Gordon the Big Engine is the eighth book of The Railway Series published in 1953. This contains four stories:
- Off the Rails: Gordon is huffy after being told to take a goods train and his fire is slow, so Edward comes to take him to the turntable. Gordon decides to "jam" the table, but only breaks through a fence and runs into a ditch. Edward takes the special instead and Henry and James pull him out.
- Leaves: After a long tedious wash-down, Gordon is banned from pulling coaches and told to shunt trucks until he behaves, and he begins to order the trucks about. Later, he tries to warn James that his hill is slippery from leaves. James simply laughs, but soon regrets it when the coaches drag him down the hill. Gordon takes pity and helps James up again.
- Down the Mine: Thomas teases Gordon for falling into a ditch, and carries on even after Annie and Clarabel rebuke him. Thomas then goes to the lead mine to get some trucks. Thomas concocts a plan to go past a "danger" board, and falls in. Gordon, who laughs when he finds out, comes to the rescue, and, on the way home, the two form an Alliance.
- Paint Pots and Queens: Queen Elizabeth II is coming to Sodor and Henry brags that he will be chosen to take the Royal Train, but these plans are soon put to rest when Henry disturbs a painter and a paint pot falls onto him. Thomas and Gordon apologize to the Fat Controller for being silly, and he allows Gordon to pull the Royal Train. On the big day, Thomas gets the coaches ready, and Edward clears the line in front. The Queen meets all the engines, and talks personally to Thomas, Edward and Gordon, but Gordon feels proudest of all.
The book contains examples of:
- Call-Back: One, Percy asks Gordon about his accidents such as the jammed whistle and the burst safety valve. Gordon claims that it could happen to any engine. Also, Gordon mockingly reminds Henry of the time he had an accident with The Flying Kipper, and hopes that he'll "keep on the rails" when pulling the express.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Thomas ignores the danger sign and falls into a mine.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Gordon loses his Express privileges after trying to avoid pulling trucks which lead to his ditch accident, but after pulling trucks for several months, helping James up the hill, and rescuing Thomas from the mine, he gets chosen to pull the Royal Train and presumably is allowed to pull the Express again after the events of the book.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Thomas and Gordon "form an alliance" in the end of "Down the Mine".
- The Freelance Shame Squad:
- In "Off the Rails", a group of boys were singing a song to mock Gordon falling into a ditch.
- In "Down the Mine", Thomas makes fun of Gordon for smelling like ditch water.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Gordon gets stuck in the ditch after trying to jam the turntable. Later, Thomas falls down a mine after disobeying the danger sign.
- Insulted Awake: Henry wakes up Gordon, which makes him angry.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- After being rude and uncooperative through his refusal to take the special goods train, Gordon suffers a huge dose of humiliation when he falls into the ditch while trying to jam the turntable, staying there until dark and experiencing some teasing from a group of boys and a confrontation with a cross group of toads while he's at it. And after he is cleaned the following day, the Fat Controller punishes him by banning him from pulling coaches until he can be trusted to behave again.
- James has his turn after rejecting Gordon's help offer; not only does he get stuck halfway up Gordon's Hill, his panicking results in the sand and the leaves on the ground getting turned into slippery mud, meaning things can only get worse from there. The weight of the coaches pulls him down the hill, and waiting for him at the bottom is an amused Gordon, who makes him eat his own words from before about not needing help on hills.
- Thomas falling down the mine is essentially karma for both making fun of Gordon and ignoring the warning sign. And while we don't see it happen, a line of dialogue from Gordon in "Paint Pots and Queens" indicates that the Fat Controller punished him by taking his branch line away from him between the events of "Down the Mine" and this story.
- Leave Me Alone!: James claims that he doesn't need Gordon's help up the hill, but soon eats his words as he slides back to the bottom of the hill due to the leaves.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Gordon and Thomas state that they're in disgrace because of their respective accidents and form an Alliance.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the engines begin to wonder who will pull the royal train when the Queen visits Sodor, Gordon gloomily states that the Fat Controller wouldn't choose him to pull it, regarding his ditch incident and the punishment he was given afterwards of pulling trucks until he can be trusted to behave again. Normally, he would be rather confident about being given the job of pulling a train like this, but hearing him be this despondent and self-deprecating is really saying a lot, and it goes to show how much of an impact the ditch incident left on him.
- Skewed Priorities: The painter bawls at Henry for causing his accident and forcing him to get more paint.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the real-life incident that inspired "Down the Mine", Thomas' counterpart was never recovered except for their tender.
- Time Skip: The events of the first three stories took place in the latter half of 1952. The events of "Paint Pots and Queens" took place in the former half of 1953.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story:
- "Off the Rails" is based on a real event that took place at Lynn on 8 August 1952 when an LMS Ivatt Class 4 tender engine, No. 43142 fell into a muddy ditch from the turntable.
- "Leaves" was based on a real event that took place at Bincombe Tunnel in Dorset, as discussed by James' crew.
- "Down the Mine" is based on a real event that took place at Lindal-in-Furness in 1892. Though in this particular event, the collapsing mine hole was so deep all that was recovered of the Furness Railway engine, number 115, was its tender.
- "Paint Pots and Queens" is based on two events, one where a station painter was unsighted by locomotive smoke in Preston and the other where HM Queen Elizabeth II arrived on a train at Llandrindod Wells in 1952, the year she took the throne, is very reminiscent of the scenes in Sodor the following year, after her Coronation in 1953.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- In the beginning of "Leaves", The Fat Controller scolds Gordon for falling into a ditch and orders him to pull trucks as punishment.
- In "Down the Mine", Annie and Clarabel are shocked and call out Thomas for teasing Gordon for smelling like ditch water, although Thomas doesn't care. Then the Fat Controller scolds him for his mishap in the mine.
