Thomas and the Missing Whistle

"Have you seen the whistle?" "We haven't seen it! We haven't seen it!"

- Thomas and Annie and Clarabel

Thomas and the Missing Whistle is a magazine story.

Plot
One morning, Thomas is waiting patiently at the main station for the guard to blow his whistle. Thomas asks Dave the guard what the hold up is. Dave reveals that he cannot find his whistle anywhere. Thomas is upset; they cannot leave until the guard blows his whistle and the Fat Controller will be cross if they are late.

Thomas' driver offers to help Dave and they check everywhere. They search along the platform, in the guards' staff room and in the passengers' waiting room, but there is no sign of the whistle anywhere. Annie and Clarabel have not seen the whistle either. Suddenly, Dave catches a glimpse of a bright, shiny object on the railway line, but it is only an old brass button.

Just then, Thomas notices a magpie building its nest on the station roof. Thomas knows that magpies like to collect shiny objects like whistles. Dave fetches a ladder, climbs up and peers into the nest. Sure enough, there is his whistle. Dave concludes that he must have dropped it and the magpie must have taken a fancy to it. He knows he will have trouble explaining the situation to the Fat Controller.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Dave
 * Sir Topham Hatt

Goofs

 * Thomas' lamp irons and coupling are not coloured.
 * In the first illustration, Thomas does not appear to be coupled to Annie and Clarabel.
 * The sky cuts into Thomas' smokebox in the second illustration.