Trapped by Trees

"Wind? Bah."

- Gordon sulking after his incident with the trees

Trapped by Trees is the first story in the 1989 Annual.

Plot
Strong winds sweep across Sodor, so the Fat Controller fits a bell onto the Viaduct that rings whenever the wind is too strong for engines to cross safely. Gordon boasts that wind is nothing to him, but when he reaches the station before the viaduct, he begins to regret his words. The bell is ringing frantically as Gordon approaches the viaduct, but Gordon ignores the bell and steams across safely. When the express reaches Wellsworth, they come across a signal at danger. A tree is down across their track, but they can get past the tree "wrong line" as the down line is clear. As the driver puts his hand on the reverser however, an extra fierce gust of wind tears a tree clean out of the ground and it falls right on top of the points. Luckily, Trevor is nearby and he saws the fallen trees into smaller logs, then pulls them out of the way. Henry passes by and stays silent: he just smiles knowingly. When Gordon returns to the sheds, he is not in a hurry to mention wind.

Characters

 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * Trevor
 * James
 * Sir Topham Hatt

Trivia

 * References to the first series episode, Edward and Gordon and the annual story, Signal Failure are made.