Thomas and Friends: The Adventure Begins

Station Pilot

Amidst the weather and daily activities of a normal day, Vicarstown station was packed with a crowd of people waiting to see Edward and Thomas arrive with their precious cargo of supplies needed to complete the railway. A few relatives of the passengers and city officials waited by platform 1 to provide them with a proper form of hospitality. Some even had cameras to take pictures of these moments and share them with the press. They heard two whistles, and Thomas and Edward, carrying a long train of necessities, finally reached the station. Thomas felt dwarfed by the large size and structure of the station, as if they had been constructed with so much effort to receive the larger type of engines.

Thomas' passengers left the coach and passed through the station to meet the citizens. Wilbert held on to Carol's hand, scared by the tall adults jostling their way to make new friends or reunite with their relatives. One man to greet the passengers was North Western Railway chairman Albert Regaby, 6th Baron and 1st Viscount Harwick whose distant cousin had been currently employed by the Board of Trade to investigate the sinking of the Lusitania and the Thrasher incident. His son Henry was a colonel for the Sodor Regiment, who boarded the train to greet Charles Henry Norramby and Commandant Yates, enlisting the soldiers for the regiment. Sir Topham Hatt was also at the station to meet his new engines.

"Welcome to Sodor," he said. "I am Sir Topham Hatt, your new director."

"Pleased to meet you, sir," said Thomas. "You must be the man Mr. Billinton, my maker, told me about."

"And I'm very pleased to meet you too," boomed Sir Topham Hatt with dignity. "Now, as you can see, I am a very busy man and this is bound to be a very busy railway. So I expect you to make yourself really useful right way."

He told Edward that he was to begin work the very next day and he wanted Thomas to start work as a station pilot after he was formally introduced to the other engines.

The job tasks assigned to Thomas became difficult following his arrival. The trucks of his special train were added to the NWR's roster of rolling stock. His coach had been used as small refreshment stand for the workmen who were building the line. A tunnel near Ballahoo was being cut through to allow the engines to pass through without going over the hill, but construction was so poor, that the tunnel roof had partially collapsed. And so the tunnel had to be divided and when it was finished, Edward was able to take his first train on the nearly completed line.

At last, Thomas met the three engines of the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway, their names were Colin, Lily and Adam. Colin was the smallest, and when they came to see Thomas, he was the first to ask.

"And who are you?

"I'm Thomas. I'm one of the newer engines."

"I was expecting a bigger engine," said the middle sized one called Lily.

"Well, I was big enough to do my work back home in Brighton," said Thomas insultingly. "I liked my brothers' company better, thank you."

"I hope you will like it here," said Adam the bigger sized tank engine.

Thomas turned his attention to the paint works of the engines, they were all wearing maroon coats with yellow lining and letters.

"Edward's coat of paint looks much like yours," he remarked.

"Thank you," replied the tank engines. "Yours ought to be more like ours."

Thomas did not know what to make of this, he just puffed away to resume work.

"Was it something we said?" asked Colin in a twangy voice.

"He does need a new coat of paint if he is to fit into our railway," replied Adam.