Air date: April 28th, 1992 (UK), November 25th, 1991 (US)
Adapted from: The magazine story "Bertie's Bumpy Road"
It is a beautiful day and Thomas is puffing along his branch line with Annie and Clarabel, enjoying himself enormously. He soon meets Bertie, who is having a most unpleasant journey driving over the bumpy roads. At the station, Thomas finds out that Bertie has lost his trust in the railway's service after it failed to deliver tar to mend the roads two weeks earlier, and resolves to find the source of the problem.
Meanwhile, James is complaining about having to do Percy's work while the green saddle engine is at the harbour, and takes his anger out by bumping his trucks, who vow to pay him out. Gordon advises James that if he pretended to be sick, he would not have to shunt trucks or go to the quarry, and James happily decides to try it. When Thomas arrives, James pretends to be ill, and Thomas offers to take James' trucks for him to the Quarry. The trucks, who are still cross at James for bumping them, decide to take their anger out on Thomas, deciding that one engine is as good as another. On the way back from the quarry, the trucks push Thomas over some points and onto a jetty, which floats across a muddy pond and sinks. Thomas finds the unexpected incident humiliating, especially since the day started so well too.
Duck handles the trucks, and Edward brings Thomas home on a flatbed. On the way, Thomas then remembers about the missing tar and informs Edward about it; he recalls a tar tanker was left at Wellsworth and offers to collect it to ensure it reaches Bertie's road. James and Gordon apologise for the trick, and Bertie arrives saying the road is being mended and he has regained his trust in the railway. Gordon and James slowly leave for the shed, but Thomas is still not alone, for it so happens that a toad from the pond has stowed away on his valence for company, and is looking forward to a ride home.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Alliterative Title: "Trust Thomas"
- Break the Cutie: After getting snapped at by Bertie, manipulated by James and pushed into a river by the trucks, Thomas' positive outlook starts to fade. Luckily things get better from there.
- Didn't Think This Through: When James decides to pretend to be ill so Thomas can take the trucks for him, he didn't know the trucks still had intentions on paying him back for bumping them, so they pay Thomas instead by stranding him in the middle of a pond. James promptly apologizes for this afterward.
- Digital Destruction: In the restored version, when James bumps the trucks before he pulls up next to Gordon, the visuals are out of sync with the sound effects.
- Fantastic Racism: Bertie's attitude on the railway failing to deliver the tar, but he soon became happy that the roads are mended in the end.
- Jerkasses: The Troublesome Trucks, as always.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gordon and James, who, despite tricking Thomas into doing James' work, apologize to him when he ends up having an accident.
- Karma Houdini: Unless you count feeling guilty as a punishment, James and Gordon practically got away with tricking Thomas into doing their work, which inadvertantly lead to Thomas's accident, without facing any reprocutions. The last that's seen of them is their sneaking off to the sheds when Thomas and Bertie are making amends.
- Misplaced Retribution: James angrily bumps the Troublesome Trucks, but instead, they decided to play tricks on Thomas since "one engine's as good as another".
- Nice Guy: Surprisingly, it's Thomas who agrees to take James' trucks, despite the fact James was faking his illness. He even showed no hard feelings when James apologized for tricking him. This was a large pivot into Thomas' Character Development into a wiser and more altruistic engine, compared to the arrogant Bratty Half-Pint he was in the previous seasons.
- Playing Sick: What James does to get out of shunting.
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: James plays sick to get kind natured Thomas to pull his workload. He feels bad when it leads to the trucks pranking Thomas.
- Verbal Backspace: James nearly messed up his trick on Thomas.Gordon: He's sick.
James: Yes he is- I- I mean, I am!
