The Sad Story of Henry

**The Sad Story of Henry** is the third episode of the first season. It is based on the story of the same name from the first Railway Series book, The Three Railway Engines.

## Plot

It is a very rainy day on Sodor and a big green engine named Henry is pulling a passenger train. He runs into a tunnel and stops there, not wanting to go any further. Henry's driver and fireman argue with him, but he refuses to come out, reasoning that the rain will spoil his green paint with red stripes. The guard tries blowing his whistle and waving his flag, but Henry instead blows steam at him.

Just then, another passenger train arrives and on board is the railway director Sir Topham Hatt, better known as the Fat Director. He decides that Henry will be pulled out of the tunnel. Attaching a rope to Henry, all the passengers try and pull him except for the Fat Director, citing it as his doctor's orders. When Henry does not move, the passengers move to the other end of the tunnel and then they try to push Henry out, again without the Fat Director's help, but with the same results.

The passengers point out to Henry that the rain has stopped, but Henry still refuses to move, believing that the rain will start again. Another engine arrives to help and tries to push Henry out, but even with this engine pushing, Henry remains in the tunnel. Finally, the Fat Director also admits defeat and having had enough of Henry's stubbornness, he tells him that he will left there for always and always (or least until he is ready to come out again). Soon the rails are taken up and a brick wall is erected in front of Henry to keep him in the tunnel and prevent any other engines from bumping into him.

Now Henry can only sit and watch the other engines passing through the next tunnel. He soon regrets his actions as he sees Edward and Gordon pass by. Edward always toots hello with his whistle, while Gordon always laughs at Henry, saying it serves him right. Henry has no steam to response because his fire had gone out. Despite that the rain would have ruined his paint, tunnel roof soot and dirt has spoiled it anyway. Henry is left alone cold, dirty, very sad, and wondering if he will ever be let out to pull trains again. But that is another story.

## Characters

* Edward
* Henry
* Gordon
* The Fat Director
* Eagle *(does not speak)*
* Green Express Coaches

## Locations

* Henry's Tunnel
* The Pond Runby

## Trivia

* The event was later mentioned by Percy in the second season episode, Percy Takes the Plunge, James in the fourth season episode, Henry and the Elephant and Gordon in the fourteenth season episode, Henry in the Dark.
* This is the first episode with several things:
	+ The first episode where the narrator breaks the fourth wall as he addresses the viewers in regards to the lesson of the story. He does this again in Thomas and the Trucks.
	+ The first episode to feature just one location as a central part of its narrative (not counting the Pond Runby).
	+ This episode is Henry's first speaking role, and first leading role in the series.
* This episode has been heavily criticised due to the Fat Director's apparent cruelty for supposedly having Henry bricked up in the tunnel permanently. It also once appeared in the Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish Series 5, where Gorman mocked the ending.