Air date: January 14th, 1994
Adapted from: Gallant Old Engines, "Steam-Roller"
Sir Handel has recently had new wheels fitted and he claims that he is better than the others. Skarloey, attempting to bring Sir Handel down to size, tells him of an anti-railway steamroller named George, whom Sir Handel vows to sort out. Sir Handel is later bringing a special train home when he meets George on the alongside road, making it near impossible for him to pass. After the steamroller refuses to move aside, the two have a shouting match which ends when George crashes into Sir Handel's train. The next day, a fence is put up and George is taken away. Sir Handel claims credit, but loses his pride when some boys start lauding him with his race with the roller.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Sir Handel is very proud of his wheels and tries to brag about them. He gets even worse when he thinks he scared George away.
- Adaptation Distillation: After Sir Handel brags to the others about how fast he can go, a passage of time is implied in the book where he is said to keep running late in his attempts to show off. The show immediately has Skarloey decide to knock Sir Handel down a peg after his bragging.
- Adaptational Jerkass: The book is ambiguous about who is responsible for the crash; the narrator says no one knows what really happened and that both drivers claim to have signaled to the other that they were going to pass. The show firmly places George as the culprit, showing him angrily gritting his teeth before turning to slam into Sir Handel's train, and he has a smug grin afterward compared to his dazed expression from the book.
- Anti-Hero: Sir Handel.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Sir Handel is laughed at for his wheels. Peter Sam is sympathetic, pointing out his similar problem with his funnel earlier.
- Big Bad: George is the one who starts the main plot of the episodes, with Sir Handel trying to cut his ego down to size.
- Bowdlerise: In the original UK narration, it's indicated that Sir Handel and George hurl unspecified insults at each other until the latter crashes into the former's train. In the US narration, George only makes a simple snide comment about "not owning the road" before the crash.
- Break the Haughty: Skarloey tries to do this to Sir Handel by telling him about George, but this didn't shut him up. That is until some boys were laughing at him about his race with a steamroller.
- Brooklyn Rage: George in the US version. It helps that native New Yorker
George Carlin voices him. - Contrived Clumsiness: Heavily implied with George. Not only does he more blatantly ram into Sir Handel's train in this adaptation, but he spends most of the incident after with a coy smirk.
- Disneyfication: In the book version, the policeman intervened due to the argument between the drivers escalating into "fisticuffs".
- Fantastic Racism: George is heavily against the railways and steam engines, declaring railways are no good and they should be turned into roads.
- Karmic Trickster: Skarloey tries to pull off a Break the Haughty trick on Sir Handel and fails, but karma hits Sir Handel anyway.
- Never My Fault: Both the engines and their drivers argue over who caused the accident and was supposed to move for the other to pass.
- Not So Above It All: Skarloey being the one to set up Sir Handel to go after George shows even a wise old engine like him isn't afraid to have a little fun.
- Stubborn Mule: Both George and Sir Handel refuse to leave way for the other as George works to close to the tracks, this eventually leads to George crashing into Sir Handel's train as he attempts to pass through, cuing the expected argument over whose fault it was.
