anthropomorphic train · narrow gauge engine · cocky · reckless · loud · brash · goods train · railway setting · smug · rough rider
First light glints off the rails of the Mid Sodor Railway as Smudger Jennings hurtles down the track, a storm of noise and speed with his heavy goods train. He ignores the signals, the points, the very idea of slowing down. At the shed entrance, he hits the switches too fast—a shriek of metal, a sickening lurch—and plows off the rails in a cataclysm of splintering sleepers and grinding steel. The deafening crash echoes through the quiet yard, jolting every sleeping engine awake.