Plot
It is summer on Sodor, and The Fat Controller informs his engines that they will be aiding the construction of a new airport. While Thomas and Percy are shunting trucks, they quickly begin quarreling with the smelter diesels, 'Arry and Bert. Thomas begins a feud when he derails 'Arry and Bert's train at the timber yards. When Diesel arrives at the docks ordering his train of building supplies, Thomas instead shunts him a train full of bananas. When Thomas and Percy return to Tidmouth Sheds that night, they find that the main shed has been demolished, and the diesels tell them that they were supposed to be delivering supplies to build a new shed.
The steam engines are all forced to stay at separate locations while a hurricane brews overnight. Strong winds cause the suspension bridge on the main line to collapse, and the next day The Fat Controller sends the engines on tasks to aid in recovery on the island. The steam and diesel engines refuse to cooperate with each other, almost causing work to grind to a halt. After a stern talk from The Fat Controller, the engines all dream of what would happen if they could not prepare the railway for business.
Thomas dreams of being in the mountains, where he meets Lady and Rusty, working side by side. Lady tells Thomas that they always finish their jobs by working together. When Thomas wakes up the next day, he seeks out Mavis, and they agree to coerce the steam and diesel engines to cooperate. The steam and diesel engines rest at opposite sides of the coaling depot, eyeing each other angrily. However, when Thomas pleads with them to pull together for the sake of the railway, the groups decide to set apart their differences and begin to work together.
Ultimately, the airport is completed, and all the engines are gathered for the grand opening. Thomas, while shunting some trucks, accidentally upsets the situation when his trucks derail and cause a tower to collapse, cracking the runway. Desperate to set things right in the last minute, Thomas decides to gather his courage to ask Diesel 10 to clear the wreckage so that George the steamroller can be retrieved to repair the runway. Diesel 10 eventually agrees, and when the steam and diesel engines see him working alongside Thomas, they all decide that they can work together quickly to repair the damage.
Once George has flattened the runway, the incoming airplanes land without difficulty. The engines celebrate their triumph, and the steam engines find that the main shed has been rebuilt at Tidmouth, with an extra berth for Emily. Finally, the engines settle into their new home.
Read more about this topic: Calling All Engines
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“But, when to Sin our byast Nature leans,
The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)