Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s Day 6 of ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendar 2025.

What trouble will Thomas the Tank Engine get up to today? 😀

‘THOMAS AND THE BREAKDOWN TRAIN’

This ‘Thomas’ episode is the seventh in Season 1 of the TV series. It’s based on the fourth and final story of the second ‘Railway Series’ book ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’. So far, the TV series more or less follows the same chronology as the original ‘Railway Series’ books.

In this episode, Thomas is getting better at how he does his work on the Island of Sodor and is learning not to be so impatient, as depicted in ‘Thomas’ Train’ and ‘Thomas and the Trucks’. Thomas is also introduced to the Breakdown Train, which helps to sort out accidents.

There’s also the introduction of James the Red Engine, though he’s been in the previous six episodes of Season 1 so far without ever being mentioned. Incidentally, on a side note, James had a black coat of paint in the book version of this story compared to the TV version.

Had James been given a black coat of paint instead of red, it’d make sense for the Fat Controller to say he shall have a new coat of paint by the episode’s end. Speaking of which, James has an accident with trucks bumping into him, which causes him to go off the rails.

Thomas helps James out by bringing the Breakdown Train along so he can get back onto the rails. Thomas is commended for his efforts in helping James by the Fat Controller. In the end, Thomas gets to have his own branch line as well as two coaches – Annie and Clarabel.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Check out what Day 6 of my ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendars for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 were about!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂