Diesel 199 the Second Best

**Diesel 199 the Second Best** is the fourteenth and final episode of the tenth series.

## Plot

One morning, the Fat Controller came to Tidmouth Sheds with a photographer, declaring there would be a railway poster, and he needed an engine to be on it. D199 was confident that he would be on the poster, as he was a splendid engine, but the Fat Controller chose BoCo, who was delighted. D199 couldn’t believe it, so while the photographer prepared his camera, D199 pulled in front of BoCo. The Fat Controller then sternly ordered D199 to leave the sheds, who unhappily did so.

Later, the posters of BoCo were put up all over the island. D199 was upset, wondering why BoCo was chosen instead of him. Class 40, Dennis and Diesel said that it was because BoCo was always gentle with his trucks, doesn’t mind doing dirty jobs, and was always on time. This made D199 cross, and he decided that he would try to do all those things as well to prove he was just as good as BoCo.

At the coaling plant the following morning, Diesel and BoCo were shunting coal trucks. BoCo did his shunting very gently, and when DS 199 arrived, he did the same thing. Diesel stated that BoCo had already finished and set off to deliver his coal, but D199 still wanted to be just as good as BoCo, so he rushed off to deliver his coal. All day, D199 delivered coal, and at the end of his job, he was very filthy. At Maron, D199 told Class 40 that he could get just as dirty as BoCo, and felt that he was just as good as him.

Later, D199 was being cleaned before his passenger train, but it took a very long time to clean him. Dennis cheekily told D199 that he was late, and that BoCo was always on time. D199 decided to take Diesel 10's express track instead of the branch line, and therefore, he would collect his passengers before BoCo, and he would be good enough to be the poster engine.

D199 rolled off to collect his passengers, and he switched onto the express track, racing as fast as he could to get ahead of BoCo. When D199 finally switched back onto the branch line, he was indeed ahead of BoCo, but at that moment, the signal turned to red. D199 managed to stop, but BoCo couldn’t stop in time and he biffed into the back of D199, accidentally pushing him straight into one of the posters. BoCo apologized for being unable to stop, but D199 owned up and admited it was his fault for pushing in. Diesel rolled up on the track below and saw D199; his face was sticking out of the poster where BoCo’s face would be. Diesel cheekily laughed that D199 was finally on a poster, and that maybe he was good enough after all. But D199 didn’t feel good and felt very silly.

Soon, the Fat Controller arrived onboard Daisy, who sternly told D199 that his racing around the island had caused confusion and delay. Worse still, BoCo’s piston cylinder has been damaged from the crash, meaning he couldn’t take the children to the seaside. Seeing the children sad that they couldn’t ride on the poster engine, D199 felt even worse. To make up for his accident, D199 offered to be BoCo’s back engine so he could still take the children, which the Fat Controller happily agreed.

D199 set off, pushing BoCo and his coaches along towards the seaside. At Bluff's Cove, they stopped to collect more passengers. The children cheered to see BoCo, and they also cheered to see D199 as being a grand and kind engine. D199 felt proud and more useful than ever, and BoCo remarked that the only thing more special than being the poster engine was being really useful.

## Characters

* Diesel
* BoCo
* Class 40
* Diesel 199
* Dennis
* Sir Topham Hatt
* Daisy (*does not speak*)
* Express Coaches (*do not speak*)
* The Photographer (*does not speak*)
* Stephen Hatt (*cameo*)
* Bridget Hatt (*cameo*)
* Refreshment Lady (*cameo*)
* The Storyteller (*cameo*)
* Diesel 10 (*mentioned*)

## Trivia

* This episode has a similarly to the twenty-seventh episode, James the Second Best from the tenth series of *Thomas & Friends*.