Carriages

**Carriages** is the twelfth episode of the first season of the Stories of Sodor and the twelfth episode overall.

Carriages/Transcript

## Plot

The episode begins with Edward explaining that if a railway didn't have rolling stock, it probably couldn't or wouldn't exist. Similar to locomotives, rolling stock can be faceless or non-faceless. Since non-faceless trucks can apply their own brakes, engines put one of them at the front of their trains to make them safer. On the standard gauge lines, trucks make up the vast majority of non-faceless rolling stock. While Annie and Clarabel were at this time the only non-faceless standard gauge coaches, ones on the narrow gauge Skarloey and Mid-Sodor Railways were much more common.

At Arlesburgh, Eric is talking to one of the Mid Sodor Railway Coaches about the new song, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", and Duke explains to Eric that the best way to service passengers is through tolerance. Eric says he's never taken a passenger train before but has wanted to. Douglas assures Eric that he would be good with passenger trains. Douglas departs for Brendam and on his way out, meets up with James, and the two get into an argument. Duke is surprised Eric doesn't know about the rivalry between James and Douglas and explains the petty backstory between the two. Eric remarks, "That's not petty, Duke. That's just pathetic." Presently, Andreas arrives to get ready for his express run. He takes his coaches to the platform and waits for James to arrive, being three minutes late and irritated from arguing with Douglas.

Andreas soon departs to Arlesdale. On his way there, one of the coaches, Rebecca, yells out in pain because one of the passengers put out his cigarette in one of her chairs. Soon, Andreas arrives at Arlesdale and his passengers disembark. Rebecca points to a man in a black coat. Andreas informs the man about what he did and wants the man to apologise to Rebecca immediately. The man blatantly refuses to, so Andreas hisses steam at him.

It turns out that the man Andreas had doused was none other than Burke, as in, Burke and Blair. Burke complained to the MSR's Director who put Andreas on indefinite goods work. Burke and Blair then managed to manipulate the LNER's board into launching an investigation into its operations on Sodor. Inspectors began crawling about Sodor, questioning the engines about every single train they had ever taken and tabulated any losses that were incurred. This meant that Toby's unauthorised overhaul was determined to be a big loss to the company's finances, greatly imperiling Mr. Star's position.

In Knapford yards, Thomas, Percy, and Edward are talking when Percy questions what was Burke even doing on the Mid Sodor Railway in the first place. One of the trucks nearby, Rodney, tells them that a couple of weeks earlier, he was alone at a siding near Knapford minding his own business when he heard Burke talking to a woman, although he apparently forgot he is married, at least while he's on Sodor. Thomas thinks it's a good idea, but Edward doesn't think so because they can't prove the information and if they do blackmail Burke, they're admitting guilt when they've done nothing wrong. Edward leaves and sternly orders Thomas not to get any other ideas.

However, they didn't need to say anything about it. Rodney couldn't stay quiet and kept blabbing about Burke's encounter every chance he got. The rumours then found their way back to the inspectors and the press. With Burke's character being thrown into question, the integrity of the board's investigation was compromised. While Mr. Star was still issued a light reprimand, he still maintained his position as the Nor'easter's director. Not long afterwards, the inspectors left, as did Burke and Blair. Burke had hit the skits after a nasty divorce with his wife and they never really knew what happened to Blair.

Edward then explains that, despite Rodney's behavior and their depictions in the books and TV Series, trucks aren't actually troublesome. While up to this point in Edward's stories, they have teased engines, but that's only as serious as it got. Non-faceless rolling stock can apply their own brakes, and that's all they can do. They have never, at any point in time, been fitted with the means of propulsion, which means they obviously can't bump engines, although they wouldn't if they could, because rolling stock, compared to engines, are more likely to be destroyed in a crash. However, like all stereotypes, they come from the actions of a disagreeable minority, one example of one of the worst offenders at this time was a vain brake van named Dominic. He bitterly complained about being underappreciated and would take out his frustration on any engine who was paired with him, by not completely releasing his brakes, forcing the engine to pull their train at a crawl. One day, he and Douglas got into a vicious row. After that, Dominic took a dislike to Douglas and kept giving him grief whenever he took him out. When Douglas had to deliver a vital shipment of coal to Brendam, Dominic made Douglas arrive late, and Douglas was blamed.

Donald couldn't stand his twin being blamed and tried to talk sense into Dominic by biffing him. However, Mickey arrives and scolds Donald for assaulting Dominic. Charges were filed and Donald was shunted for two weeks. Mickey and Dominic had a long talk afterwards, and the brake van behaved better after that.

One day, James had to deliver a shipment of coal to the mainland with Dominic as his brake van. James wasn't feeling too well and struggled along the Mainline. He was exhausted by the time he reached Wellsworth. Luckily, Douglas was there. James pleads Douglas to help him up the hill and Douglas does so. As he buffers up to Dominic, the brake van assures him they won't have any problems. The two engines start off towards Gordon's Hill, but when they started climbing, James was losing steam, so Douglas had to do most of the work. Dominic is starting to break apart from being squished between Douglas and the trucks. Douglas tells Dominic he'll be fine, but then he crushes Dominic, killing him.

Joey and Mickey were called to investigate the scene and ordered James and Douglas to wait at Maron until they were done. Soon, Joey and Mickey have completed their investigation. The latter tells James he will run at the rear of his train while Joey and Douglas stay behind because the former needs to ask Douglas some questions about Dominic. While Douglas was exonerated, a number of Dominic's friends still chastised him, calling him a murderer and worse. Though most of his trucks and his colleagues were very supportive, Douglas was for the longest time, troubled by the grief of destroying Dominic. Perhaps it was a good thing... only a monster wouldn't feel guilty.

## Appearances

* Thomas
* Edward
* James
* Percy
* Eric
* Donald and Douglas
* Mickey
* Joey
* Duke
* Atlas
* Andreas
* Burke and Blair
* Dominick *(death)*
* Rodney
* Henry *(does not speak)*
* Gordon *(does not speak)*
* Annie and Clarabel *(do not speak)*
* Trucks *(do not speak)*
* Mr. Zorro *(does not speak)*
* Sir Handel Brown *(does not speak)*
* Diesel *(cameo)*
* Colin *(cameo)*
* Lily *(cameo)*
* Adam *(cameo)*
* Peter *(cameo)*
* Reginald *(cameo)*
* Kate *(cameo)*
* Falcon *(cameo)*
* Arthur (Original) *(mentioned)*
* Burke's Wife *(mentioned)*

## Trivia

* Donald, Douglas, and Dominick's story were based on the episode Brake Van.