Air date: June 11, 1993
Thomas Stories: Toby the Tram Engine, Thomas Breaks the Rules
Becky and Kara encounter an elderly man taking a look at the station's mural. Meanwhile, Stacy wants to repair the old-timey signal lantern that her grandmother, Gracie Jones, used to save the station back in the day, but Billy can't help because it's missing a part that they don't make anymore. Becky and Kara share Stacy's dilemma with Mr. Conductor. His solution is for them to travel back in time, so he warps Becky, Kara, and himself back to the days of the station's founding. The episode is maddeningly vague about when exactly this is, but it basically appears to be The Wild West.
In the past, Becky and Kara meet the Identical Grandparents of the station's current employees, including Gracie Jones. They easily acquire the missing part from Billy's ancestor, and Mr. Conductor inspires the young man painting the mural to add his signal house. After Schemer's ancestor gets his carriage stuck on the train tracks, Gracie has to borrow Becky and Kara's signal lantern to save the station. When the train's engineer, J.B. King's ancestor, says that he saw her light shining just in time, Gracie is inspired to name the station "Shining Time Station". But then, the signal lantern's missing part accidentally falls into the painter's case. Moments later, Becky, Kara, and Mr. Conductor run out of time and are warped back to the present.
The day is saved when Becky and Kara realize that Emmett, the old man from the beginning of the episode, was the young painter they met in the past. Sure enough, he still has the missing part in his case.
Tropes:
- Changed My Jumper: Averted. Upon arriving in the past, Becky, Kara, and Mr. Conductor are automatically dressed in period costumes.
- Coat Full of Contraband: When Jebediah Schemer opens up his coat to reveal the snake oil he's selling
- Hollywood Costuming: The period costumes seem to be a vague mish-mash of Victorian and Edwardian fashions. In either period, etiquette would demand wearing a hat in public, but Gracie Jones and Jebediah Schemer don't. Also, Gracie clearly doesn't have a corset on.
- Identical Grandson: The whole adult cast plays the grandparents of their regular characters.
- Grand Finale
- Origins Episode: In addition to explaining how the station got its name, this episode explains the origin of the station's mural, Mr. Conductor's signal house in particular, as well as the Schemer family cowlick.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Schemer's ancestor, naturally
- Stable Time Loop: Becky, Kara, and Mr. Conductor persuade Emmett to paint Mr. Conductor's signal house, and they give Gracie Jones the signal lantern to save the station. But wait, how did Stacy get the signal lantern in the first place? Becky and Kara took it back to the present after it was used, so it should have disappeared from history at that point. In order to make the loop work, they should have left the lantern behind so it could take The Slow Path. But perhaps the lantern they got from Stacy was the one that was used "the first time around"? No, Mr. Conductor was originally planing to go back in time so that he could make sure his signal house would be painted, so we're clearly operating on You Already Changed the Past rules. And how could Mr. Conductor even know that his signal house wouldn't be painted without him going back in time to inspire Emmett? Oh, forget it.
- Timeshifted Actor: Larry Reynolds plays the old Emmett and Colin O'Meara plays the young Emmett.
- The Wild West: This seems to be the period they travel back to. It's the Twilight of the Old West at the very least.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Yes, Emmett would have to be something like 120 or 130 years old to make the math work.
