Air date: September 9th, 2016 (UK)
One day, Thomas is having trouble with the troublesome trucks. When Samson arrives and sees him, he brags that his trucks aren't a problem. Leaving the yard, he leaves his brake van: Bradford. Bradford is ashamed of the trucks and offers to be Thomas' brake van. Thomas happily agrees.
Once in position, Bradford barks at the trucks to be quiet. As Thomas passes the other engines, they wish they had a brake van like Bradford but at the Blue Mountain Quarry, Bradford makes Thomas stop; the stones in his trucks are nine millimeters above the allowed height. Thomas is surprised, even more when Bradford demands him to unload some stone, making him very late.
At the docks, Whiff asks to borrow Bradford, Thomas agrees, happy to get away from him. Whiff soon runs into a problem with him; Bradford claims Whiff's trucks are too dirty. When Henry comes to pull the Flying Kipper, Bradford orders Henry to get a new lamp after seeing a tiny crack. Henry comes back very late, and all the engines complain about Bradford.
When Thomas collects his trucks later that day, the only brake van left is Bradford, but Thomas does not want to travel with him. He decides to sneak away, and when Bradford calls Thomas out, he pretends he could not hear him. Then there is trouble; Thomas' trucks are filled with too many stones, and without a brake van, the trucks push Thomas down Gordon's Hill and into the back of Percy's train. The Fat Controller is cross and tells Thomas that safety comes before being on time.
Thomas apologizes to Bradford, but Bradford says that he is leaving. As Samson pulls him away, the engines all whistle for him, but Bradford orders to not whistle while stationary, then makes an exception this time. After what the engines went through, they are quite happy that Bradford is leaving Sodor.
This episode contains examples of:
-
Broken Aesop: The Fat Controller lectures Thomas about how following the rules is more important than being on time, but earlier in the story, he scolded Thomas for being late with his stone trucks, even though it was Bradford who caused the delay by telling him to unload some of the stone, because following the rules is more important than being on time. - The Bus Came Back: This marks the first time the vans are seen with faces since season 7.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Bradford, much to the engines and trucks' displeasure.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Thomas and the other engines have a laugh over Bradford allowing them to whistle as he leaves.
- Karma Houdini: Bradford doesn't receive any karma for delaying the engine's trains.
- Principles Zealot: Bradford clings on the rules and regulations of the railway so much that this causes the engines to be late with their trains.
- Shout-Out: Bradford's line "Oh dear, how sad, never mind" is a reference to a catchphrase used by the character of Battery Sergeant Major Williams from It Ain't Half Hot, Mum.
- Take That!: The sequence where Thomas tries to take overfilled stone trucks without a break van only to crash into the back of Percy's train feels like a jab at the Sharon Miller era of the series where break vans were frequently and notoriously absent from trains.
