Air date: October 15th, 1986
Adapted from: Percy the Small Engine, "Percy and the Signal"
Percy works in the yard, collecting coaches and trucks that the bigger engines need for their trains. Although he works hard, he can also be very cheeky. One day, he wakes Gordon up by telling him is train is ready. Gordon jumps, thinking he's running late, only for Percy to reveal a line of dirty trucks. Gordon is angry and tries to think of a way to pay Percy out.
Percy then goes to James and tells him that the Fat Controller has sent a message for James to not leave the shed. James is delighted, thinking the Fat Controller wants him to pull a special. As a result, he refuses to leave the shed when his driver and fireman try to make him move. The other engines are angry over having to do James' work as well as their own. Finally an engine inspector arrives and tells James to move. James refuses and tells him about the message the Fat Controller sent. The inspector points out the Fat Controller didn't send a message as he's away for a week. James is horrified and quickly leaves to find Percy, but Percy had decided to make himself scarce. When the Fat Controller comes back, he does see James and Percy too, neither engine wishing he had.
A few days later, Percy is showing off to Gordon and James as the Fat Controller has asked him to take trucks to Thomas' junction. He's boasting that he was chosen as he's a really useful engine, but James thinks he probably just wants him out of the way. Gordon and James then put form a plan and put it into action. They claim they were talking about being careful with the signals at the junction, especially "backing signals". Percy, keen to show off, claims that he knows all about signals and leaves, but worries as he has never seen or heard of a backing signal before.
Percy soon arrives at a signal set to "danger", but then sees its arm move to "line clear". Percy is surprised when it moves up instead of down, having never seen anything like it before, and guesses that it's one of the "backing signals" Gordon and James were discussing. Percy begins reversing, and his driver quickly stops him. Percy insists that it's a "backing signal" and tells him what Gordon and James had said. The driver tells Percy the truth, which makes him eager to leave before he is seen, but Gordon goes past and sees that Percy fell for the trick. Humiliated, Percy quickly and quietly finishes his work.
That night in the sheds Gordon and James talk about signals; while they think it's funny, Percy thinks they're being very silly.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Bowdlerise:
- The UK narration states that Gordon thought how to pay Percy out. However, in the US narration, it states that Gordon thought how to get back at Percy for teasing him.
- When The Fat Controller comes to see Percy and James, the UK narration states that the engines wished he hadn't seen them; the US narration states that he was cross with the two for causing so much trouble. A mildly inverted example, as in the UK version, it's only implied that The Fat Controller's telling them off.
- In the scene after the above example, the UK narration states "One morning, Percy was careless", but in the US, it says "But at the very next day, Percy was still being cheeky."
- Bratty Half-Pint: Percy.
- Break the Haughty: What Gordon and James do to Percy.
- Death Glare: Gordon, Henry, and even Edward do this with James after the latter had been tricked by Percy into not working, forcing them to do all his work for him.
- The Freelance Shame Squad: The episode ends with Gordon and James teasing Percy for falling for the signal trick in the sheds.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Thomas' Special Coach was seen in the scene where the Fat Controller was telling off James and Percy, indicating that "The Missing Coach" was concurrently filmed with this episode.
- Gullible Lemmings: Percy easily falls for Gordon and James' trick of backing signals.
- Karmic Tricksters: Gordon and James.
- Oh, Crap!: This is Percy and James' reaction when The Fat Controller came back and is cross with them for the trouble they caused. The UK narration best describes their reaction as such.Narrator: When the Fat Controller came back, he did see James. And Percy, too. Both engines wished he hadn't.
- The Prankster: Percy. This didn't end well after tricking James, however.
- Stock Footage: A footage of "Coal" is used, though Percy's driver is in Henry's cab.
