Henry and the Elephant
Gordon and Henry found Tidmouth yard to be a very lonely place after Thomas and Twilight left to run the Ffarquhar branch line. They missed them very much.
“Henry,” Gordon commented, “I didn’t think this possible, but I actually miss hearing Thomas talking non-stop about seeing the world.”
“You’re not the only one,” Henry admitted. “Now it’s just us two, as well as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Oh, how the times have changed.”
And changed they had. Now that Tidmouth and Knapford lacked a station pilot, the engines had to collect their own coaches and shunt the yards by themselves, which made them very cross.
“It’s too early!” Gordon grumbled, as the London and North Eastern Railway A0 Pacific shunted backwards and forwards. “I used to get a rest in in the old days when Thomas was around!”
“Gordon, please be quiet!” Rainbow Dash told him. “You’re worse than a College student most days!”
Gordon wasn’t the only engine who was grumbling in the yard, as James had also been requisitioned for shunting the yards in addition to doing everything else. He was equally cross. “How can Sir Toppham Hatt expect us all to do our own jobs and clean these messes up at the same time?” he complained. “It’s completely unreasonable, that’s what!”
Rarity sighed. “Jamesy, I share your frustrations Darling, but these coaches and trucks aren’t simply going to shunt themselves, so we might as well do our jobs as well as we can.”
“We get no rest! We get no rest!” complained one and all.
The coaches laughed at the big engines. “You’re lazy and slack! You’re lazy and slack!” they laughed. Rainbow Dash, however, took particular offence to this.
“Can you please stop goading the engines?” she asked. “At this rate you’ll only make the problem worse!”
All in all, the issues piling up in the yard were causing Sir Toppham Hatt a lot of bother. Another morning, James was being sent off to collect a train from somewhere or other, whilst Henry and Gordon were to remain in the shed.
As James rolled onto the turntable, he spoke rudely to Henry. “What’s the matter Henry?” he asked. “There’s no rain today. Stop worrying and do some hard work for a change!” And he blasted away.
Henry looked around. “That hurt my feelings!” he said. “Besides, I’m not scared of the rain anymore. If anything, he looks silly and he should be in a circus!”
Fluttershy stepped over calmly. “Take it easy Henry,” she said. “I’ll speak to James and ask him to apologise. Besides, I’m certain Rarity will talk to him about it as well, as that’s not acceptable behaviour.”
That, at least, made Henry feel much better. But then Gordon spoke up.
“Have any of you heard that the Circus is arriving?” he asked, quietly.
“Er...say what now?” Rainbow Dash asked, confused.
“The circus, of course!” Gordon said pompously. “According to gossip I’ve heard at the various stations, it has already arrived at Tidmouth, and an engine will go and collect it to take it to Knapford.”
“Well,” Henry replied, “that would explain where James has gone. The clown.”
The train was very long, and had plank wagons, vans of all sizes, many, many animals, jugglers, trapeze artists, clowns, elephants, lions, tigers, zebras, horses, and almost every exotic animal on the planet that anybody could name. The cheery feeling that having the Circus on the island brought meant that the engines soon forgot to complain, as they had work to do ensuring all the wagons were in the right place and the right people and animals were offloaded at the right times.
But the Circus couldn’t stay forever, and had to head back eventually. And who got to take it back but James! Henry and Gordon were simply grumbling all over again, although Rainbow Dash did derive some amusement from the fact that the circus was apparently owned by a relative of Sir Toppham Hatt.
A few hours later, Sir Toppham Hatt himself came by to speak to Henry and Fluttershy.
“We have a blockage in Ballahoo Tunnel,” he said to them. “I need both of you to take some wagons and some workmen down the line to the tunnel, and clear it out. Understand?”
“Yes sir,” Fluttershy replied, and sounded Henry’s whistle. Henry pulled away spitting steam and producing a wonderful sound.
“I hope I don’t get stuck in that tunnel again,” Henry said sadly. “It would be most embarrassing to get stuck there once again. Not to mention unpleasant!”
“Pushing trucks, pushing trucks,” he grumbled loudly to nobody but himself. “Doesn’t Sir Toppham Hatt realise it’s dangerous for engines to push trains this distance?”
“But Thomas pushes his coaches sometimes,” Fluttershy observed, confused.
“That’s different!” Henry said. “He’s a tank engine, with a short wheelbase. I am a tender engine, with a long wheelbase that doesn’t go well around tight bends.”
Quite apart from the ongoing conversation, the workmen got out of the brake van and then unloaded their tools from the equipment storage van. With an array of wooden planks, keying hammers, and wrenches, they vanished off into the tunnel to clear whatever was blocking it. It fell very quiet, and very dark. Nobody had any idea what was happening in there, not least Henry. But then, a loud horn like noise echoed out of the tunnel, and moments later, the workmen all ran out shouting and screaming in terror. “It’s alive!” one of them cried.
“What’s alive?” asked the foreman.
“The blockage!” another workman cried. “We tried digging at it, but then it hooted at us and began to move!”
“Rubbish!” the foreman snapped. “Henry, get to work. Remove that blockage!”
“What?” Henry asked. “I’ve been stuck in tunnels before, and I’d rather not get stuck in there again-it is the same tunnel portal, after all-especially if something alive is in there!”
Fluttershy could tell Henry was worried, and so tried to calm him. “It’s OK Henry,” she said soothingly. “If that blockage is alive, we’ll just back out and give it some space. And you won’t be going into that tunnel alone. I’ll be here with you, all the way.”
Henry wheezed sadly. “OK Fluttershy,” he said. “I’ll do it, for you.” And he advanced into the tunnel, steam pouring from his pistons and his wheels rolling. Into the tunnel he went-and then stopped. His wheels spun furiously as whatever it was fought back, and began to push both him and his train out of the tunnel. Fluttershy wound the reverser forward to try and counteract, but it failed, and the bog green engine and the train were both shoved out of the tunnel by an elephant.
“Oh my,” Fluttershy said. “He must have been left behind from the circus.” She got out of the cab and walked over to the clearly angry elephant.
“Stay away!” the foreman called to her. “The beast is clearly crazed!”
Fluttershy just ignored him, and walked over to the elephant. “Hey big guy,” she asked. “Are you OK?”
The elephant made noise at her, but Fluttershy knew exactly what to do. “Hey, it’s OK,” she said. “We’ll get you back to your family, but they’re at the docks. We’ll put on a special train for you. How does that sound?”
And with that, the elephant was calmed down. “Incredible!” said a workman.
Fluttershy turned to the assembled workers. “Harry here asks for some water, if that’s OK.” So, they brought some buckets filled with water, which the elephant downed effortlessly without needing a break.
But just then, Henry’s safety valve went off, scaring the elephant, which made noise once more and blew water all over Henry’s paint.
“My paint!” he cried, annoyed. “An elephant pushes me, now has the nerve to whoosh me!”
“Don’t worry Henry, the water will evaporate, that’s all,” Fluttershy reminded him.
Henry relayed his experience that night to the others, who were most sympathetic.
“Fancy that!” Gordon exclaimed. “We get no respect around here.”
“It seems something must be done,” James added. And on that note, they went to sleep.
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Huh. I don't think they did this one in the show.
10037722
They did, but waited until season 4 to adapt it.
10037722
10037774
Yes. For some reason, this was not adapted along with the rest of Troublesome Engines, which is problematic for a number of reasons.
10036844
I think that might have been the inspiration for Henry's accident in The Deputation.
10038410
The What?
Huh, I wonder who that relative of Topham's is? :P
10062228
If you look carefully, the circus vans have the word HATT on them. It was not intended as a reference to Lowham.
Fun fact: in all but the US dub, the elephants trumpeting when it spews out the water is just sound effects. In the US dub, said trumpeting is actually George Carlin attempting to mimic an elephant.
10116114
THAT was funny! Thank you George!
11266460
Indeed.
Ahh circus trains, brings back memories to the one that used to run in the US, until they'd sadly go out of business in 2017.
Wait, what!
realize*
Also, your perfectly fine Henry, just as long as you don't go too fast.
That's Fluttershy for ya. Glad you kept that trait in this story.
My god, your killing me Henry.
11319995
1. There's talk of it resuming, though.
2. In the episode adaptation, the circus wagons are all marked HATT.
3. Realise is spelt with an S in the UK.
4. NP.
5. Indeed.
11320057
Wait really!?!? I could of sworn the ringling bros and barnum bailey circus were done for after going out of business in 2017.