Thomas And The Portrait of What Looked Like A Large Pile Of Ash

Chapter 14: Scruff The Gordon

During Scruff's early years on the railway, he often looked down on the smaller engines like Edward and Thomas. However, he would soon find he needed help from Edward to be his banker after he got stuck on a hill with a train of trucks. He also needed Edward and Henry to pull his passenger train after he broke his safety valve in front of Henry's Tunnel.

Scruff often found Thomas very annoying for whistling rudely at him, so he taught him a lesson by bringing him along with his express train before he could be uncoupled. Thomas usually fetched the coaches for him, but then Thomas left the yard when he was given a branch line and Scruff, along with Henry and James, became infuriated when they soon found that they had to fetch their own coaches. After the big engines had several mishaps (one of which involved Scruff having to pull his train backwards), Scruff proposed that they all go on strike; they would only pull their coaches if another engine fetched them. Edward was the only engine left and since he was a tender engine and that Scruff proposed that tender engines do not shunt, they started to discriminate against Edward until the Fat Controller decided to leave them in the shed until they learnt the error of their ways.

After Scruff, Henry and James saw how silly they were, the Fat Controller let them out, reminding them to behave and bought a tank engine named Percy to help fetch their coaches. Scruff almost had a run-in accident with Percy when the latter carelessly stood on the Main Line. After Percy ran away backwards and stopped in a pile of dirt, Scruff helped him out. Scruff was still arrogant and insulted Henry for the way he whistled. However, he ate his own words when his whistle jammed and he went running down the main line whistling continuously. He did not stop until a fitter climbed up and knocked his whistle in place.

In 1952, he was called upon to pull a special goods train, much to his disgust. To get out of pulling the train, he tried to jam the turntable, but he could not stop himself and ran into a ditch. After he was rescued from the ditch, the Fat Controller banned Scruff from pulling passenger trains for nearly an entire year until he proved himself a Really Useful Engine. After a period of good behaviour, the Fat Controller rewarded him by allowing him to pull Queen Elizabeth II's royal train when she came to visit Sodor. In 1956, he travelled to London, where he was lauded by a large crowd. Scruff did not like the visit, however, as he discovered that London's big station was St. Pancras, which he thought was King's Cross.

During City of Truro's visit in 1957, Scruff heard that the famous engine had reached 100 miles an hour and believed that he could reach that speed. This resulted in him losing his dome on the viaduct. Later, when Diesel arrived on trial and was having trouble moving some old trucks, he accused Duck by making rumours about him giving Scruff a bad nickname, "Galloping Sausage". As a result, Scruff, Henry and James began to turn against Duck by forbidding him from the shed. However, when the truth came out that Duck had not made the nicknames, they began to feel very silly about jumping to conclusions before knowing the true story.

In 1965, Scruff complained about BoCo - the new diesel - going on the main line, because the diesel only works on Edward's Branch Line. He claimed that the Fat Controller would never agree and states that branch lines are vulgar. That night, Scruff's crew mistakenly believed that the passenger with a green hat was the guard waving his green flag. As a result, Scruff left with the majority of the passengers, the luggage and the guard stranded on the platform. Everyone was surprised, but the surprise quickly gave way to anger. This made Scruff so embarrassed, he brought his train back down to the big station as Edward was already late with his train. But the signalman at the junction was not told about the change. Because of this, Edward was sent to the main line and Scruff was sent down to Edward's branch line. He spent the night at Brendam and was teased by Bill and Ben of being a lot of old iron that should be scrapped. BoCo stopped them and Scruff gained respect for him.

In 1967, Scruff felt devastated to hear that his brothers and sisters were all scrapped on the Mainland, but happy to hear that his brother Flying Scotsman was preserved, when the Fat Controller brought him to reunite with Scruff.

During its construction, Scruff took a special test train to Kirk Ronan, however was unimpressed by the lack of a view from the station. On a second run - after he returned from being repaired following a breakdown on the return journey - Scruff was unable to stop and crashed through the station wall. The wall was later repaired, however a large window was installed at the site of the accident called "Scruff's View", providing a panoramic view of the town below.

One year on May Day, Scruff ridiculed Thomas, James, Percy and Murdoch having a Best Dressed Engine competition, not wanting to look silly with decorations. While pulling the Express, a banner blew off of the side of a bridge and onto Scruff's face and stayed there until he reached Knapford. Despite him not intending for it to be decoration, he was declared winner of the competition.

When Spencer first visited Sodor, Scruff warned him to take on water, however was ignored. Spencer later had to be rescued by Scruff and taken to Maron after running out of water on the hill. From this point onwards, Scruff and Spencer developed somewhat of a rivalry.

During one winter, Scruff was asked to teach Percy to pull passenger trains. Scruff soon became boastful and spent more time showing off than teaching Percy, leading him to eventually slide through Kellsthorpe Road and into a snowdrift in a siding.

At one point, Scruff's firebox rattled when it cooled down at night. After being teased for it by the other engines, Scruff decided to make demands of the other engines to make them respect him, including that they whistle whenever they see him as a mark of respect. After Emily opted not to whistle in protest to Scruff's demands, he became so cross that he missed a red signal and crashed into a train of Jam Tankers. Scruff was later taken to the Works to be cleaned out and, while there, had the rattling in his firebox seen to. Upon his return, the other engines were grateful to have him back and they all reconciled.

One spring, Scruff accidentally took on special coal meant for Henry just before attempting a record run with the Express. After seeing Henry struggling later in the day, Scruff forfeited the run just outside of Knapford to go back and help Henry by swapping tenders. Despite not finishing the run, Scruff still held the previous record and was happy to have helped his friend.

Once, while his old bufferbeam was damaged, Scruff had to use a spare bufferbeam from the Dieselworks. Scruff initially disliked the bufferbeam as it was meant for a diesel engine and made him look unusual, but later became more content with it after Thomas reminded him that the bufferbeam would allow him to be useful while his normal bufferbeam was being repaired.

After Thomas suggested streamlining an engine for The Great Railway Show, the Fat Controller decided to have Scruff sent to the Sodor Steamworks to have streamlined shrouding applied for the Great Race. On the day of the show, Scruff left the Steamworks before his final checks could be completed, resulting in him leaving his safety valve behind. Despite Thomas bringing it to the show, the race began before Thomas got the chance to properly explain the situation to Scruff. As a result, Scruff's boiler burst mid-race and he was disqualified.

After Edward moved out of Tidmouth Sheds and Nia took his place, Scruff was most upset out of all the engines, not helped when Henry suddenly announced he would be moving to Vicarstown Sheds shortly after. Despite his objections, Nia eventually convinced him to accept the change and the two became friends.

Not long after Henry's departure, Rebecca arrived to help Scruff with the Express during busy periods and took Henry's spot. Initially, Scruff was hostile towards her, however later warmed up to her after she defended him in front of his brother, the Flying Scotsman. Since then, the two have kindled a close friendship due to their shared roles as express engines. When Baz and Bernie stole Kenji from the Technology Fair, the duo chased them down, with Scruff derailing himself at East Maron Junction to prevent them from escaping to the Sodor Airport.

Hold on! This is too ridiculous! Scuff can't pull the express. He is too weak! I quit!