I want to share my retelling/reimagining of how thomas and percy became friends Without further ado Prologue Their is a small island off the coast of England. This island is surrounded by the sea it has beaches, docks and lots of railway lines. To the point that this island uses primarily trains and has very little roads. This railroad is owned by the north western railway company. The controller of the railway is a stout man by the name of sir topham hat or nicked named by the engines The fat controller. The railway at the moment only has five trains Thomas(a blue E2 shunter with the number 1 on his side),Edward(a blue Furness Railway K2 with a number 2 on his tender),Henry( a green LMS Stanier Class 5 with the number 3 on his tender),Gordon( a blue LNER Gresley A1 Pacific with the number 4 on his tender), and James(a black L&YR Class 28 with the number 5 on his tender)

Knapford station It was a dark and stormy day, Edward and James were talking by platform 3 and 4 of as Gordon backed onto his train by platform 1 "I hate these storms it seems to never stop raining" Edward said with a worried look "It feels so Eerie" Responded james The two switched their attention to Gordon when his whistle distracted them. "Be careful" the two engine warned him as he began to move out of the station As Gordon left Thomas shunted a small train of three red coaches by platform 2 "Your trains ready,James" Thomas whistled as he was uncupled and rolled back to the shunting yards James moved to platform 2 and backed onto his train He was cupled and then he whistled "See you later,Edward'" "Be careful" Edward responded James slowly begins his train. a few minutes after James left Thomas rolled beside Edward. The two began to talk about their concerns with this storm. "I'll probably be on debris cleaning tomorrow" Thomas said Thomas hated that job because it involved a lot of starting and stoping. It was a slow job that took most the day. "Let's just hope James and Gordon make it back okay" Edward responded "Yeah" Thomas agreed Then a loud whistle filled the air. The two then noticed that the Express and Gordon were slowly reversing back to platform 1. Gordon looked exhausted and worried. "Theirs a big tree down on the main line just at the peak of my hill" Gordon warned Both Edward and Gordon looked worried. Thomas was confused. Edward noticed his confusion. "James comes back though the mainline and I doubt he has been worned" Edward said with worried look Thomas started to roll back to the shunting yards as Edward whistled "Where are you going?" "I'm going to clear the line" Thomas whistled back.

Meanwhile at The last station on James branch line James pulled up to the platform he was exhausted because the rain made him have to go slower to not slide past the platform extending his run by half an hour. "I can't wait to stretch my wheels on the mainline" James said as passengers began to unload from the coaches. The guard blew his whistle and James whistled back as he began his journey back to knapford. He raced down the main line as the wind from the stormed rattled his coaches. When he was about half way up Gordon's hill he noticed the tree on the line he tried to brake but he just slid. He hit the tree and the tree cause him to derail and slide down the other side of the hill off the rails. As he slide he hit a rock which turned him on his side. He came to a stop at the bottom of the hill. The cupling between James and his tender broke so his tender sat at the top of the hill stuck on the tree with the coaches behind it. James driver and fireman had no injuries and were walking to go phone for help as Thomas rolled up with the breakdown train. The driver got the attention of Thomas's driver "Its too wet to lift James now, theirs a sighting a few yards behind you ,you can leave the breakdown train their " Thomas complied and whistled to James " we will be back James" James just sighed in response James's fireman and driver stood on Thomas's footplate so he had to move slow as he left the breakdown train in the sighting and headed back to knapford.

Meanwhile back at knapford Edward had shunted the Express back to the shunting yard and brought a long goods train to platform 2 for Henry who had just backed onto his train. Edward than rolled to platform 3 as Thomas reversed slowly to platform 4. When he stopped James's fireman and driver jumped off the footplate and walked to sir topham hat's office. In his office the driver and fireman told him everything as the four engines watched and waited. Finally the the three men walked out of his office and sir topham hat addressed the engines "James has come off the rails at Gordon's hill but the ground is too wet to lift him so Thomas and Edward will clear the line tomorrow morning and Henry since the mainline is blocked and your too heavy to go on the branch line Edward and Thomas will take the train to mainland station" The three men than walked back into the office. Henry was uncupled and pulled alway from his train as Edward and Thomas backed onto the train and were cupled with Thomas leading the train. The two set off at a slow rate to keep an eye on track ahead for any debris. The train was heavy and since they were on the branch line it took three hours longer on what would of normally been a two hour trip. By the time they reached the station it was one am the next day and the storm had past. As the two were being uncupled Thomas noticed a small saddle tank engine sitting on a flat bed. It was too rusty for Thomas to tell its original color he also noticed it was heavy damaged. Thomas rolled beside the the flatbed. "Hi my names Thomas, what's yours?" Thomas asked Shocked the engine replied "Percy" he said this in soft voice "What happened to you?" Thomas asked "I had an accident" percy answered Thomas noticing Percy's embarrassment replied "I had my share, I once hit some faulty points and ended up derailled with a small goods train" the two chuckled than Edward whistled "I have to go now" Thomas whistled "Bye" percy replied

Thomas and Edward went to Gordon's hill to rescue James. James had sunk a bit into the mud. Edward was cupled up to the coaches and took them back to the shunting yards at knapford and took James tender to the repair shed edward than collected a flat bed to take the tree to the lumberyard. When he arrived back at Gordon's hill James had been turned upright and was getting hooked up to be lifted back on the track. Both Edward and Thomas watched in amazement as the cranes lifted James high in the air and put him on the track in front of Thomas. James right side had been in the mud for so long his black paint now had a brown tint to it and chunks of mud were wedged in between wheels. Workman used shovel to free his wheels enough to roll. Than as Thomas was cupled to James and they both rolled to the repair shed, The workman connected the crane to the tree and started to lift it on to the flatbed. Once it was loaded Edward and the flatbed were cupled to the brake down train And he set off for the lumberyard.

Meanwhile at the Repair shed Thomas shunted James beside his tender and rolled to the other side of James. The workman began to examine James. as thomas and James waited anxiously for verdict of how damaged James was, Gordon slowly pulled in front of James with sir topham hat in his cab. Sir topham hat stepped out of his cab and told Gordon to get ready for the Express. Gordon whistled as he slowly headed back to knapford. Sir topham hat looked at James and sighed. "I was going to buy a new shunter to work on the new branch line but now money will be tight after your repairs" sir topham hat said to the two engine. "Sir, there was a small saddle tank engine at the mainland station, he isn't in the best shape but he could be put into a workable condition with the spare parts we keep stocked up" Thomas replied "You will take me there this evening,right now I need you to take me back to knapford" sir topham hat replied as he walked in Thomas's cab and Thomas whistled bye to James as he set off for knapford. When they got to knapford sir topham hat walked back to his office. Thomas went to work shunting trains for the other engine he spent all day moving coaches and cars from the shunting yards to the platform waiting for their engine to take them to their destination. When the sun was setting and Gordon returned after his last train of the day, Thomas was cupled to one of the Express coaches and sir topham climb aboard and the two set off for the mainland station. When the pulled into the station sir topham hat walked up to the stationmaster and asked him about the saddle tank engine. "Hes been sitting there for years if you want him take him" the stationmaster said "Have a good day sir" sir topham hat replied. Thomas was guided to the flatbed where he was cupled up and sir topham looked the engine up down "Percy, you've been sitting there for too long it's time for you to have purpose" and before the engine could respond he walked into the coach and signaled Thomas to start. Percy sit there shocked as the train began to move. The flatbed made a horrible screech as moved it down the line. Meanwhile at the Repair Shed James had been recupled to his tender and the workman were doing final safety checks when a horrible screech filled the air. "What the hell is that" James exclaimed the workman stopped and looked up as Thomas reversed the flatbed and the coach next to James. Sir Topham Hat walked out of the coach as the workman uncupled the flatbed and started explaining his plan for the tank engine to the workman "Percy can be restore to a working condition with very little. His boiler just needs a little welding, a new wheel and connecting rods and he should be able to do some light shunting ." Sir Topham Hat explained. He than turned to the engine and asked "What happened to you?" " I was being polished by my old driver when something set the shed on fire." A tear rolled down Percy's face "He didnt survive and took the firemen hours to respond By the time they got to me I was derailed and covered dents and ash. They left me on a flatbed thinking my funnel caused the fire and no driver would come near me " James , Thomas ,and Sir Topham Hat all looked mournful " You will be useful again Percy I swear" Sir Topham Hat responded and then turned to James " until Percy is repaired you will be shunting yours and Gordon's train while Thomas runs the branch lines with Edward" "Yes sir" James replied as Sir Topham Hat walked back into the coach and Thomas headed back for the knapford and James followed both whistled "Bye Percy"