Air date: May 1st, 1995
Adapted from: Toby, Trucks, and Trouble, "Toby's Seaside Holiday" and "Bulstrode"
Toby is delighted to be invited to a seaside festival held every year as a "special attraction", but when he gets there, he finds there is no room for him in the parade.
Toby returns to the junction, and when Percy sees how sad Toby is, he wants to know why, but The Fat Controller tells him to take care of some important work in the harbour, and his driver says that it'll be trouble with Bulstrode, a disagreeable barge who never stops complaining.
At the harbour Bullstrode and the trucks are arguing on whether he or them are not where they belong. Then, when Percy arrives, the trucks want to be shunted into a siding to load him up, so he can leave. Percy unfortunately loses control while shunting, and the trucks topple off the wharf and land in Bulstrode's hull, which nearly sinks him much to the other trucks' amusement. After being emptied, Bulstrode is towed to a beach for children to play in.
When Percy returns, Toby is over his disappointment and tells Percy that his driver says that both of them are Special Attractions after all.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Adapted Out: The novel version of "Toby's Seaside Holiday", which forms the first half of this epsiode, has scenes were Toby reminisces about working at a harbor with several of his brothers, and where Toby helps an old engine pull his next train to the seaside. Due in part to these scenes being omitted from the episode, these characters are neither seen nor mentioned.
- Compressed Adaptation: The episode combines both stories - "Toby's Seaside Holiday" and "Bulstrode" - from the book Toby, Trucks, and Trouble.
- Disneyfication: In the original book, the trucks who fell into Bulstrode died, as the others were said to be “sad to lose some of their friends”. We know this as Percy took them to the scrapyard. Because of the allusion to death, this doesn't happen in the adaptation, and the trucks probably go back to either a quarry, coal mine or Arlesburgh.
- Enemy Mine: The troublesome trucks actually helped an engine deal with the grouchy Bulstrode.
- Jerkass: Bulstrode.
- Oh, Crap!: Bulstrode has this reaction when he sees Percy shunting the trucks towards him.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: The trucks severely damaged Bulstrode by falling on him in retaliation for him complaining a lot.
