Diesel and the Billboard

**Diesel and the Billboard** is the first episode of the twelfth series.

## Plot

It was Knapford Station's birthday, and all of the engines were preparing for the festivities. A photographer came to take a photo of the engines to put up a billboard at Knapford. Diesel was the proudest of all; he had never been shown on a billboard before. To fit all of the engines into the photo, the photographer asked D199 to move back, Dennis to move forward and told Thomas to move forward, but Thomas accidentally obscured Diesel. However, no one was aware of this. Nether were Diesel or Thomas.

Later, Diesel went to Maron to collect the billboard to bring to Knapford and was very upset to find that he was out of the photograph. On his way to Knapford, Diesel thought Thomas obscured him on purpose. He was so distracted that he barely noticed a cow up ahead. He swerved into a siding at the last minute, he hit some buffers and knocked the billboard into a nearby river. Diesel went back to Maron to explain to the photographer what had happened. The photo's results were not correct anyway, so the photographer didn’t mind and told Diesel to collect the engines again. Diesel was about to go when he saw Thomas approaching. Diesel refused to tell Diesel about the new photo, as he didn’t want Thomas to spoil this photo too.

Soon, all of the engines were back at the sheds, except Thomas. Diesel 10, D199 and Daisy were worried, as they had jobs to do, but Diesel sure that he would be quick to fetch the photographer. On the way to Maron, Diesel saw Thomas, who was heading straight for the sheds. Diesel was worried, as Thomas would find out about the photo, so he took a branch line back to Tidmouth. The engines were very cross when Diesel told them to come back later, not knowing that it was just an excuse so Thomas wouldn’t see them. They have soon left, just as Thomas puffed past.

Later, the engines were back at the sheds, and Diesel went back to Maron to fetch the photographer. As the photographer climbed into Diesel's cab, Diesel saw Thomas coming. Worried that Thomas would see the photographer, he blows a lot of black smoke to cover up the station, and Thomas chuffed past, but the camera was now dirty. The photographer had to let the camera dry, so Diesel told the engines to come back later.

Soon, the engines all came back, but they still hadn’t done their jobs. As the photographer was getting ready, nobody, except Diesel, noticed that Thomas wasn’t there. Just then, Thomas, who was doing Daisy, D199 and Diesel 10’s jobs, came around a bend, to find all of the engines, ready to take another photograph for the new billboard. He stopped so hard that the bunting fell off one of his trucks. Thomas was cross, as nobody had told him about the new photograph. The photographer was confused as he had told Diesel to tell everybody, including Thomas. All of the engines looked at Diesel knowing that he was the culprit, making him feel terrible. Just then, the Fat Controller arrived, and started telling off Diesel 10, Daisy and D199 for not doing their work and explained that Thomas had to do their jobs, and because of that, he was now late with his own work.

This made Diesel feel worse than ever, and he owned up that he didn’t tell Thomas about the photograph because Thomas had obscured him earlier, which he believed was on purpose. Thomas objected that the photographer had told him to move. The photographer realized what he did and explained that Thomas might have rolled too far. Diesel knew then that he had made a mistake, he apologized to Thomas for accusing him and the Fat Controller for all the trouble. Everything was soon rectified, and the engines lined up to take the photo, this time with Thomas not covering up Diesel. After the photo was taken, Diesel agreed to do Thomas' work, while Thomas took the new billboard to Knapford.

That evening, Thomas picked up the new billboard and takes it to the festivities at Knapford. The party was a great success as Thomas and Diesel agreed that the new billboard at Knapford was the best billboard they had ever seen.

## Characters

* Diesel
* Diesel 10
* Diesel 199
* Daisy
* Thomas
* Sir Topham Hatt
* The Photographer
* Dennis (*does not speak*)
* Sodor Brass Band (*do not speak*)
* Mr. Giggles (*does not speak*)
* BoCo (*cameo*)
* Class 40 (*cameo*)
* Salty (*cameo*)
* Cyril the Fogman (*cameo*)
* Sir Topham Hatt's Assistants (*cameos*)
* The Ginger-haired Boy (*cameo*)
* The Blond-haired Boy (*cameo*)
* The Schoolchildren (*cameos*)
* The Welsh Bird Watcher (*cameo*)
* The Female Puppet Show Entertainer (*cameo*)

## Trivia

* This episode has a similarly to the first episode, Thomas and the Billboard from the twelfth series of *Thomas & Friends*.
	+ This is also the second episode where Thomas and Diesel's roles are reversed as the original episode. The first being the ninth series episode, Flour Power.
* This episode marks Salty’s only appearance in the twelfth series. And his last appearance in the model series.
* When all the engines look at Diesel after Thomas said he wasn’t included in the photograph, all were cross with the exception of Daisy, who feels sorry for him. But this was not mentioned in the narration.