The Railcar and the Coaches

"Well I've got good news and bad news. The good news is Daisy is gone back to her usual branch line, so she won't be taking you out today." "Oh, Thomas! That means..." You're back!" "Well, that's just it. The bad news is I'm still on quarry duty. The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt has sent a different engine to pull you two."

- Thomas, Annie and Clarabel

The Railcar and the Coaches, shorten to Railcar and the Coaches in one American release, is the thirteenth episode of the twentieth series.

Plot
One winter day, the Fat Controller puts Thomas on quarry duty and moves Daisy back to his branch line in his absence. As few passengers are now travelling to Harwick, Daisy is delighted and sets off the following morning. Upon meeting Annie and Clarabel at the carriage shed, she rudely tells them that they will not be needed, as the passengers will be travelling in her today. Thomas overhears Daisy insulting the coaches and warns her that she might need them. Daisy dismisses his claims, stating that she never needs to pull coaches and sets off to work, leaving Annie and Clarabel alone. The two attempt to pass the time by playing "I Spy", with, needless to say, little success.

Daisy goes about her work without fuss and her passengers are most impressed. That evening, she continues to insult Annie and Clarabel, calling them old-fashioned and out-of-date, since they cannot move on their own. The coaches are very offended by her insults as Daisy once again states that she will never pull coaches before leaving. However, Daisy ends up speaking too soon as the Fat Controller believes she will not mind taking Annie and Clarabel the next day so that she can take more passengers.

Daisy reluctantly collects the coaches the next morning, although she refuses to apologise. Unbeknownst to her, however, Annie and Clarabel have made a plan to pay Daisy out for her insults. As they travel along the branch line, they pretend that they can hear something wrong with Daisy, including rattling and creaking noises. They remark on how terrible the "noise" is, stating their surprise that the passengers have not complained and add that this noisy something is good for nothing but scrap.

Unfortunately, their plan works a little too well: Daisy is so mortified that, at Maithwaite Station, she orders all of her passengers off and out, and rushes away in panic to find out what the problem is, leaving Annie, Clarabel and the furious passengers stranded. Thomas passes by with his quarry trucks and asks what happened. Annie says Daisy had to speak to a professional. When Thomas asks what about, Clarabel says it was about Daisy's "highly sprung springs". Thomas goes to tell the Fat Controller that Daisy left her passengers behind. Annie and Clarabel cringe; they know what will happen if the Fat Controller finds out what they have been up to.

At Knapford Station, the Fat Controller and a mechanic look over Daisy and find her to be perfectly fine. Daisy, still in a state, insists that Annie and Clarabel told her there was definitely something wrong, even if she cannot hear anything. This leads her to think that she is going deaf, and she rushes off to the Dieselworks to see her fitter. Thomas arrives soon afterwards, and the Fat Controller asks what his coaches said to Daisy. Although unsure, Thomas explains that she has been rude to them since arriving and has abandoned them at Maithwaite.

It's late at night when Thomas finally arrives to collect Annie and Clarabel and has brought the Fat Controller with him. The Fat Controller is furious with the coaches, just as they predicted, and immediately reprimands them for their actions, telling them that just because Daisy insulted them, does not give them the right to be mean to her in return. The coaches, sadly realising that two wrongs don't make a right, apologise as Thomas takes them back to the carriage shed.

Annie and Clarabel decide to apologise to Daisy the next morning but are surprised when Thomas arrives. He explains that Daisy has returned to the Harwick Branch Line and will not be taking them today. Annie and Clarabel are delighted to have Thomas back... until Thomas points out that he is still on quarry duty and that the Fat Controller has assigned another engine to pull them in the meantime. Annie and Clarabel are horrified when they discover Diesel is the "other engine" the Fat Controller sent, as punishment for their actions. Diesel sarcastically greets the coaches as his driver couples him to them and he pulls them away laughing, to their horror.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Diesel
 * Daisy
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * The Bird Watcher
 * Henry
 * Emily
 * The Teacher
 * The Blond-haired Boy
 * Albert's Wife
 * The Female Puppet Show Entertainer
 * Daisy's Fitter

Locations

 * Arlesburgh West
 * Arlesburgh Harbour
 * Harwick
 * Knapford
 * Knapford Station Yard
 * Annie and Clarabel's Shed
 * Dryaw
 * Dryaw Airfield
 * Dryaw FC
 * Maithwaite
 * The Windmill
 * Vicarstown Dieselworks
 * Ffarquhar Quarry

UK

 * John Hasler as Thomas
 * Kerry Shale as Diesel
 * Tracy-Ann Oberman as Daisy
 * Teresa Gallagher as Annie, Clarabel and a Passenger
 * Keith Wickham as The Fat Controller, the Bird Watcher and a Passenger

US

 * Joseph May as Thomas
 * Kerry Shale as Diesel
 * Tracy-Ann Oberman as Daisy
 * Teresa Gallagher as Annie, Clarabel and a Passenger
 * Keith Wickham as Sir Topham Hatt, the Bird Watcher and a Passenger

Trivia

 * Going by production order, this is the seventeenth episode of the twentieth series.
 * As the episodes air out of production order, this episode and Blown Away, which likewise features the mermaid figurehead on the pirate ship, aired before Hugo and the Airship and The Missing Breakdown Train, in which the figurehead is absent, as well as Skiff and the Mermaid, in which the figurehead has been added.
 * This episode marks the first and only times of a couple of things:
 * The first time in the television series that Daisy is actually seen pulling rolling stock, not counting that she was supposed to pull the Milk "Van" (Tanker) in her debut.
 * The first and only time in which both Diesel and Daisy are seen pulling Annie and Clarabel.
 * The first and only time where Thomas was seen pulling Annie and Clarabel backwards without it being a mistake.
 * The first and only time Annie and Clarabel actually get into trouble with the Fat Controller.
 * During the first scene of Annie and Clarabel waiting at Maithwaite at night, the owl hooting sound effect from the first and second series is heard.

Goofs

 * In the shot of Harwick at the beginning of the episode, there appears to be two models of the teacher shown.
 * When Thomas is telling the good news to Annie and Clarabel, the buffers in the shed are visible through the coaches when they should be blocked out.
 * At the end of the episode, Henry seems to be missing a truck in his goods train.
 * When Diesel backs into Annie and Clarabel at the end of the episode, his middle crankshaft is silver but the other two are black.

UK

 * Thomas' Christmas Carol
 * The Complete Series 20

AUS

 * Thomas' Christmas Carol

US

 * Tinsel on the Tracks
 * Season 20

IDN

 * Love Me Tender

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