireman return. James then moves the two express cars in his train into the siding and sets off with his passenger cars.

At the end of the branch line, James backs into a station with his train. On the next track over, he sees an unusual locomotive. He says hello to the locomotive who introduces himself. His name is Ernest, and he is a diesel railcar who performs passenger services on the line. James, never having met a railcar before, says hello and the two chat about the branch line until Ernest has to leave.

Returning to Raleigh later the same day, James stops at the big town he had earlier. However, once there, the Freight Agent comes out and confronts James, asking him why he has left two express cars in the wrong place. James, surprised, says that he did not know where the express cars were supposed to go, since it is his first time taking the train. The agent, upset at the inconvenience, telephones to Raleigh to complain as James puts the cars in the correct place.

Later, returning to the roundhouse, Road Foreman McKenzie sees James and comes up to him. He asks James whether he had sufficient instruction in how to take the train, and James said he hadn't. The Foreman rushes off after asking James this, and James watches him go, realizing too late that he implied that Yardmaster Calhoun, who had given him the train, was at fault.