Thomas the Tank Engine Wikia
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This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the VHS, the DVD, the Buzz Book or the magazine story.
For other uses, see Double Trouble (disambiguation).
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“In future, we'll both be more careful of coal.”
― Thomas

Thomas, Percy and the Coal, retitled Double Trouble on North American releases, is the first episode of the second series. It is based on the story of the same name from the Railway Series book More About Thomas the Tank Engine.

Plot

One beautiful morning on Sodor, Thomas is puffing happily along his branch line with Annie and Clarabel when he arrives at Elsbridge Station. After Percy compliments Thomas on his paintwork, he brags to Percy and Toby that blue paint is the only proper colour for an engine. When they tell him they like their own colours, Thomas huffily retorts that blue is the only colour for a Really Useful Engine and puffs away.

Later that day, Thomas is resting by the coal hopper, when Percy arrives to fill up some trucks with coal. Thomas warns Percy of the trucks' antics and a set of unsafe buffers at the end of the siding behind him. The trucks push Percy into the siding, causing a large pile of coal to fall on Thomas and cover his paintwork in coal dust. Percy is worried but cannot help laughing as Thomas' blue paint is filthy. Thomas is furious and blames the incident on Percy. After Thomas is pulled out of the coal pile, it takes so long to clean him that he misses his next train and Toby takes Annie and Clarabel instead. Both coaches feel sorry for him. That night in the sheds, Thomas is grumpy. Toby thinks it was a great joke but Percy is cross with Thomas for thinking he ruined his paintwork on purpose and insults him, leaving the two engines bitter with each other for the rest of the night.

Thomas,PercyandtheCoal50

"Now Percy has learned his lesson too!"

The next day, Percy brings in some heavy trucks from the junction. He feels thirsty, so he goes to a siding where the water tower is. However, the siding is the one with unsafe buffers and, as Percy rolls into it, he finds that he cannot stop, crashing through the buffers, breaking them and landing wheel-deep in coal. Thomas has seen everything and leaves, while a humiliated Percy lays in the coal.

After Percy is rescued and cleaned up later, that night, he and Thomas apologise to each other for what happened and promise to be more careful with coal next time.

Characters

Locations

Trivia

  • This episode marks the first occurrences of several things:
    • The first episode adapted from a story written by Christopher Awdry.
    • The first appearance of a truck to use a face made of a resin cast.
    • The first episode filmed at Shepperton Studios.
    • The first episode to feature longer and Red Express Coaches, Cattle Trucks, LNER 12 Ton Vans and an SR 25 Ton Brake Van.
    • The first appearance of Tidmouth Station and Yard, Ffarquhar Sheds, the Ffarquhar Stationmaster's House, the Branch Line Bridge, the Branch Line Cutting, the Carriage Shed and Elsbridge Engine Sheds in the television series.
    • The first episode where Thomas' front and rear brake pipes become smaller and where the colour of the supports under his whistle change from blue to gold.
    • The first episode where Toby's bell has a new ring sound and pitch to it, which would carry on for the rest of the season and in the third series.
    • The first appearances of Percy's cross, laughing and upset faces.
    • The first appearance of Thomas' laughing and horrified faces, along with a darker coloured happy face.
    • The first appearance of Toby's laughing face.
    • The first episode to kick off a repeat series of fifteen episodes from the second series in 1991.
    • The first time Thomas and Percy get dirty.
    • The first episode video edited by Kang Hyun-gi for JEI TV in South Korea.
  • In the UK dub and the Ukrainian voice-over, when the coal pours down on Thomas, he shouts "Help, I'm choking!" This line was in the original Railway Series story. However, in both the Ringo Starr and George Carlin US dubs, he instead shouts "Help!" twice. It was changed due to the "choking" concept being traumatic for young viewers. Despite this, all dubs have the line "'I'm not disgraceful!' choked Thomas," kept in the episode.
  • The ending is significantly different from the original story, in which Percy remains at odds with Thomas and does not make amends with him until the final story of the book. This was changed because the final story in the book, "Drip Tank", was not adapted for television.
  • In the restored version:
    • The shot of Percy laughing at Thomas’s misfortune is a different take compared to the original version.
    • Thomas' eyes move when the scene fades to him being cleaned.
  • When the narrator says, "It took so long to clean Thomas, that he wasn't in time for his next train," a first series-style truck is seen.
  • In later versions of this episode, Christopher Awdry is not listed in the credits.
  • This episode was filmed after Thomas Comes to Breakfast, as the hole in the Stationmaster's house can be seen in the shot of "Percy was worried but he couldn't help laughing."
  • In the Nick Jr. airing of the Shining Time Station episode "Win, Lose or Draw", the scenes of Thomas being cleaned and Toby taking Annie and Clarabel were cut out to make time for advertisements.
  • The beginning of the Latin American Spanish dub seen on TV airings and Netflix features a brief clip of Thomas passing the Watermill from the third series episode Percy's Promise for unclear reasons. The Latin American Thomas Comes to Breakfast DVD, however, uses the standard opening to the episode.
  • In a promotional image, Thomas has his Series 1 smiling face and he is also still at his same position with Percy covered in coal dust, which could explain why Percy is shown like that after Thomas said, "Now Percy has learned his lesson too."
  • The line "It was time for Thomas to leave. He had seen everything," became a popular internet meme in the 2010s.
  • In both US dubs and the international ones (excluding the Ukrainian voice-over), Thomas' whistle is absent, while Toby's bell ringing is absent from Ringo Starr's US dub and the Welsh and Japanese ones.
  • This was the first episode that Matthew Kelly introduced for the second series in a double bill with Cows on 24 September 1986. From there, he would introduce the entire second series until Woolly Bear and Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree on 17 December 1986.
  • This episode was never released on home video in South Korea.

Goofs

  • Throughout the episode of the restored version, the footage is framed higher than on the original print, making studio equipment visible in the top corner when Toby pulls Annie and Clarabel and at the top of the screen during a close-up of the buffers and the water tower.
  • In the scene where Thomas meets Percy and Toby at Elsbridge, his dome and whistle appear to be severely bent.
  • Thomas and Percy's eyes are misaligned in several scenes.
  • In Ringo Starr's US dub featured on the Thomas Breaks the Rules VHS, the A Cow on the Line read-along audio cassette/CD and the Japanese dub, the coal chute sound effects are absent. The coal chute sound effects are present, however, in the Shining Time Station episode Finders Keepers.
  • In Ringo Starr's dubs and the Ukrainian voice-over, Thomas line "Those buffers don't look very safe to me" is cut off slightly early.
  • Percy is smiling when he is pushed through the buffers by the trucks and the biffing sound also does not play at the exact time he hits them.
  • In a close-up of Thomas covered in coal at the coal hopper, the hopper shakes and his face is very dirty while the side shots show him clean.
  • In the panning shot of Thomas being cleaned, a shadow can be seen moving at the back of the shed behind Thomas, possibly that of a crew member and his face is also tilted.
  • When Toby backs up to Annie and Clarabel, his face is slightly loose and blu-tack is also sticking out from the side of his face. In addition to that, Clarabel is also facing the opposite direction and her roof is not attached properly when Toby pulls them away.
  • At Tidmouth:
    • A red express coach is amongst the trucks to the left of the screen but, after that, there are only trucks in that siding.
    • A wall is at the side of Tidmouth Station that is not seen in other episodes.
    • Thomas is also on the middle track with no platform for passengers to get on.
  • Blu-tack can be seen holding up the buffers before Percy crashes into it.
  • When Percy crashes through the buffers:
    • He is not covered in coal dust but when Thomas puffs past, he does.
    • His face does not appear to be on correctly, which reveals a piece of Blu-tack and steam is also venting out of his face.
  • At the end of the episode, Percy's eyebrow is peeling away.
  • When this episode was originally released on the Thomas Comes to Breakfast 1998 VHS in Canada, it had no narration and only included the music and sound effects. This was later corrected on the 2000 VHS tape release in Canada.
  • The Starz release of Thomas Comes to Breakfast and Other Thomas Adventures mistitles this episode as Double Take.

Quotes

Percy: Hello, Thomas. You look splendid.
Thomas: Yes, indeed. Blue is the only proper colour for an engine.
Toby: Oh, I don't know. I like my brown paint.
Percy: I've always been green. I wouldn't want to be any other colour, either.
Thomas: Well, well, anyway, uh, blue is the only colour for a—for a really useful engine. Everyone knows that!
[he leaves]
Narrator: Percy said no more. He just grinned at Toby.

Thomas: [watches the hopper load coal into Percy's trucks] Careful. Watch out with those silly trucks.
Trucks: Go on! Go on! Go on!
Thomas: And, by the way, those buffers don't look very safe to me.
[Percy accidentally hits said buffers, the last load of coal pours down on Thomas]
Thomas: Help! I'm choking! Get me out!
Narrator: Percy was worried but he couldn't help laughing. Thomas' smart blue paint was covered in coal dust from smokebox to bunker!
Percy: Ha! Ha! You don't look really useful now, Thomas. You look really disgraceful.
Thomas: I'm not disgraceful. You did that on purpose. Get me out!

Narrator: (Thomas is seen at the Works) It took so long to clean Thomas that he wasn't in time for his next train. (Toby arrives and buffers up) Toby had to take Annie and Clarabel.
Annie: (to Clarabel) Poor Thomas.

Percy: (arguing with Thomas) Fancy a really useful blue engine, like Thomas, becoming a disgrace to the Fat Controller's railway.

Narrator: It was time for Thomas to leave. He had seen everything.
Thomas: Now, Percy has learned his lesson, too.

In Other Languages

View content
Language Title
Albanian Tomasi, Persi dhe qymyri
Brazilian Portuguese Confusão em dose dupla
Chinese Mandarin 托马斯培西和煤
Croatian Tomica, Pero i ugljen
Czech Tomáš, Percy a uhlí
Danish Thomas, Percy og kullene
Dutch Thomas, Percy en de kolen
Finnish Tuomas-Veturi, Pekka ja hiilet
French Thomas, Pierre et le charbon
German Chaos im Kohlenstaub
Greek Ο Τόμας, ο Τζέρι και το κάρβουνο
Hungarian Thomas, Percy és a szén
Italian Nera come il carbone
Japanese トーマスとパーシーとせきたん
Korean 석탄 속에 빠진 토마스와 퍼시
Latin American Spanish Doble problema
Norwegian Thomas, Percy og kullet
Polish Tomek, Piotrek i węgiel
Romanian Thomas, Percy și cărbunele
Romansh Tumasch, Parcival ed il charvun
Russian Черный, как вороново крыло
Serbian Tomas, Persi i ugalj
Slovenian Tomaž, Poldi in premog
Swedish Thomas, Percy och kollen
Turkish Thomas, Percy ve kömür
Ukrainian Томас, Персі та вугілля
Welsh Tomos, Pyrsi a'r Glo

Merchandise

Home Video Releases

UK

UK DVD Boxsets

WAL

US

CAN

  • Thomas Breaks the Rules and Other Stories (Ringo Starr's US dub)
  • Thomas Comes to Breakfast and Other Thomas Adventures (No narration on 1998 VHS)

US/CAN VHS/DVD Packs

AUS

  • Thomas, Percy and the Coal and Other Stories
  • Truckloads of Fun!
  • Series Two

AUS DVD Packs

NZ

ZA

IND

MYS

PHL

LATAM

LATAM DVD Boxset

BRA

ITA

FRA

ROM

ROM DVD Pack

NL

NL DVD Pack

GER

NOR/ICE

DK

SWE

FIN

SVN

HRV

SRP

GRC

GRC DVD Boxset

TUR

  • It's Good to Be a Train (VCD)
  • It's Good to Be a Train and Full Speed Ahead (DVD)

THA

JPN

JPN DVD Boxset

CHN

HK

Episode

References



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