Air date: September 16, 2020 (UK)
One day, James arrives at Vicarstown and meets the children cheering at their new comic book. They show James the superhero in the comic book and tell him that he wears a red cape and can fly at supersonic speed. James thinks he can fly at supersonic speed and become a superhero. When James leaves the station, he dreams the Sodor Suspension Bridge has collapsed and Rebecca falls off the tracks, James coming to her rescue as a superhero.
As James stops at Maron, oil drums splatted all over James' face by Rocky. When James looks at himself at the Fenland Track so he can see himself in the water, he decides to become the Rail Rocket.
Meanwhile, at Brendam Docks, Percy is struggling with so many trucks to pull. Salty arrives to see him pulling a lot of trucks, as Percy manages to set off.
Later, James hears the children calling, and he sees the children from a kite stuck in a tree. Then he blows steam in his funnel to blow the kite off the tree. The children save their kite. Then James hears a bell from the crossing, only to find it came from goats. James now starts feeling very sad and gives up by saying he will "return to his normal life when there's no danger on the railway".
That evening, when Rebecca arrives at the coal hopper, Percy comes by with the runaway trucks and then derails with the coal trucks. Then one of the trucks crashes into the coal hopper, which is about to tip over Rebecca. Later, as James sadly arrives at the washdown to get cleaned up, Rebecca calls over from James to help. James rushes to rescue Rebecca from the coal hopper tipping and saves Rebecca from the coal hopper tipping over. Then Percy sees that James is a rail rocket.
That night, Percy tells the other engines at Tidmouth Sheds that James burst through the coal hopper and pushed Rebecca to safety. Then James arrives back at Tidmouth Sheds, Percy tells him that he was called "Rail Rocket."
This episode contains examples of:
- Good Needs Evil: Touched upon. After learning the "distress signal" was from a goat's bell, James sadly laments about how pointless being a hero is if there's no disaster.James: So much for Sodor calling. There's never a disaster when you need one.
- Imagine Spot: James has one where he's a super hero rescuing Rebecca from falling off of the bridge.
- Iris Out: How the episode ends.
- Superhero Episode: In this episode, James fantasizes about being a superhero called the Rail Rocket after hearing about a comic book superhero called the Red Shadow. When a barrel of oil spills over James' eyes, it makes him look like he's wearing a superhero mask. James spends the rest of the day pretending to be the Rail Rocket, but has a hard time finding anyone who needs to be saved. He eventually saves Rebecca from being hit by a falling coal hopper when an accident with Percy's freight cars causes said coal hopper to fall over.
