Air date: December 17th, 1986
Adapted from: Tramway Engines, "Woolly Bear"
In summer, long hay grows beside the line and gangers cut it and rake it into heaps to dry in the sun. Percy then collects the hay in empty trucks and takes them to the station. There, Toby collects the trucks and takes them to the hills for farmers to feed their stock.
One day, Percy arrives at the station and starts to tease Thomas for thinking he was a ghost. Thomas retorts that Percy is a "green caterpillar with red stripes", which makes Percy angry. Thomas then reminds Percy that he has been late at the station every afternoon that week. Percy tells Thomas that it's the hay that's making him late, but Thomas isn't interested in Percy's excuses and the little green engine leaves to collect some hay to take to the Harbour.
Percy grumbles to himself all afternoon that he's only ever late by a few minutes, but nevertheless he and his driver decide to head home early. However, there's trouble as they drop the trucks off at the harbour; a loose crate of treacle hanging over Percy drops and splatters all over him. The workmen at the harbour try to clean him up, but Percy has to leave and is still very sticky when he does.
Soon Percy comes to a hill where the hay is laying and by now it's very windy. The hay is blown over the track and Percy. Because Percy's wheels slip on the slippery hay he must wait for the line to be cleared. While he does so, the wind blows some of the hay onto Percy, where it clings to his sticky boiler.
At the station, Thomas waits angrily for a late Percy. Suddenly, all the passengers start laughing when Percy arrives as he's now completely covered with hay, making him quite a sight. Thomas remarks that the "caterpillar has crawled out of the hay". Percy doesn't know what Thomas is talking about, but Thomas tells him that seeing Percy like this is worth being late.
Percy runs back to the shed where his driver shows him what he looks like in a mirror. Now Percy knows what everyone was laughing at, stating that he looks like a woolly bear and asks to be cleaned before Toby arrives, not knowing that Thomas has already told Toby everything.
In the end, it doesn't matter as by the time Toby and Thomas arrive, Percy is still a long way from being cleaned causing the two to make jokes about woolly bear caterpillars, much to Percy's chagrin.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Aesop Amnesia: As a result of a Series Continuity Error, this episode breaks a lot of Thomas' Character Development into a less egotistical engine throughout the stories of More About Thomas The Tank Engine. He's once more pompous and rude towards Percy and fussing about another engine making him late.
- Butt-Monkey: Percy.
- Deadpan Snarker: Thomas' reaction to seeing Percy covered in straw:Thomas: Look what's crawled outta the hay.
- Downer Ending: Percy's laughed at by Thomas and Toby for looking like a woolly bear caterpillar and he thought their jokes weren't humorous.
- The Freelance Shame Squad: Thomas and Toby made jokes about Percy looking like a woolly bear caterpillar in the end.
- Jerkass: Thomas to Percy as pointed above Aesop Amnesia. Though this may have to do with Percy's ghost prank.
- Mirror Reveal: A crate of treacle falls on Percy when he goes to the harbor, and his crew are unable to get the treacle off despite their best efforts. On his way to meet Thomas at the station, a windstorm tosses hay about, causing some of it to stick to the treacle on Percy. When Percy finally arrives at the station, everyone laughs at him, and Thomas calls him a hairy caterpillar. When Percy's driver shows Percy what he looks like in a mirror, he suddenly realizes why everyone laughed at him. He asks his driver to clean him before Toby comes back to the sheds, but by this time, Thomas tells Toby all about what happened to Percy, and the two make jokes about wooly bear caterpillars, much to Percy's ire.
- No Sympathy: Thomas, who doesn't like it when an engine makes him late, was dismissive of Percy's reason for his lateness caused by the hay on the line.
- Perpetual Frowner: A minor variant. Thomas is said to be amused at the sight of Percy being covered in hay, but he has an irritated frown on his face. He then goes back smiling as he tells Toby about what happened to Percy.
- Pun: "Look what's crawled out of the hay."
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After realizing Percy's ghost trick and after being teased about it, Thomas retaliates by calling Percy a "Green Caterpillar with red stripes" and criticizes him for being late.Thomas: Your ugly fizz is enough to frighten anyone. You're like...
Percy: Ugly indeed?! I'm...
Thomas: ...a green caterpillar with red stripes. You crawl like one, too!
Percy: I don't!
Thomas: Who's being late every afternoon this week?
Percy: It's the hay!
Thomas: I can't help that. Time's time, and the Fat Controller is relying on me to keep it. I can't if you crawl on the hay till all hours! - Sticky Situation: Percy gets a crate of treacle dropped on him at the docks, leaving him covered in the stuff.
- Title Drop
- Take That!: The "Green Caterpillar with red stripes" description is actually Rev. Awdry's less-than-stellar opinion of Percy's appearance as drawn by the books' then illustrator, C. Reginald Dalby.
- Worth It: Thomas says this when he sees Percy covered in hay.
