Air date: October 8th, 1986
Adapted from: Edward the Blue Engine, "Old Iron"
One day, James is forced to wait in a station for Edward to arrive with his train which makes him angry with the blue engine. When Edward arrives, James grumbles and leaves to continue his work. Afterwards, James puffs to the shed, still grumbling. He complains to Thomas and Percy that Edward clanks about like a lot of old iron and is so slow he makes engines wait. Thomas and Percy, who both have a great deal of respect for Edward, are angry at this remark and tell James that Edward could beat him in a race any day, to which James sarcastically says he would like to see.
The next morning, James' driver suddenly falls ill and is sent home. With only his fireman on duty, James is relegated to shunting for the day to his annoyance. After the fireman uncouples James from his trucks, the signalman spots James leaving with no one in his cab and sets the signals at "danger" to halt traffic down the line, then speaks with James' fireman. It turns out that two boys were seen on James' footplate, fiddling with his controls, only to run when he started. The signalman's telephone rings, with an engine inspector on the other end. After finishing the call, the signalman then tells the fireman to get a shunter's pole and a coil of wire rope.
The inspector soon arrives in Edward, and James’ fireman is ready with the requested objects. With James' fireman and the inspector riding along with his own crew, Edward sets off promising to catch up to the runaway engine.
Meanwhile, James happily sails along the line, oblivious to what has transpired and simply happy to be free from shunting. Before long, he starts going faster and realizes he has no driver, causing him to panic. Edward speeds through Knapford and races down the line as fast as he can in order to catch up to James. Soon the two engines are almost side-by-side with Edward giving it everything he can to keep up. Edward's driver does his best to keep Edward steadily aligned, while the inspector climbs outside and makes it to Edward's front with a noose of rope tied through the crook of the shunter's pole and tries to slip the rope over James' right buffer. It's difficult for the inspector, but he finally manages to lasso the buffer and pull it tight. Gently braking, Edward's driver checks the engines' speed to keep the rope from snapping, and James' fireman scrambles over to him and takes control, allowing both engines to finally slow down.
As the two tired engines approach Crosby station, James apologizes for his earlier insult, which Edward accepts. Waiting for them on the platform is the Fat Controller. He congratulates the crew on their rescue and then tells James that he can rest before he takes his next train, while Edward is rewarded with a trip to the Works to get his worn-out parts mended. Edward is delighted, remarking how nice it'll be to run without clanking.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Bond One-Liner:Edward: So the "Old Iron" caught you after all.
- Bully Hunter: Thomas and Percy are offended by James' comments about Edward being a lot of "Old Iron" and give him a rebuttal.
- Compressed Adaptation: The episode leaves out the ending in the books where James is reunited with his driver and the other engines giving Edward a warm welcome after returning from the works.
- Cool Old Guy: Edward, who's able to catch up to a runaway James, despite suffering from several worn out parts.
- Determinator: Despite clanking, Edward did the best he can to catch up with James.
- Disneyfication: A few differences from the original adaptation from Edward the Blue Engine.
- In the book, when the signalman informed James' fireman of the boys messing with James' controls, he reacts angrily and hopes to teach the boys a lesson. In this adaptation, he sighs in exhaust.
- Also, this adaptation omits the part where the boys were caught and were "soundly walloped" by their fathers. The scene was omitted in the adaptation to censor references to child abuse and also because of the episode's time limit.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: For Edward, he gets to have his worn parts mended.
- Foreshadowing: Thomas tells James that Edward could beat him in a race any day. The next morning, Edward catches up with a runaway James.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Since James had to wait for Edward's train, Edward being late results in James also being late, so you can see why he wouldn't be in the best of moods, especially since the line "Late again!" implies that this isn't the first time this has happened.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: James. Despite being angry with Edward's constant lateness earlier, he is genuinely grateful to Edward for saving him.
- Oh, Crap!: When James finally realizes he's a runaway, he outright panics and screams for help.
- The Oner: This episode contains some pretty impressive camera work, including a 9-second scene where the camera follows the engines from the front and elevates in order to clear a bridge. A clip of it is shown in the image above.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: An indirect example. James has this complaint about Edward's late arrivals:James: Edward is impossible. He clanks about like a lot of Old Iron. And he is so slow he makes us wait.
- Runaway Train: James, thanks to the two boys. Luckily, Edward saves him.
- Title Drop: see "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Too Fast to Stop: After the boys messed with his controls, James enjoyed moving fast, but as he went faster and as he realized no one is in his cab, his mood changed to despair.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The boys who were playing with James' controls weren't seen or mentioned again in this episode after they jumped off of James' footplate. The Railway Series, however, averted this where the boys were "soundly walloped" by their fathers.
