Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends - The Demise of The Diesel
Prologue
BJ tells the prologue:
Several years ago, I bought and received a job lot of early Thomas & Friends videos and the like from an eBay seller, with the help of my friends Barney, Sissy and Riff. The auction's description mentioned that several of the videos were actually given to him prior to the release of the series on VHS, implying that the seller originally worked on the show in some way. Some of the early tapes he sent me were in relatively good condition (considering they're almost 3-15 years old) and some are a little worse for wear, with missing boxes, labels, etc.
Some of the tapes had the original labels missing and had crudely-written replacement labels stuck to them. Other tapes had earlier versions of certain episodes with extra (or missing) sound effects, as well as short bits of footage that did not make it to the final versions of the episodes. Some VHS tapes are US ones. Some are the UK ones.
The video that grabbed my interest the most, however, was a video simply called "The Demise of The Diesel, which I believe was filmed in 1987.
I knew what the plot says:
The diesel is still rude to the steam engines, and tries to show them how he can pull cars, but he gets himself in harm's way! He is such a dick!
Video
Intrigued, I played the video before any of the others I received in the Job lot.
The video starts with a date displayed in the bottom right hand corner. It only appears for a few seconds, and it says "5/2/1987" which would mean the 5th Feburary, 1997. According to most sources, 1997 is the year which the Rev w AWDRY died.
After this, the Thomas & Friends Season 4 intro plays regularly. When the title card appears, it says "The Demise of the Diesel".
Michael Angelis narrates this episode, and the sound effects from Season 4 is used. Also, the Season 2 Thomas & Friends models and sets are still used.
The episode starts out with Knapford Station, which the Class 40 diesel is rude to Duck, then Duck warns him not to go over dangerous things, that might destroy you. But the diesel doesn't listen and purrs away to collect some freight cars (which Ringo Starr the narrator calls them trucks).
Then we see Sir Topham Hatt (which Michael Angelis calls him The Fat Controller) telling Percy to collect some stone from the quarry. Then Percy puffs away.
Next we see the diesel banging the freight cars hard. The cars are angry about this and vow to pay back the diesel. The diesel purrs away with his cars. Then we see him puffing through the countryside, still angry.
Immediately following this, the diesel gets sent down the wrong line. We see a shot of the diesel rolling down the wrong line with a surprised look on his face. It is silimar to BoCo's shocked face, except it is more detailed and convoys horror. The Season 2 Runaway Theme is used.
We see the diesel roll down a steep gradient, with the cars surging against him. The shocked face from the last scene is still present. A level crossing is ahead of the diesel, which he immediately runs into and breaks. To make matters worse, a car is on the level crossing at that point in time, which the diesel rams into, sending it tumbling out of control.
A semi-mountainous set similar to the one from "Thomas in Trouble" (Where Thomas is confronted by the policeman) is seen with the diesel in the far distance. The difference is that there are more rocks, ridges and cliffs, and less grass. a pair of derailed cars are present on the line in front of the diesel. The diesel, unable to stop, smashes into the derailed cars and flies off of the rails.
The diesel continues to roll along the ground (a thin piece of string is visible in a few scenes) until he tumbles off a rocky ledge. He falls all the down the mountain cliff with a more unsettling face. It is similar to his furious face, but conveys intense fear and his teeth are less gritted. While this is going on, House Of Horror, a piece of stock background music from some SpongeBob episodes is used (only the end part).
The diesel reaches the bottom of the mountain and crashes into the rocky ravine below. A loud crash can be heard (heard in The Wombles episode "Running Out of Steam, when the train crashes) (as the diesel explodes on contract with the ground, and his whistles and handrails flying everywhere). An explosion (another stock sound effect) is added for a more dramatic effect. Even worse than this that is Mario's scream from "Super Mario 64" (when Mario falls off a level), which I assume are the diesel's driver, either being badly injured or killed by the crash.
As the crash dies down, the camera pans and, before Ringo Starr completes the sentence "Luckly, no one was-", we see some of the diesel's remains, including the upturned, torned up body shell, as Dramatic Cue A (another piece of background music from SpongeBob) is played. We see a shot of Thomas and Duck (with their usual shocked faces) as they say "OH MY! THIS DIESEL IS SMASHED UP AND THIS RAILWAY WILL BE MUCH BETTER!". James then is seen laughing at the sight of the corspe of the diesel and says "This diesel now got what he deserves". After that, the breakdown train is seen, which appears to be coupled to Edward. Edward then says "This diesel now needs scrapping". At the end of the episode, the end credits from Season 4 played normally. I never watched Thomas and friends again. I had nightmares for 7 weeks after. I still have thoughts of that episode. I never talk to anyone about it. Except now everybody knows.
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