Awesome / The Railway Series

Books written by the Rev. W. Awdry

The Three Railway Engines

• In "Edward, Gordon, and Henry", Henry and Edward pull the heavy Express after Gordon burst his safety valve earlier.

Thomas the Tank Engine

• "Thomas and Gordon": Gordon getting back at Thomas — after the tank engine repeatedly keeps calling him "lazybones" and loudly whistling to wake him up whenever he's napping — by not letting him be uncoupled from pulling Gordon's coaches into the station and pulling Thomas along on one of his fast express routes; complete with gleefully taunting him back all the while. By the end of the run, Thomas is exhausted; and on his long, slow route back home, has to remind himself never to be that cheeky to Gordon again.
  Gordon: (chuckling to himself with satisfaction) Well, little Thomas! Now you know what hard work means, don't you?
• "In Thomas and the Breakdown Train", there's Thomas proving his worth by sending the Breakdown Train to rescue James. Extra points for making the Troublesome Trucks, who made a fool of him in "Thomas and the Trucks", whimper and cower before him, even slamming one of the trucks hard into another truck being lifted as karma. Thomas's act was so heroic that he manages to impress Gordon, who otherwise doesn't have a very high opinion of anyone, to the point where he always whistles good-naturedly at Thomas whenever they meet.

James the Red Engine

• "Troublesome Trucks": James successfully pulls a goods train that constantly held him back or gave him problems. Even more awesome considering the example mentioned above had James knocked off the rails by a similar train but handled them smartly and avoided an accident the next time. The Fat Controller put it best in the closing moments of the story:
  The Fat Controller: After that, you deserve to keep your red coat.

Tank Engine Thomas Again

• "Thomas, Terence, and the Snow": Terence rescuing Thomas after the latter gets himself trapped coach-deep in snow. This was after Thomas insulted Terence's "ugly" wheels, and damaging the snowplough his own Driver made him wear to counteract the snow.
• "Thomas and Bertie": Thomas and Bertie's eponymous race, with both of them constantly neck-to-neck on both rails and roads. Thomas only won because Bertie had to stop at a traffic light.

Troublesome Engines

• Gordon, James, and Henry tire of shunting and go on strike since they see themselves as important tender engines, and when Edward, another tender engine, is hired to replace them, he gets the scab treatment and insulted and hissed at constantly for being a "traitor". The Fat Controller then hires Percy, who befriends Edward. Later, as Henry comes by hissing again, Percy outdoes him with a loud, enormous wheesh, sending Henry rushing back into the shed startled.

Henry the Green Engine

• "Coal": The episode begins with Henry saddened of his worsening condition with his engine, but after receiving Welsh coal, he's now a stronger and happier engine and even arrives to the station before a surprised Thomas. He follows up with smugly taunting Thomas for being late, possibly to return the favor of the No Sympathy treatment Thomas gave him in "Thomas and the Guard".
  Henry: Where have you been, lazybones? Well, I can't wait for dawdling tank engines like you! Goodbye!
  Thomas: (legitimately surprised, to Annie and Clarabel) Phew! Have you ever seen anything like it?
• "The Flying Kipper": After the accident with the Flying Kipper, Henry returns from Crewe with a brand new shape, becoming even more a stronger engine than he was in the previous story. He even pulls the Express so well that Gordon was jealous.
• "Gordon's Whistle": Gordon complains and scolds Henry for whistling loudly at the station, telling him that "it isn't wrong, but we just don't do it". Gordon then ends up whistling very loudly himself due to an out-of-place whistle. Henry decides to rub it in after Gordon has his whistle fixed by saying, "It isn't wrong, but we just don't do it."
• "Henry's Sneeze": Henry giving comeuppance to a group of boys on the bridge who threw rocks at his coaches and broke their windows - he has his smokebox filled with ash so that when he passes underneath the bridge again, he sneezes and covers the boys in ash, stopping them from throwing more rocks. Their expressions afterwards are priceless.

Edward The Blue Engine

• "Old Iron". Edward, one of the oldest engines on the line, managing to catch up to and keep pace with a runaway James. One for the Inspector, too, with his scheme to hold James with a wire rope dangled from a shunter's pole, while perched precariously on Edward's frontplate.

Four Little Engines

• In "Old Faithful", Skarloey continues on even though he was badly worn out and now with a front spring broken.

Percy the Small Engine

• "Duck Takes Charge":
  • Duck standing up to Gordon, Henry, and James. Seriously, until he showed up, poor Percy was picked on by them endlessly. It's not hard to see why Duck and Percy are good friends; Duck was the first engine who stood up for the little guy!
  • The Fat Controller shows a great display of his authority by yelling out "SILENCE!" to the big engines and tells them off for their bullying towards Percy and Duck, letting them know that it's his railway and only he gives the orders.
• "Percy and Harold": Percy racing Harold the Helicopter and ends up winning before Harold could find a place to land.
• "Percy's Promise": Percy manages to bring a Sunday School excursion train back to the end of Thomas' Branch Line through a flooded section of track.

Duck and the Diesel Engine

• "A Close Shave"
  • Duck saving an entire train of passengers from a 20-truck runaway train. The dialogue afterwards says it all:
  Barber: "I didn't know you were a brave engine."
  Duck: "That's alright, sir. I didn't know either."
  • The Fat Controller revealing he Out-Gambitted Diesel, as he never believed him in the first place (and he was caught telling lies about Henry) and had sent Duck away to lure Diesel into a false sense of security so he would slip up and expose himself.

The Twin Engines

• "The Missing Coach":
  • After Gordon and Henry made fun of their whistles, Donald and Douglas come up to them one on each side, telling them off, making them shudder. Yes, Gordon and Henry, two of the biggest engines on Sodor, were intimidated by two twin tender engines from Scotland.
  • The Fat Controller catching Douglas by surprise when he already found out about them swapping each other's tenders. It shows you that you can't fool the Controller of the Railway.
• "Break Van": Donald gives a hard bump to The Spiteful Brakevan for deliberately making Douglas' trains late, making him behave better (temporarily). Then in the end, Douglas, albeit accidentally, smashes the brake van in pieces while pushing behind James' train up the hill, which is satisfying considering that the brake van caused so much trouble for Douglas and got exactly what's coming to him.
  • Minor point but equally awesome: James - as vain and conceited as he usually is - credits Douglas with most of the work on the train due to how badly the brakevan was holding him back.

Gallant Old Engines

• In "Gallant Old Engine", Rheneas has a moment where after suffering a jammed valve gear on one side, he still struggles onward with his train.

Stepney the Bluebell Engine

• "Bowled Out": D4711 fails after sucking a bowler hat through his air intake, when due to take a 15-coach Express. The only engines left are Duck (an ex-GWR 57xx tank engine, built in the late 1920s for light passenger, station pilot duties, and shunting), and Stepney (an ex-LBSCR A1X "Terrier" tank engine, built in the 1870s for even lighter passenger, station pilot duties, and shunting). They manage to get the train to their destination early. And to cap it all off, this is the last duty Stepney performs before going back to his slightly less hectic preserved line in England.
  • A later book by Christopher Awdry magnifies the awesome: Duck, Thomas, and Percy working together can't pull the Express. Stepney and his Driver make a plan where two tank engines can do the work where three later can't.

Mountain Engines

• In "Devil's Back", No 6, (who lost his name "Lord Harry" due to recklessness) becomes a Determinator in the face of a gale when he is sent out to rescue some injured mountain climbers.
  The Truck lurched and swayed as the wind tore at it. It whimpered and groaned as though in pain.
  "She wants to go back," thought No. 6. And so do I; but we can't. The Manager's relying on me to save those climbers. We must go through - we must, we must!"
  • And he does it too, saving the lives of the injured climbers, and earning the name "Patrick" after one of the climbers he helped rescue.

Main Line Engines

• In "Wrong Road", when BoCo arrives where Gordon, Bill and Ben, all Gordon says to him is, "BoCo, my dear engine, save me!", yet said diesel manages to figure out that Bill and Ben are jokingly threatening to either send Gordon for scrap or dump him in the sea. Those are some god-tier deduction skills.
• In "Edward's Exploit", when Edward gets the train rolling again despite a broken crankpin and a badly battered left side. The passengers cheer when he arrives at the Big Station, even though he's late.

Enterprising Engines

• "Super Rescue":
  • Duck's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to D199, an arrogant ass who called the steam engines outdated:
  D199: Our Controller says steam engines spoil our image.
  Duck: Of course we do! We show you what frauds you are! Call yourselves engines? If anything happens, you care nothing for your train! You just moan for a fitter! We bring it home, if only on one cylinder!
  • Henry, who had a regulator failure and can only run on his reverser, happens upon D199 and D7101, both failed at the same signal box, and D7101's passengers are starting to get restless. They ask Henry if he thinks he can get them moving again... and he does, pulling D199's tanker train and D7101's passengers, along with both dead diesels (with only D7101 making some attempt to lighten the load). D199 gets sent away, and D7101, now named Bear, ends up joining the North Western Railway and becoming fast friends with Henry.

Oliver the Western Engine

• "Toad Stands By": After Oliver's accident in "Resource and Sagacity", the trucks on Sodor tease him constantly, singing songs and playing tricks. They're lead by S.C.Ruffey, an old privately-owned wagon. What does Oliver do? He pulls S.C.Ruffey apart. The trucks have never played a trick on Oliver since.

Books written by Christopher Awdry

Really Useful Engines

• Thomas, Percy, and Duck pulling the Express Coaches in "Triple Header". While they weren't able to reach to their destination due to the coaches being heavy, it was still a valiant effort put in by three tank engines.

Gordon the High Speed Engine

• In "Fire Escape", we have Gordon managing to get to the top of the hill despite his firebar collapsing.

Thomas Comes Home

• In "Toby's Megatrain", Toby manages to pull a very heavy load of 48 trucks.

Henry and the Express

• "Henry Sees Red": Henry is embarrassed that he is painted with a red undercoat and was sent to pull the Express after an engine failed. Then as soon as he reached the hill, with no back engine, Henry puts aside the embarrassment and successfully makes it up the hill.
  Henry: Let them laugh at my red paint. I'll show them!