Thomas, Percy and the Coal

Thomas, Percy and the Coal (retitled Double Trouble in North American releases, also known as Double Take in one Starz release as a goof) is the first episode of the second series. It is based on the story of the same name from the Railway Series book More About Thomas the Tank Engine.

Plot
One beautiful morning on Sodor, Thomas is puffing happily along his branch line with Annie and Clarabel when he arrives at Elsbridge Station. After Percy compliments Thomas on his paintwork, he brags to Percy and Toby about having the best paintwork on Sodor. When they tell him they like their own colours, Thomas says that blue is the only colour for a Really Useful Engine and puffs away.

Later that day, Thomas is resting by the coal hopper when Percy arrives to fill up some trucks. Thomas warns Percy of the trucks' antics and a set of unsafe buffers on the siding behind him. The trucks push Percy into the siding, causing a large pile of coal to fall on Thomas and cover his paintwork in coal dust. Percy is worried, but cannot help laughing as Thomas' blue paint is ruined. Thomas is furious and blames the incident on Percy. It takes so long to clean Thomas that Toby has to take Annie and Clarabel instead. Both coaches feel sorry for him. That night in the sheds, Thomas is grumpy. Toby thinks it quite funny, but Percy is cross at Thomas for thinking he ruined his paintwork on purpose, and the two engines argue for the rest of the night.

The next day, Percy brings in some trucks from the junction. He feels thirsty, so he goes to the siding where the water tower is. However, the siding has unsafe buffers, and as Percy rolls into the siding, he finds that he cannot stop, crashes through the buffers and lands in a pile of coal. Thomas has seen everything and laughs as he leaves, while Percy lays in the coal filthy and humiliated.

That night, after Percy is cleaned up, he and Thomas apologise to each other for what happened and promise to be more careful with coal next time.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Annie
 * Troublesome Trucks
 * Clarabel
 * Sir Topham Hatt

Locations

 * The Branch Line Bridge
 * The Branch Line Cutting
 * Elsbridge
 * Elsbridge Engine Sheds
 * The Carriage Shed
 * Tidmouth
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * The Works
 * Tidmouth Yard
 * Ffarquhar Sheds
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster's House
 * The Watermill

Trivia

 * This episode marks the first occurrences of several things:
 * The first episode adapted from a story written by Christopher Awdry.
 * The first appearance of a truck to use a face made of a resin cast.
 * The first episode filmed at Shepperton Studios.
 * The first episode to feature longer and Red Express Coaches, Cattle Trucks, LNER 12 Ton Vans and an SR 25 Ton Brake Van.
 * The first appearance of Tidmouth Station and Yard, Ffarquhar Sheds, the Ffarquhar Stationmaster's House, the Branch Line Bridge, the Branch Line Cutting, the Carriage Shed and Elsbridge Engine Sheds in the television series.
 * The first episode where Thomas' front and rear brake pipes become smaller and where the colour of the supports under his whistle change from blue to gold.
 * The first episode where Toby's bell has a new ring sound and pitch to it, which would carry on for the rest of the season and in the third series.
 * The first episode video edited by Kang Hyun-gi for JEI TV in South Korea.
 * The first appearances of Percy's cross, laughing and upset faces.
 * The first appearance of Thomas' laughing and horrified faces, along with a darker coloured second cheerful face.
 * The first appearance of Toby's laughing face.
 * The first episode to kick off a repeat series of fifteen episodes from the second series in 1991.
 * The first time Thomas and Percy get dirty.
 * In the UK dub, when the coal pours down on Thomas, he shouts "Help, I'm choking!" This line was in the original story. But in the US ones, he instead shouts "Help!" twice. It was changed due to the "choking" concept being too much for young viewers. Despite this, all dubs have the line "'I'm not disgraceful!' choked Thomas," kept in the episode.
 * The ending is significantly different from the original story, in which Percy remains at odds with Thomas and does not make amends with him until the end of the book. This was changed because the story in question, "Drip Tank" was not adapted.
 * When the narrator says, "It took so long to clean Thomas, that he wasn't in time for his next train," a first series-style truck is seen.
 * In later versions of this episode, Christopher Awdry is not listed in the credits.
 * The beginning of the Latin American Spanish dub features a brief clip of Thomas passing the Watermill from the third series episode, Percy's Promise.
 * In the Nick Jr. airing of the Shining Time Station episode "Win, Lose or Draw", the scene of Thomas being cleaned and Toby taking Annie and Clarabel was cut out.
 * This episode was filmed after Thomas Comes to Breakfast, as the hole in the Stationmaster's house can be seen in the shot of "Percy was worried, but he couldn't help laughing."
 * The line "It was time for Thomas to leave. He had seen everything," became a popular internet meme in 2016.
 * In both US narrations and the international ones (excluding Ukraine), Thomas' whistle is absent, while Toby's bell ringing is absent from Ringo Starr's US version and the Welsh and Japanese ones.
 * This was the first episode that Matthew Kelly introduced for the second series in a double bill with Cows on 24th September 1986. From there, he would introduce the entire second series until Woolly Bear and Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree on 17th December 1986.
 * This episode was never released on VHS and DVD in South Korea.

Goofs

 * Underneath the bridge Thomas crosses at the beginning, there is some black plastic.
 * In the scene where Thomas meets Percy and Toby at Elsbridge, his dome appears to be severely bent.
 * When the narrator says that Thomas is resting in a siding, Thomas' eyes are misaligned.
 * In Ringo Starr's US dub featured in the Thomas Breaks the Rules VHS, the Cow on the Line read-along audio cassette/CD, and the Japanese dub, the coal chute sound effects are absent.
 * In Ringo Starr's dubs and the Ukrainian dub, Thomas saying "Those buffers don't look very safe to me" is cut earlier than it should be, so the "me" is cut off slightly.
 * Just before Thomas gets covered in coal, Percy is smiling when he is pushed through the buffers by the trucks and the noise of Percy hitting the buffers does not play at the exact time he hits them.
 * In the panning shot of Thomas being cleaned, a shadow can be seen moving at the back of the shed behind Thomas, possibly that of a crew member. Thomas' eyes are also looking in different directions and his face is tilted.
 * When Thomas was being cleaned, his eyes are misaligned.
 * When Toby backs up to Annie and Clarabel, his face is slightly loose and blu-tak is sticking out from the side of his face. In addition to that, Clarabel is also facing the opposite direction when Toby pulls them away.
 * In the restored version, almost all of the footage is framed higher than on the original print. This issue makes studio equipment visible in the top corner when Toby pulls Annie and Clarabel and at the top of the screen during a close-up of the buffers and the water tower.
 * Percy's eyes are misaligned when he says that he has always been green.
 * When Toby takes Annie and Clarabel away, Clarabel's roof is not attached properly.
 * When Thomas and Percy are resting in the shed at the end, their eyes are misaligned and Percy's eyebrow is also peeling away.
 * When Thomas is being covered in coal, the side shots show him clean but the close-ups on his face show him very dirty.
 * When Percy arrives with his trucks at Tidmouth, a red express coach is amongst the trucks to the left of the screen, but after that, there are only trucks in that siding. There is also a wall at the side of Tidmouth Station that is not seen in other episodes.
 * In a close-up of Thomas covered in coal at the coal hopper, the hopper shakes.
 * Blu-tack can be seen holding up the buffers before Percy crashes into it.
 * When Thomas is leaving the station with a passenger train he is on the middle track with no platform for passengers to get on.

Quotes
[he huffs away]
 * Percy: Hello, Thomas. You look splendid.
 * Thomas: Yes, indeed. Blue is the only proper colo(u)r for an engine.
 * Toby: Oh, I don't know. I like my brown paint.
 * Percy: I've always been green. I wouldn't wanna be any other colo(u)r, either.
 * Thomas: Well, (well,) anyway, (uh,) blue is the only colo(u)r for a really useful engine. Everyone knows that!
 * Narrator: Percy said no more. He just grinned at Toby.

____________________________________________________________________________________

[Percy accidentally hits said buffers; the last load of coal pours down on Thomas]
 * Thomas: [watches the hopper load coal into Percy's trucks] Careful. Watch out with those silly trucks/cars.
 * Trucks: Go on, go on, go on!
 * Thomas: And by the way, those buffers don't look very safe to me.
 * Thomas: Help! I'm choking/Help! Get me out!
 * Narrator: Percy was worried, but he couldn't help laughing! Thomas' smart blue paint was covered in coal dust, from smoke-box to bunker!
 * Percy: Ha-ha! You don't look really useful now, Thomas. You look really disgraceful.
 * Thomas: I'm not disgraceful. You did that on purpose. Get me out!

____________________________________________________________________________________


 * Narrator: (Thomas is seen at the works) It took so long to clean Thomas, that he wasn't in time for his next train. (Toby arrives and buffers up) Toby had to take Annie and Clarabel.
 * Annie: (to Clarabel) Poor Thomas.

____________________________________________________________________________________


 * Percy: (arguing with Thomas) Fancy, a really useful blue engine like Thomas, becoming a disgrace to the Fat Controller's/Sir Topham Hatt's railway.

Merchandise

 * Ofuro de MiniCar
 * Buzz Books - Thomas, Percy and the Coal
 * Magazine stories - Thomas, Percy and the Coal
 * Ladybird Books - Thomas, Percy and the Coal/Saved from Scrap

Home Media Releases
{{Scroll box|

UK

 * Thomas, Percy and the Coal and Other Stories
 * The Best of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
 * Thomas' Train and 17 other stories
 * Chases, Races and Runaways
 * Truck Loads of Fun
 * Chad Valley Video
 * The Complete Series 2
 * Truck Loads of Fun
 * Thomas, Percy and the Coal

DVD Boxsets

 * Classic Collection
 * Bumper Party Collection! and Truck Loads of Fun Double Pack

US

 * Thomas Breaks the Rules and Other Stories
 * Thomas Comes to Breakfast and Other Thomas Adventures
 * Thomas' Useful Stories
 * Two Thomas Adventures
 * Thomas & Friends Classic Volume 2

CAN

 * Thomas Breaks the Rules and Other Stories
 * Thomas Comes to Breakfast and Other Thomas Adventures

VHS/DVD Packs

 * Special Video Collector's Set
 * Totally Thomas Volume 9
 * Adventure On the Tracks

AUS

 * Thomas, Percy and the Coal and Other Stories
 * Truck Loads of Fun
 * The Complete Series 2

GER

 * The Christmas Party and 4 Other Adventures
 * Thomas and His Friends Vol. 3
 * Rail Free for Steam and Diesel!

DVD Boxsets

 * Complete Series 1-10
 * 60th Anniversary - Limited Edition Boxset
 * Essential Collection
 * Trainloads of Thomas Fun
 * Classic Collection
 * Series One and Series Two Double Pack

NZ

 * Saved from Scrap and Other Stories
 * Thomas, Percy and the Coal and Other Stories
 * Bumper Video Collection Volume 2
 * Thomas Train Set Compilation Video Volume 5

FRA

 * The Talkative Trains
 * The Magic of Sodor

JPN

 * Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 6
 * The Complete Works of Thomas the Tank Engine 1 Vol.7
 * Crash and Smash! Look Out!

DNK

 * The Runaway Train and Other Stories

NL

 * The Greatest Stories: The Adventures of Thomas, Percy and Gordon

LATAM

 * The Visit of Thomas

DVD Boxsets

 * The Adventures of Thomas

BRA

 * The Earliest Adventures of Thomas

MYS

 * Henry's Forest and Other Thomas Adventures
 * Tenders and Turntables and Other Adventures

ITA

 * A Daring Rescue

IN

 * Down the Mine and Other Stories

SVN

 * Bertie's Race

UKR

 * A Train Thomas and Friends

ROM

 * Thomas and the Great Runaway

DVD Packs

 * Triple Pack 1

SER

 * Thomas the Tank Engine 2

HRV

 * Thomas in Trouble

CHN

 * Thomas and Friends Season 1-4

HK

 * Thomas and Friends Volume 3
 * Thomas and Friends Volume 6

THA
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 * Thomas and Friends - Volume 4

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