James and the Diesel Engines

"Diesels don't use coal and water. How can you trust an engine who isn't normal in his habits?"

- James, Old Stuck-Up

James and the Diesel Engines is the twenty-eighth book of The Railway Series.

Foreword
Dear Friends, To hear James talk sometimes you might have thought that he ran the Fat Controller's Railway on his own. He certainly needed no help from diesels - or so he imagined. The other engines were more sensible and realised that diesels could take some of the weight off their own couplings. But now the Fat Controller tells me that James has had a change of heart. These stories tell you how it happened. The Author.

Old Stuck-Up
BoCo is showing a visiting diesel around the line. When the diesel finds he is to share the shed with steam locomotives, he is disgusted and insults them, leading James to nickname him "Old Stuck-Up". The diesel sleeps outside the shed and when he wakes up the next day, remembers he has to refuel and be cleaned. In the part of the shed where BoCo and Bear sleep is a cleaning stop. The diesel decides to use it, but goes forward too quickly, slips on the oily tracks and crashes into the back of the shed. After a stern talking to by the Fat Controller for insulting the North Western Railway, the diesel then goes home in disgrace.

Crossed Lines
The engines are fed up with James' complaining about diesels having two cabs and boasting about his importance. He becomes worse than ever when he has to shunt a goods train one misty day. James has to whistle to alert the signalman to switch the points, but another engine whistles first and the confused signalman switches the points as a well wagon is going over them, causing it to go sideways into a signal, knocking it down in the process. Despite the fact that the accident was not James' fault, the Fat Controller speaks to him severely about it since it was an inconvenient loss. He remains exceptionally quiet in the shed that night, much to the relief of the other engines.

Fire-Engine
During a discussion about paint one night, Henry remarks he is thankful he does not look like a fire-engine, like James, but James makes a crafty reply and the joke turns to Henry. Henry, furious, broods over paying James out and bangs around so much that the coupling on his tender breaks, causing him to be separated from his tender. Because they cannot get any more water, the crew is forced to throw out Henry's fire onto the line, but the sleepers start to catch fire. Edward comes to take Henry's train and tells the others later that day. Henry is given a temporary coupling to his tender and James notes that he has never made rude comments about fire engines since.

Deep Freeze
One wintry day, James takes on too much water at Crovan's Gate, which makes the water overflow on his filler-cap and freeze it, causing his injector to fail. A diesel comes to the rescue and despite the fact that James feels humiliated at first, he quickly and readily befriends the diesel and has since never made fun of diesels.

Old Stuck-Up

 * Henry
 * James
 * BoCo
 * Old Stuck-Up
 * Sir Stephen Topham Hatt III
 * Douglas
 * Bear
 * Duck

Crossed Lines

 * Henry
 * James
 * Duck
 * Donald
 * Sir Stephen Topham Hatt III
 * King James I

Fire Engine

 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Donald
 * Edward
 * Mavis
 * Flying Scotsman

Deep Freeze

 * James
 * Henry
 * The Works Diesel
 * Donald

Old Stuck-Up

 * Island of Sodor
 * Tidmouth
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Tidmouth Harbour
 * Tidmouth Yards
 * Killdane
 * The Standing Stones
 * Ballahoo Bridge
 * River Hoo
 * Brendam Branch Line
 * Paddington

Trivia

 * This book is:
 * The first in which Sir Topham Hatt III runs the North Western Railway.
 * The first since Very Old Engines not to have any of its stories adapted for television.
 * The first to feature Edward and BoCo since Main Line Engines.
 * The last in which BoCo's face is half-green and half-yellow.
 * The last to feature the original Tidmouth Sheds.
 * The last to feature Henry in all four stories.
 * The last to feature Bear, excluding mentions in Gordon the High-Speed Engine and Henry and the Express.
 * The events of this book take place in 1984. The actual 40125 was withdrawn from service in May 1981 and scrapped at Swindon Works in December 1983.
 * Old Stuck-Up is based on a real event that happened to an A4 Pacific.
 * In the companion volume James the Red Engine and the Signal, Duck is revealed to be the engine whose whistle the Signalman mistook for James in Crossed Lines.
 * Some elements from Crossed Lines were used for the eighteenth series episode Duck in the Water.
 * Old Stuck-Up's accident could have possibly been the inspiration for James' crash in Tidmouth Sheds in the twenty-first series episode The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor, though this is yet to be confirmed.
 * James' remark that nobody would preserve Old Stuck-Up may be a nod to the real 40125 being scrapped in 1983, one year before the book was published. It was not until the withdrawal of all diesel-hydraulic locomotives in the 1970s that any mainline diesels were preserved.

Goofs

 * In "Old Stuck-Up", Henry does not have buffers in the second illustration and Douglas' name plate is empty in the sixth one.
 * Donald speaks in the first two illustrations of "Fire-Engine", but Douglas is only seen.