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The Twin Engines
Author Wilbert Awdry
Illustrator John T. Kenney
Publication date 1960-Present
Published by Egmont Publishing
Edmund Ward
Publication Order
Preceded by
The Little Old Engine
Followed by
Branch Line Engines

The Twin Engines is the fifteenth book of the Railway Series and the first to feature twins. Main Line Engines, the twenty-first book, will later become the second to feature twins.

Foreword[]

Dear Friends

Sir Topham Hatt has just been having a disturbing time! He ordered one goods engine from Scotland and was surprised to receive two!

They had both lost their numbers and no one knew which was which. So he didn't know which engine to keep.

The Author

Stories[]

Hullo Twins![]

The North Western Railway is busier than ever, with more passengers and goods coming in and out of Tidmouth than ever before. Bothered by the extra work, Henry, Gordon, James and Duck have a rowdy discussion until The Fat Controller arrives to announce he has bought a goods engine that will arrive from Scotland tomorrow. But he also has his own pickle to deal with when an understandably nervous inspector comes into his office and announces two engines with no numbers have arrived. The Fat Controller discovers that both engines must have lost their numbers "on purpose", naming themselves Donald and Douglas without anyone else knowing. To settle the investigation, the inspector is ordered to give them numbers and set them to work.

The Missing Coach[]

Donald and Douglas have their new numbers painted on their tenders. The inspector puts them to work with Duck in sorting coaches and tackling the Troublesome Trucks, which they do with equal ease. Gordon's express meanwhile has gained a special coach for Thomas to give passengers the opportunity to travel on his branch line. One afternoon, Donald is preparing to take a goods train as Douglas is working in the yard, offering to relieve Duck by shunting Gordon's coaches when he arrives. He gets a worrying hunch however over being found out and shunts the special coach with the others into a siding instead of separately to the bay platform. Thomas is angry about not finding the special coach where he usually does, and three tourists angrily demand The Fat Controller to talk with them. The Scottish twins decide to swap tenders and pretend there was a defect, but Sir Topham Hatt recognises the switch.

(The North Western Railway's filed accounts give a different take on the events. Douglas had, in fact, shunted the coaches to immediately form a semi-fast train at the opposite platform, from where another engine (Henry) would leave with fresh passengers, stopping at certain stations en-route. As before, the preoccupied Douglas and his crew did not recognise Thomas's Special Coach needed to be detached, and the train departed none the wiser at first. It was not until the train stopped at Cronk that the passengers from the special coach were able to get out and voice their complaints. Whilst Sir Topham Hatt left Tidmouth to sort out the mix-up, Donald tried to avenge Douglas's case by staying behind with his tender detached whilst Douglas took his goods train, only to have reckoned without Sir Topham Hatt's knowledge of the abrupt changeover.)

Break Van[]

The Fat Controller scolds the twins and warns them he will be keeping a closer eye on them. A Spiteful Brake Van notices and delays Douglas' goods trains, although this is stopped when Donald makes a standoff with him. After that, the Brake Van behaves well, but Donald slips on some rails and crashes into a signal box tender first. With both the signalman and Sir Topham Hatt cross about the inconvenience for opposite reasons, James has to be assigned to deal with Donald's goods trains much to his own chagrin.

The Spiteful Brake Van meanwhile recognises James' fury and tries to hold him back with Douglas having to help him and his trucks up Gordon's Hill. James finds he can't go further and Douglas in his extra effort destroys The Spiteful Brake Van. The Fat Controller is left in no doubt that he is conflicted over what to do about the twins.

The Deputation[]

Early winter snowstorms force Donald and Douglas to clear the line of snow and help Henry out of it after he gets stuck in a snowdrift. The twins are still worried about which one will stay and who goes home. Percy is worried and Edward advises him they must form a deputation to stop it happening, but the other engines confuse the word. Both Henry and Gordon elect Percy as their "disputation" and tells Sir Topham Hatt about the problem. Unknown to the engines however, the Fat Controller has already looked into the matter. When he next talks to the engines, he makes it clear he does not take interferences, before announcing the Scottish twins will have a new coat of paint and are allowed to stay on the NWR forever.

Characters[]

Trivia[]

  • If The Fat Controller checked the B.R. rolls, then the Class 812's only rise to 57645 and not 57646. This was only a subtle joke.
  • Gordon references "Tugboat Annie", a 1950s Canadian television series about a tough old widow who captained a tugboat.
  • David Mitton said "The Missing Coach" for season two of Thomas and Friends was half-finished, but Britt Allcroft scrapped the idea because the plot became too complicated for young viewers.
  • One of the twins has the British Railways logo of a "cycling lion". This was used for the front and second illustrations of both the book and "Hullo Twins!".

Goofs[]

  • In the fourth illustration of "The Missing Coach", Annie and Clarabel are at different lengths.
  • When James approaches The Spiteful Brake Van, his lamp iron disappears.
  • When the engines mix up the pronunciation of "deputation", Edward is visible in the sheds, however he doesn't correct them.
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