Air date: September 11th, 2005
It is the day of the children's summer party, and all the engines want the job to take the children. However, to Thomas' disappointment, Emily is taking the children. Thomas' jobs are to collect milk from the dairy and take it to the ice cream factory and then to collect butter from the other side of Sodor and take it to the bakery. Thomas collects the milk churns and goes slowly and carefully until he reaches a junction where Emily calls him a "slowcoach". Thomas explains that it's important for him to go slowly, but Emily snubs him as he could be taking the children if he wasn't so slow. Angry, Thomas decides to prove Emily wrong, and she challenges him to a race to the next signal.
During the race, Thomas speeds up, causing the churns in his trucks to rattle about. His next signal is green, so he gets ahead of Emily and carries on to the ice cream factory, not slowing down. At the ice cream factory, the manager is shocked to see the milk is almost butter due to Thomas' careless speeding, so he orders Thomas to get more milk and go slowly. Thomas hurries back to the dairy, only to find a very angry Fat Controller waiting for him. Time is running out and, with no butter yet at the bakery, there will be no cakes for the party.
Thomas feels very guilty about the trouble he caused. Once at the ice cream factory, though ordered to take the buttered milk back to the dairy, Thomas has a much better idea. He goes even faster with the churns of buttered milk to the bakery. When Thomas arrives, the baker is confused to see milk churns until Thomas tells him to look inside and to the baker's surprise, the buttered milk is now butter.
Thomas returns to Tidmouth Sheds where the Fat Controller sees him. Thomas is worried about getting into trouble again, but the Fat Controller is pleased thanks to Thomas' idea, so he is sent to the children's summer party as the guest of honor.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Chekhov's Gun: Earlier in the episode, Thomas travels quickly and bumpily, causing his load of milk to almost turn into butter. Those milk churns later come in handy when the bakery needs butter to make their party cakes.
- Chew-Out Fake-Out: Thomas thinks the Fat Controller would be cross with him for turning the buttered milk into butter, but instead learns that the Fat Controller is pleased with him for his idea.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the American dub, this episode was aired before "Molly's Special Special", meaning that Molly is present on Sodor before her introduction.
- Jerkass: Emily, who smugly mocks Thomas for being a "slowcoach" despite Thomas telling her that he has to go slow with the milk churns.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Thomas is so focused on proving to Emily that he can go fast that he forgets to slow down with his milk churns and causes the milk to turn into butter.
