Air date: October 30th, 2003 (UK), October 8th, 2005 (US)
When some holidaymakers are coming to Sodor, Thomas and Emily are at the foundry for maintenance and find that there is no one to run the branch line during the summer holidays and the Fat Controller needs to find a way to carry more passengers. Thomas calls the situation a "double-decker problem", which gives the Fat Controller an idea. He goes to find Bulgy, the double-decker bus who was turned into a hen house after an accident with a bridge. The Fat Controller gives Bulgy another chance to be back on the road and Bulgy is delighted.
Bulgy arrives at the foundry, meeting Thomas and Emily, and tells them that he is going back on the road. When Emily thinks that he should help the new farmer deliver his vegetables around the island, Bulgy insists on taking passengers instead. After being repainted, his driver takes him back to his field, where his previous residents, the hens, think he looks splendid. While Bulgy is sleeping, the hens miss their home. One by one they creep aboard and sleep in his luggage racks.
The next day, Bulgy picks up some passengers to take to the station, driving so smoothly that the hens don't wake up. Everything is going fine until he has some trouble getting past Trevor. When Bulgy turns, he almost hits a post van and swerves; it suddenly wakes up the hens, who frighten the passengers and cover them with feathers and eggs. The passengers are angry over this incident and want to complain to the Fat Controller. Bulgy tells them that it was not his fault.
When Bulgy is sent to be cleaned, he is angry at both the hens and the passengers. Emily tells him that the farmer still needs help to sell his vegetables, for which Bulgy thinks being a vegetable bus is a good idea. Thomas then adds that he and Emily are now maintained and ready to carry passengers again. As a result, Bulgy is repainted green and turned into a mobile vegetable stand. Bulgy cannot be happier, as now he does not have to put up with hens or passengers.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- The Bus Came Back: A literal example with Bulgy, who was last seen cameoing in Series 4's "Mind That Bike", and is now repaired and back on the roads.
- Failed a Spot Check: Bulgy's driver doesn't notice all the sleeping hens in the luggage racks as they go out.
- Flashback Cut: A flashback of Bulgy getting stuck under the bridge from "Bulgy" is played briefly.
- Good Costume Switch: As part of his Heel–Face Turn, Bulgy gets painted green for his new job as a mobile vegetable stand.
- Heel–Face Turn: Bulgy becomes a lot friendlier to the steam engines when he is given a second chance. Unfortunately, he eventually goes back to his old anti-rail ways years later in Series 21's "Unscheduled Stops".
- Idiot Ball: It never occurs to Bulgy to find a bus shed to sleep for the night instead of the farm where he was a henhouse.
- Planes, Trains, and Imbeciles: After Bulgy is repaired and put back on the road, he still tends to cause this. His return run is ruined by his passengers being harassed by the chickens hiding in his luggage racks.
- Plot Hole: When Bulgy is held up by Trevor, Thomas passes by with a goods train, despite being out of action.
- Sequel Episode: To Season 3's "Bulgy", following up on Bulgy's comeuppance from that episode.
- Series Continuity Error: Some Stock Footage from "Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady" is used which has Peter Sam with his old funnel, even though Peter Sam gained a special funnel after "Special Funnel".
- Stock Footage: Near the beginning of this episode, footage from "Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady" is used.
