Troublesome Trucks

The **Troublesome Trucks** are pieces of rolling stock that are nicknamed so because they can be very troublesome, and love to play tricks on the engines.

## Open Wagons

**Open Wagons** are the most common **Troublesome Trucks**. They can be seen working in most places on the North Western Railway. They carry a variety of loads, including crates, stone, slate and coal. Plank trucks are the most common type of open wagon trucks.

There are also narrow gauge open wagon counterparts on the Skarloey Railway and Mid-Sodor Railway.

### Basis

Plank trucks are based on 5 and 7-plank open wagons. The smaller trucks are based on the narrow gauge Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway open wagon, scaled up accordingly. The slate trucks are based on the 2-bar wooden slate wagons of the Talyllyn Railway.

### Livery

The plank trucks are painted in a number of different liveries, from red, green, brown and grey. Typically, Private Owner plank wagons had their own liveries in great multitude. Although, they are predominantly painted grey.

## Vans

The **Vans** carry goods and freight on the North Western Railway. There are several types of anthropomorphic vans featured throughout the series.

### Livery

The vans were painted primarily in grey, brown or cream.

## Tankers

The **Tankers** are used to carry a variety of liquids. Most of the tankers in the series do not have faces. The only types to be seen with faces are the standard tankers, tar tankers, milk tankers, fuel tankers and oil tankers.

### Livery

The Oil Tankers and Tar Tankers are painted black, with “OIL” and “TAR” respectively painted in white lettering on their sides. The Milk Tankers are painted white with "TIDMOUTH MILK" in blue lettering. Fuel tankers are painted yellow with red warning signs and “SODOR FUEL” painted black lettering.

## Brake Vans

**Brake Vans** are railway carriages from which the train's brakes can be controlled by the guards.

In the series, only two troublesome brake vans have being seen with one briefly appearing in the second season episode, A Close Shave and the other being The Spiteful Brake Van, appearing in the episode Break Van.

### Basis

The brake van that appeared in the series is based on a BR Standard 20 Ton Brake Van. The other brake van is an NER 20 Ton Brake Van.

### Livery

Brake vans are commonly painted grey. Some are painted brown.

## Personalities

Every wise engine knows trucks cannot be trusted. On railway networks in Great Britain and Sodor, trucks could be considered the rebels and the troublemakers of all rolling stock on the railway, as most of them love to cause trouble and show no remorse for whatever damage they do unless they are told off by their engine or controller that knows how to handle them. If an engine is having a bad day, makes a mistake, or is naive and easily played upon, the trucks begin their wild antics of singing, name-calling, holding back, shoving, bumping, giggling, teasing and so on. They will play tricks on an engine based on how they treat them. They are known to be the cause of many accidents and some of them are a form of revenge due to mistreatment. They are not known for their common sense; they will carry out their plans to pay back an engine or cause trouble out of boredom even if they result in derailing, damaging or in some instances, destroying themselves. Very rarely do they behave, if they ever do. They have also sometimes caused accidents without meaning too as shown in Haunted Henry where they unwittingly cause an accident after getting spooked by what they thought was a ghost.

Trucks can also be described as territorial; when they get used to certain engines pulling them, another engine in the yard to take them may cause confusion or anger for the trucks. For example, there was an occasion when Toby and Percy switched jobs, making Toby's trucks furious and causing Percy to crash. In another instance, when Oliver was to work with certain trucks, they refused for him to take them and demanded Duck or Donald or Douglas instead.

To the trucks, one engine is as good as another, as on one occasion they took their anger out on Thomas when they could not get back at James for bumping them. Another occasion was when Toby was pushed by the trucks when he took them instead of Mavis, the latter of whom had asked them to push her at the level crossing, but the trucks decided to bump him anyway.

Trucks are also shown to be somewhat manipulative and can take advantage of other engines that do not know much about them. This was shown when they tricked Bill and Ben by telling them where to put them when they said they wanted to help, only to end up causing delays when the trucks ended up all over the sidings in messy situations, making the twins late to fetch Gordon's coaches.

The only engines the trucks are known not to play tricks on are Edward, Stepney, Salty and Murdoch, as well as Toby and Mavis from the fifth season onwards. These engines have their ways of necessary sternness and knowledge of how to properly discipline them when they misbehave and only bump them when they deserve it. Conversely, Diesel believed that the only way to get the trucks to behave was by using violence, but this only made them behave worse, leading him to have to be taught by Murdoch how to deal with the trucks' antics. Salty's way of handling trucks is singing musical tunes for them to sing along to, so as to keep their minds off of misbehaving. Additionally, the trucks are hesitant to play tricks on Peter Sam due to his friendly nature, though some once crashed into him on the Incline when they mistook him for Sir Handel, who often bumps them regardless whether or not they behave.

They are also afraid of Donald and Douglas after the latter crushed the Spiteful Brake Van to pieces and Oliver, since he pulled a privately owned truck called S.C.Ruffey - who was also their leader - apart. Although they were all accidents, the trucks were never told that and since these incidents, they always keep in mind never to play tricks on those engines.

There have, however, been some cases where the trucks and engines are on the same side, such as when Diesel was given a third chance on Sodor, but the trucks tricked him into misbehaving and getting sent away again. They also asked Percy to help move them away from Bulstrode, only to end up in his hull and damage him, resulting in him being sent to Bluff’s Cove’s beach. The trucks are also capable of realizing when they have gone too far, as they never seem to want to harm any passengers.

## Appearances

### Season 1

* Thomas and Gordon *(cameos)*
* Edward and Gordon
* Edward, Gordon and Henry *(cameos)*
* Thomas and the Trucks
* Thomas and the Breakdown Train
* James and the Coaches *(do not speak)*
* Troublesome Trucks
* James and the Express *(do not speak)*
* Thomas, Terence and the Snow *(cameos)*
* Percy Runs Away
* Thomas Saves the Day *(mentioned)*
* The Flying Kipper
* Thomas in Trouble *(do not speak)*
* Dirty Objects
* Off the Rails *(do not speak)*
* The Trouble with Mud *(do not speak)*
* Down the Mine *(do not speak)*

### Season 2

* Thomas, Percy and the Coal
* Cows
* Old Iron *(cameos)*
* Duck Takes Charge *(cameos)*
* Percy and Harold
* Percy Takes the Plunge
* Pop Goes the Diesel
* Dirty Work
* A Close Shave
* Break Van
* Percy's Predicament
* Woolly Bear *(cameos)*
* Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree *(cameos)*

### Season 3

* Gordon and the Famous Visitor
* Diesel Does it Again
* Trust Thomas
* No Joke for James *(do not speak)*
* Mavis
* Toby's Tightrope
* Oliver Owns Up
* Toad Stands By
* Percy, James and the Fruitful Day *(do not speak)*

### Season 4

* Trucks
* Special Funnel *(mentioned)*
* Mavis and the Lorry *(do not speak)*
* Special Attraction

### Season 5

* James and the Trouble with Trees
* Put Upon Percy
* A Surprise for Percy
* Busy Going Backwards
* Heroes
* Haunted Henry
* Duncan Gets Spooked
* Snow

### Season 6

* The World’s Strongest Engine
* Salty's Secret
* Harvey to the Rescue
* Percy's Chocolate Crunch
* Edward the Very Useful Engine

### Season 7

* Emily’s New Coaches
* The Spotless Record
* Something Fishy

### Season 8

* Emily's New Route
* Thomas and the Firework Display

### Season 9

* Molly and Neville
* Hector the Horrid
* Don’t Be Silly, Billy

### Season 10

* Tickled Pink
* Charlie in Deep Water *(cameos)*
* James the Rubbish Engine

### Season 11

* King of the Railway
* Bill or Ben? *(cameos)*
* Not Now, Charlie! *(cameos)*
* The Smelly Kipper
* No More Mr. Nice Engine

### Season 12

* Tale of the Brave
* Missing Gator
* Thomas the Quarry Engine

### Season 13

* Who's Geoffrey?
* The Truth About Toby *(cameos)*
* Salty All At Sea
* Den and Dart
* Diesel's Ghostly Christmas *(cameos)*
* The Other Side of the Mountain

### Season 14

* Henry Gets the Express
* Bradford the Brake Van
* Henry in the Dark *(cameos)*

### Season 15

* Philip’s Number
* Daisy’s Perfect Christmas

## Trivia

* The Troublesome Trucks are the first official antagonists to be introduced in the entire series.
* Trucks are usually unnamed; however, those that are privately owned tend to take on the name of their owner, like S.C. Ruffey. Hector is an exception to this, being the only truck with his own name.