The Smart Engines! is a magazine story.
Plot
Wellsworth is home to a very grand hotel. Guests are often brought by train to the station. James is tasked with this one day and feels very grand, especially when one woman calls him smart. He then boasts about this in the sheds that night.
Next day, The Fat Controller tells James and Henry that some hotel guests have finished their stay and need a trip back to the mainland. James eagerly waits to be chosen but, this time, The Fat Controller chooses Henry. Henry begins to wonder if he is a smart enough engine to be doing such a job. He soon arrives at Wellsworth and the guests climb aboard his coaches. Most of their luggage is placed in the guard's compartment but one man brings his big suitcase into the coach with him and places it in the overhead rack.
Henry hurries off as fast as he can so as not to be late to catch the mainland ferry. Henry is so fast that he arrives half an hour early! He is so distracted, however, that he bumps the buffers very hard. Henry is worried what James will have to say about this but his worries are soon quelled when the man's big suitcase falls off the rack and bursts open, revealing many pieces of fine cutlery stolen from the hotel! The other passengers shout a warning and a police officer quickly arrests the thief. A woman congratulates Henry for being so clever and Henry hopes The Fat Controller will think the same.
Characters
- Henry
- James
- Sir Topham Hatt
- Thomas (cameo)
Locations
Gallery
