A Crack in the Track Read online

  Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

  Based on The Railway Series by the Rev W Awdry

  Copyright © Gullane (Thomas) LLC 2001

  Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and Thomas & Friends are trademarks of Gullane (Thomas) Limited.

  HIT and the HIT Entertainment logo are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Limited.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  www.randomhouse.com/kids

  www.thomasthetankengine.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

  A crack in the track : a Thomas the Tank Engine story / illustrated by Tommy Stubbs.

  p. cm.

  “Based on the Railway series by the Rev. W. Awdry.”

  SUMMARY: A crack in the track brings Thomas the Tank Engine and the entire Island of Sodor Railway to a screeching halt in this rhyming adventure.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-98614-7

  [1. Railroads Trains Fiction. 2. Stories in rhyme.]

  I. Stubbs, Tommy, ill. II. Awdry, W. Railway series. PZ8.3 .C8398 2001 [E] dc21 00-053330

  BEGINNER BOOKS, RANDOM HOUSE, and the Random House colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  CAT IN THE HAT logo © and © Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 1957, renewed 1986. All rights reserved.

  v3.1

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  First Page

  Other Thomas & Friends e-books

  Thomas was a little blue steam engine.

  He lived on the Island of Sodor

  with many other engines.

  Sometimes Thomas pulled his coaches,

  Annie and Clarabel.

  “Hurry, hurry!” said the coaches.

  Sometimes Thomas pulled freight cars.

  “Faster, faster!” said the foolish freight cars.

  They would try to push Thomas down the hill.

  And sometimes Thomas traveled

  all by himself across the island.

  He chugged in the rain.

  He huffed in the sun.

  And he puffed in the snow.

  “There is nothing a train cannot do!”

  Thomas said proudly.

  One morning, Henry the Green Engine

  would not come out of his shed.

  He had boiler ache.

  So Sir Topham Hatt asked Thomas to help.

  “Peep, peep,” Thomas said to the people.

  “I can take you where you want to go!”

  Soon clouds gathered.

  The sky grew dark.

  Thunder rumbled.

  Plip. Plop. CLUNK.

  Hail began to fall!

  It fell on Thomas.

  It fell on the tracks.

  Suddenly, Thomas’ driver

  saw trouble ahead.

  “Slow down!” said the driver.

  The hail had made a crack

  right there in the track!

  Thomas came to a stop.

  His driver called out,

  “We cannot go forward,

  and we must not go back.”

  “Everyone off!” the conductor said.

  “Now what shall we do?”

  said the people.

  They climbed down from the coaches

  and climbed up to the road.

  Bertie the Bus was just passing by.

  Bertie beeped his horn merrily.

  “A bus is as good as a train!” he said.

  “I can take you where you want to go!”

  All the people climbed on board Bertie.

  Bertie scooted down the road.

  “A bus is as good as a train,”

  the people said.

  Suddenly, Bertie’s driver

  saw trouble ahead.

  “Slow down!” the driver said.

  There in the road

  was a bright green toad.

  Bertie came to a stop.

  His driver called out,

  “There’s a toad in the road!

  We will have to unload.”

  “Everyone off!” said Bertie’s driver.

  (That toad in the road

  caused a fuss on the bus.)

  “What will happen to us?”

  the people said.

  Then they walked down the road

  to another train station.

  But the trains were not running.

  “Why not?” asked the people.

  They soon found out.

  Thomas was still stuck

  at the crack in the track.

  Percy was stuck there at Thomas’ back.

  Gordon was stuck

  behind Thomas and Percy.

  James, with two freight cars,

  was in quite a hurry.

  The freight cars were needed in the yard.

  But James could not get past

  Gordon and Percy and Thomas.

  And the foolish freight cars refused

  to back up.

  “No, no, no!” they said.

  “We will not go!” they said.

  So no trains could move up.

  And no trains could move back.

  They were stuck where they were

  at that crack in the track!

  “I guess there are some things

  that a train cannot do,” said Thomas’ driver.

  “We need help,” said Thomas.

  “And I know just who to call.”

  Thomas’ driver called Sir Topham Hatt

  and told him Thomas’ plan.

  “An excellent plan!” Sir Topham said.

  “Please thank Thomas,” he added.

  In no time at all,

  Harold the Helicopter

  zoomed across the sky.

  He landed near the people.

  They all climbed aboard.

  “A helicopter is

  as good as a train!” said Harold.

  “I can take you

  where you want to go!”

  The breakdown crew came

  to replace the broken track.

  By the time they arrived,

  rain was falling hard.

  The crew came with cranes.

  They sang while they worked.

  “A crane is as good

  as a bus or a train.

  We’ll fix up your track,

  and we don’t mind the rain.”

  Finally, Thomas could move.

  So could Percy and Gordon.

  James, with his freight cars,

  was close behind.

  They turned on the turntable

  and went back to work.

  The people saw Thomas

  waiting to take them home.

  “Are you sure you can take us

  where we want to go?” they asked.

  “I thought there was nothing

  a train could not do,” said Thomas.

  “But now I know that just isn’t true.

  I learned a big lesson from one little crack.

  A train is only as good as its track.”

  Christmas in Wellsworth

  Easter in Harwick

  Halloween in Anopha

  James and the Red Balloon

  Misty Island Rescue

  The Special Delivery

  Steam Engine Stories

  Stuck in the Mud*

  Thomas and the Shooting Star

  Thomas’ Christmas Delivery

  Thomas-saurus Rex

  Track Stars!

  Trouble in the Tunnel*

  *A STEP INTO READING® leveled reader


 

 

  Rev. W. Awdry, A Crack in the Track

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