Air date: September 4th, 2005
After an overnight storm knocks the telegraph poles down, the Fat Controller gives Thomas the task of taking engineers to fix them. Thomas goes to Brendam Docks with Annie and Clarabel and whilst the engineers climb aboard his train, he sees a rainbow in the sky. Edward, who is shunting trucks nearby, tells Thomas that according to legend there is something magical at the end of the rainbow, prompting Thomas to find it himself.
During his journey, Thomas meets Percy at a junction but doesn't have time to talk to his best friend as he wants to find the end of the rainbow. Climbing up Gordon's Hill, the end of the rainbow seems to be at the summit; but when Thomas gets there, the rainbow has moved. After dropping off some engineers by a bridge, Thomas ignores some children's call of "hello" as he carries on finding the rainbow. Unfortunately, Thomas gets so carried away trying to find the end of the rainbow that he ignores Henry's call for assistance with his trucks and Toby's warning that something is blocking the track ahead. It turns out to be a broken telegraph pole, which Thomas runs into and derails.
Now Thomas cannot finish his job and, as all the telegraph poles aren't fixed, his driver can't phone for help. However, Thomas sees Percy passing by on another line and whistles for him to help, but Percy doesn't respond; Thomas thinks that Percy isn't listening because he didn't have time to talk to Percy, but Percy hears Thomas' call for help and sends the message down the line. The message eventually reaches Harvey, who sets off to the rescue.
Finally, Harvey arrives and gets Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel back on the rails; he also tells Thomas that all of his friends worked together to rescue him. Thomas carries on with his work but now ignores the rainbow. Once all the telegraph poles are fixed, Thomas goes home to Tidmouth Sheds to find the end of the rainbow. The "something magical" is his friends.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Thomas crashes and whistles Percy for help. When Percy just rushes off, Thomas thinks Percy isn't speaking to him because he ignored him earlier and mopes in guilt. In reality, Percy was only in a hurry because he wanted to get help for Thomas.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: The whole plot of the episode involves Thomas trying to find what's at the end of a rainbow.
- Friend to All Children: Thomas is described as this in the beginning narration along with being friends with everyone on Sodor.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Thomas realises that focusing on the end of the rainbow caused him to not talk to his friends, which in return means Percy is ignoring his cries for help after his accident. Of course, when he thinks that Percy isn't listening to him, he is wrong as he did hear his whistle, and went off to find help.
- The Power of Friendship: Thomas spends the whole episode trying to find what's magical at the end of a rainbow. The rainbow ends at Tidmouth Sheds where all of Thomas' friends are, which makes him declare that friends are the most wonderful thing of all.
