Hello everyone! 🙂

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

It’s Day 16 of ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendar 2025.

Have Henry, Gordon and James learnt their lesson after being shut up in the shed?

‘PERCY RUNS AWAY’

‘Percy Runs Away’ is the third instalment of the story arc that’s been going on involving Henry, Gordon and James rebelling against the Fat Controller and saying, “Tender engines don’t shunt”. The arc gets resolved very early, as the rest of the episode focuses on Percy.

This episode is based on the story of the same name from the fifth ‘Railway Series’ book called ‘Troublesome Engines’. In the book, it was the fourth and final story. It’s a relief that the Fat Controller permits Henry, Gordon and James out of the shed after several days. 🙂

Thomas, Edward and Percy meanwhile are allowed to work on the branch line after working on the main line in Henry, Gordon and James’ absence. Sometime later, Percy waits at a signal box but doesn’t whistle to let the signalman know he’s waiting for him. 😐

As a result, Percy nearly has a collision with Gordon, who’s heading towards him with the Express. Thankfully, Gordon stops, but Percy is terrified and runs away, passing through Edward’s station and going up and down Gordon’s hill. The runaway music is compelling.

Percy ends up in a bank of earth when put into a siding. Gordon comes along to get Percy out, using his rescue cable. This is the first time we see Gordon use his rescue cable to help someone out in the series. It’s interesting Gordon isn’t angry with Percy by this stage.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Check out what Day 16 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 🙂