The Flower Festival

"I'm in full bloom!"

- Thomas

The Flower Festival is a magazine story.

Plot
All across Sodor, people are preparing for a grand flower festival. As Thomas steams along, he sees the stations on his branch line are all taking part, too. Flower baskets are hung and the flowerbeds bloom brightly. The most exciting part of the festival is the big Carnival of Flowers procession. All of the engines have been extra busy preparing for it. The Fat Controller orders Thomas to take people to the Carnival of Flowers and is feeling a little downhearted that none of his engines can take part in the procession; after all, engines run on rails - not roads.

A moment later, Percy clatters in pulling trucks loaded with flowers from the market. A sudden bump causes two boxes of flowers to fly out of the trucks and burst open; some landing on Thomas. Both Percy and his trucks think that the Fat Controller will be cross, but he laughs; seeing the flowers on Thomas gives him an idea.

Soon, a carpenter arrives and starts measuring a very puzzled Thomas. Thomas and his carriages are then washed and polished in preparation of picking up the passengers. But before they are allowed to set off, the carpenter approaches with a large, painted, wooden flower with a big hole in it to fit over Thomas' face. At first, Thomas is embarrassed, but the passengers think the procession is great fun and they all stop to wave to Thomas as he chuffs by. Then, Thomas has another surprise! Amongst the carnival floats is a model of Thomas made out of flowers!

Plot

 * Thomas
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Percy
 * Annie

Goofs

 * It is said that Percy is pulling "a truck", but the illustration shows that he is pulling at least two.