Robbery

**Robbery** is the fourth episode of the fourth season of the Stories of Sodor and the fifty-fourth episode overall.

Robbery/Transcript

## Plot

One of the guests who visited Devil's Back Station on the Culdee Fell Railway the day it offered its services to Royalty Trekking was a writer from a popular magazine. She wrote a review about her experience, which led to a sudden increase in tourism. Most of the tourists went to Peel Godred, adding onto the already heavy traffic goods and passenger traffic for the four engines working the Branch. Other engines had to come and help, but it was negatively affecting their performances elsewhere. Sir Topham Hatt arranged for another engine to be brought in to help, and one came in record time.

On the day the new engine arrived at Killdane, Arthur is surprised by this newcomer, especially due to the fact that he's from Australia. The new engine was part of an international relief force that was sent to Europe after the war to help with reconstruction and after a few years of working on Mainland Europe, he was sent to Britain where he has worked ever since. The engine doesn't prefer the attention and likes working better. Arthur had been ready to take the Afternoon Flyer to Peel Godred but he needed to wait for one of his colleagues to come help but he was delayed. The engine immediately offers to help and they set off.

At Peel Godred, a young boy named Dennis walks onto the tracks and Paul shouts at him to clear off, but Dennis continues to walk onto the tracks, which annoys Paul (who thinks Dennis can't understand English). Hurricane then reminds Dennis the dangers running around the yard brings to him and threatens to tell his grandfather if he does so again. Dennis then walks away. Presently, the new engine arrives, remarking how Paul sounds as mad as a cut snake (very angry), to Paul's surprise. He introduces himself as Cuthbert and Arthur, behind him, makes introductions. Cuthbert remarks how great the branch line is, calling it a "ripper". He says he uses Australian slang as a habit and promises to stop if it gets annoying. Paul then tells Hurricane he needs to get his train ready, but he says he already has his stopping goods train to Barrow-in-Furness ready. Hurricane has to leave, despite the train not being on the schedule. Arthur has to pick up a load from the steel mill, so Cuthbert offers to take the train. Since the train is to go to Knapford Harbour, he could get a chance to see more of Sodor. Paul happily accepts Cuthbert's offer.

One night, Geoffrey is taking a post train but he is forced to stop upon seeing some pipes on the line just after the Ballahoo Tunnel. Suddenly, four men emerge from a bush nearby and try to open up one of the vans. At that moment, the guard comes out of the brake van and notices them. The four men charge towards him, but he shoots at them, scaring them away. At Elsbridge, Geoffrey told Percy about the incident. The police held him up at Lower Knapford but they were more concerned about the guard's gun more than anything else. Geoffrey's guard was robbed the month before, so he felt safer with a weapon. Percy remarks how lucky it was and Geoffrey agrees, since it could be very easy and simple to rob a post train. Percy hopes security will be added on these runs. Geoffrey guesses the thieves would have been thrilled by the chance to pull off a heist and must be furious by their failure.

Afterwards, the four thieves had a conversation where they decided to rob a bank. A week later, they broke into a bank at Brendam, stealing 20,000£ worth of cash and other valuables. The police quickly locked down ports, airfields and stations. Practically every item and person were searched, which caused lots of problems and delays. No breaks in the case happened throughout several days and the police began searching for the stolen items in such places such as beehives and other absurd places.

At Barrow, Adam questions how the cash could be found in a box of fish. Cuthbert sees this as reasonable as no matter how stupid a criminal is, they always have an escape plan and the four thieves have probably already gotten away. Cuthbert remarks how Australia was found by convicts and he had settled with some of them back there, remarking it is enough to make one spew, which Adam translates as sick. Adam reveals that he and the 110th Platoon had met lots of Australians during the war and had gotten used to their dialect. Cuthbert remarks how famous the platoon was throughout Africa and Europe. He had delivered trains throughout the reconstruction and his favourite task was demolishing concentration camps, including Bulbrick, which  the 110th Platoon had raided and after they tore it down, it was turned into a nature reserve. He thanks the platoon, dubbing them heroes. Just then, Sheffield arrives and barks at the three engines to get their trains ready, to their annoyance.

At Peel Godred, a stationmaster tries to talk a workman into doing a task with the stolen money, reminding him that her mother needs her medicine. The stationmaster tells him to go to West of Killdane on the upline after the Flying Kipper has past at 10:20 at night, fifteen minutes before the next train. The workman, Joe, agrees to do this. Unbeknownst to them, Dennis, the young boy, had overheard their conversation.

That night, James leaves Knapford with the Flying Kipper. Henry tells Samantha that James is taking the Kipper instead of him because he lost a bet. The bet was that Australian soldiers were nicknamed diggers, which James didn't believe, and he was wrong, so he had to take the Kipper for a week, which Henry thanks Cuthbert for. Suddenly, the two engines hear an owl hoot. Henry tells Samantha that when an owl hoots, a mist will roll in. Just then, Henry's train is ready to go and he sets off, with Samantha advising him to be careful.

At Peel Godred, the four engines talk about the fog. Paul has arrived to inform Cuthbert that he won't have to do the job he volunteered to do since Dispatch has announced to cancel trains. Cuthbert resents this, as he has an important delivery. He then tells them about the time he had to deliver winter clothes to a Polish village that was cut off by snow. By the time he got to the village, a third of the locals had frozen to death. Cuthbert still says he has to take it, which Paul accepts, since not all trains were cancelled and the train had been cleared for departure, so he departs.

West of Killdane, Joe has arrived and walks up to an electronic signal, malfunctioning it and making it go red. He gets down and suddenly notices an old man, startling him. The fogman, Old Bailey, tells Joe his grandson had told about about the conversation the workman and stationmaster had, which his grandson had overheard. Joe tells Old Bailey to keep his mouth shut and two men get into a fist-fight. At that moment, Henry had been approaching the scene. He stops just as Old Bailey knocks Joe down. Two police officers get out of Henry's cab and walk over to the knocked out workman. Old Bailey tells Henry about what happened and tells the officers he will report the crime. With his work done, Old Bailey leaves.

The next morning, the police put the Killdane stationmaster in handcuffs and take him to prison. Joey says he does not know if this is related to the bank robbery. He also tells Paul and Arthur that Old Bailey is being currently questioned and could be charged with assault. Just then, Samson arrives. He had returned from Barrow and from what Sheffield had told Lenny, one of their trains has gone missing, which is the one that Cuthbert had taken the night before. Joey realises who Cuthbert is and demands to know where the big red engine is.

Cuthbert is on the old Springfield Branch Line and delivered his train. Two men congratulate him and their business is concluded, naming the engine Mr. Cuba. The engine tells the men to call him "Johnny".

The rest of the engines had learnt about Cuthbert's true identity and his crimes, leaving them in complete shock. Jonny Cuba was a notorious gangster who was involved in dozens of worldwide felonies. He stole trains on behalf of black marketers, mobsters and mafias to resell the cargo. He was a high suspect of the Criminal Underworld due to his success and uncanny evasion. After Jonny Cuba robbed Sodor, he vanished. The authorities tried to find him, but to no avail.  This would not be the last the engines of Sodor would see of the gangster…

As for the two railwaymen, Joe testified that he was tasked to trying to sabotage the signal to buy time for Cuba to escape while Ed had brokered the deal. He gave up the names of the men who hired him, allowing the police to round up the entire crew and retrieve the stolen property. A month later, the bank thieves were arrested. They had fled Sodor on the night of their robbery and were found drunk and passed out in a barn on the outskirts of Barrow with the cash that wasn't yet spent. The four criminals were given long times in prison. Edward admits he often uses this story to tell to others that crime never pays, though it already answers for itself.

## Characters

* Henry
* Percy
* Diesel
* Adam
* Joey
* Geoffrey
* Samantha
* Samson
* Hurricane
* Paul
* Arthur
* Sheffield
* Jonny Cuba
* Old Bailey
* Edward *(narration only; does not speak)*
* James *(does not speak)*
* The Fat Controller *(does not speak)*
* Lenny *(does not speak)*
* Gordon *(cameo)*
* Donald *(cameo)*
* Eric *(cameo)*
* Trevor *(cameo)*
* Eliza *(cameo)*
* George *(cameo)*
* Bertie *(cameo)*
* Harry *(cameo)*

## Trivia

* This entire episode is a reimagining of the classic TUGS episode "High Winds" although only really in the sense of introducing Jonny Cuba and both iterations being Australian despite being named after Cuba.
* Multiple differences between the episodes exist, most notably that TUGS Jonny Cuba blackmailed just Zebedee (whose equivalent in Stories of Sodor would be the deceased Lily) whereas Jonny Cuba from Stories of Sodor tricked the whole island. Other major differences include their motivations in the episode (TUGS Jonny Cuba wanting to meet with Captain Zero for some unspecified illicit dealing whereas Stories of Sodor Jonny Cuba wanted to steal goods) and the fact that TUGS Jonny Cuba was captured at the end of his episode whereas this version escaped.
* This episode was originally supposed to be called Heist, and then Imposter, but was renamed. The former was probably changed due to heist implying it was much more violent than it actually was in the episode (which amounted to taking the goods on a train and never delivering it to the proper destination) and the latter to hide the Jonny Cuba reveal.
* Victor has stated this episode was the most difficult to create.