Mystery Boxcars

"'To solve the mystery of what you've found, the next clue is hidden underground'."

- Kana reading the tag Mystery Boxcars is the eighteenth episode of the first series.

Plot
As Thomas and Kana race to Knapford, the latter proceeds to demonstrate her speed to the former, and speeds fast enough to spin a windmill rapidly as well as bending trees and burying a cow in hay. However, around this time she runs out of power and stops short of reaching a charging pad, requiring Thomas to push her on it. Despondent, Kana slowly rolls out after Gordon puffs in, and the bigger engine begins talking with Thomas before getting an idea for the next day.

That night at Brendam Docks, Gordon has Cranky load a boxcar with a pole and later giftwrap it, and despite his bewilderment and skepticism, the grumpy crane complies. Package complete, Gordon leaves it in front of Tidmouth Sheds, departing quick enough not to be spotted by Kana, who immediately spots it upon waking. Thomas and Percy also see it, and with their prompting, Kana opens it to find the pole Cranky loaded earlier. Questioning it's purpose, the three read the gift tag and follow the clue it leaves to the mine. The group unknowingly pass Gordon on their way down and run into Carly and Sandy doing repair work, finding another boxcar in the process, this one containing a gearbox. Again questioning it's purpose, the engines deduce the tag's clue leads to the recycling plant, and all three make their way over with Carly and Sandy in tow. However, it is at this time that Kana's battery runs low, forcing her to unhappily slow down to save what little she has left. Thanks to Sandy tipping him off, Thomas then joins Kana to keep her spirits up on the way.

At the recycling plant, the engines have little luck until Carly spots to next boxcar, which turns out to contain a screw. Now having a better understanding to the puzzle, Sandy assembles the pieces they currently have, and they continue pondering until Thomas deduces the next boxcar is at McColl Farm... Where Gordon just happens to be watching in secret. Although Kana falls behind due to her battery finally draining completely, the others have already found the boxcar, which held a set of propeller blades. Hypothesizing what the pieces come together as, Sandy gives the device a number of test runs before Kana realizes that they form a wind turbine, which thanks to the last tag allows the team to finish a mystery charging pad. After pushing Kana atop the pad, Thomas and the others are greeted by Gordon, who reveals that he set up the scavenger hunt to help cheer Kana up by solving her problem to begin with.

The next day, Kana and Thomas begin another race with similar results to the last one. This time, however, Kana is able to recharge at McColl Farm, and afterwards she happily continues her race with Thomas.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Gordon
 * Percy
 * Carly
 * Sandy
 * Kana
 * Cranky
 * Whiff

Locations

 * The Windmill
 * McColl Farm
 * Knapford
 * Brendam Docks
 * Sodor Shipping Company
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * The Old Mines
 * Whiff's Recycling Plant
 * Vicarstown

US

 * Meesha Contreras as Thomas
 * Neil Crone as Gordon
 * Charlie Zeltzer as Percy
 * Jenna Warren as Carly
 * Glee Dango as Sandy
 * Ava Ro as Kana
 * Cory Doran as Cranky

UK

 * Aaron Barashi as Thomas
 * Will Harrison-Wallace as Gordon and Cranky
 * Henri Charles as Percy
 * Eva Mohamed as Carly
 * Holly Dixon as Sandy
 * Chloe Raphael as Kana

Trivia

 * The line "Something old, and something new" is the same line from the original series episode, Happy Ever After.
 * At the end of the episode, an instrumental of When I Go Fast from Race for the Sodor Cup plays.

Goofs

 * When Thomas is talking to Gordon at Knapford, they are seen on different tracks. But when Thomas looks up to Gordon, they are on the same track.
 * On the RTÉ Player, the episode image was of the episode Gordon Gets the Giggles, and the '2509b' was beside the episode title. This was also the case with every episode from Counting Cows onwards.

US/CAN

 * Best Friends

Merchandise

 * Magazines - Mystery Boxcars (2022)