Thomas and Friends Tape

Thomas and Friends was one of my favorite shows to watch when I was a child. George Carlin was the best character with his narration. I was saddened when he died and it just wasn't fun to see him anymore.

As I grew up I forgot somewhat about him, but never forgot about him.

One day, I was eating at a pizza parlor. And when I left, I saw a tape case around the dumpster. It had nothing on it. It was JUST a black case. I don't know where it came from. I didn't think of it at the time and how it was suspicious, and I got it for free.

When I went home, I opened up the case and the tape had a white label saying "Tomy Thomas Torture Tape"  written in a blue sharpie. I put the tape in the player and began the video.

The Thomas opening titles played as normal, but I had a feeling of dread; the colors were flickering from black and white to colorful, and the audio sounded like the tune and circus music combined into one track. I brushed it off when I saw the episode was in the 90's, and I was still suspicious as to how the video quality was.

The episode's title was "THOMAS IN PLARAIL LAND".

It began with a man at a station looking a bit somber. He was in his news apparel, then he saw the screen.

"Oh, hi there! And today we are in a special place dedicated to Tomy's Train Line, Plarail Land Park."

Plarail is a model train and plastic railroad system made by Tomy and introduced in Japan in 1959. I noticed that the guy sounded like George Carlin.

Thomas, soon came on the screen. And they were talking about the development of the Park and how great Tomy was to Plarail as a toy company. The film continued to degrade bit by bit, and the two started to look at me with smiles. Now they were in Plarail Land.

"Wow!" Said the announcer. "So this is the place?"

"Yes" Said Thomas "That's how it is for everyone!" I worked very hard to make people happy."

"You don't want this fun to end. Right?"

"No, never." Replied Thomas "What about you."

The Screen went to black for 20 seconds. Then it showed a shot of Percy chugging through a forest happily, pulling a fuel tanker. He approaches a station, and applies to his brakes but no avail.

Percy went straight through the station, unable to stop. Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" started playing.

Next, there was a shot of the front of Percy. There was a scared expression on his face. Then, a shot from behind him appeared. It showed him passing a sign reading "GO SLOW".

This episode was already slightly intense for children, but it didn't seem too bad yet.

Then, there was a shot of Percy's driver and fireman. They were scared too. A wide shot showed Percy passing a siding where Diesel 10 was resting. Diesel 10 noticed what was happening and sped onto the track, going towards him. Soon, we got to the tanker.

However, there was no one there to couple Diesel 10 up to it. This was a serious problem. Percy was still scared. Then, there was an extremely wide shot showing Percy getting dangerous close to the bridge.

Then, there was a shot of the inside of Percy's cabin. His driver said, "The brakes are working again!" It showed Percy. He applies his brakes and stops close to the bridge.

However, Diesel 10 slowly backed up and hit Percy off the rails. Now things were getting seriously messed up. "Powerhouse" began to lower in pitch, becoming distorted and demonic sounding, with Diesel 10 Laughing. As I watched with horror, he went on the bridge with the tanker.

When Percy falls off the bridge, the screen cuts to black and a explosion sound is heard. It then shows Percy. His face and side rods were removed, funnel broke off, green paint job rusted and ruined and he was in the smelter's shed. Also his driver and fireman were nowhere to be seen.

The claw came down and grabbed Percy. It pulled him upward and dropped him into the huge pool of molten metal. He melted in the pool, on screen. Diesel 10 laughed at this scene with Splatter and Dodge.

Then, the episode faded to black for 2 minutes.

After, it went to another episode. The Intro began with a lot of differences. Everything was black and white and silent (like a film in the 1910's), The sky was dark and stormy and the windmill was abandoned.

As for Thomas himself -- well, he wasn't there. Instead there was Diesel 10 going a little bit faster than usual, as if he was running along to get something.

Next scene, where he goes under the bridge (no one was actually on the bridge), Diesel 10 looked a little bit more sinister than before. The strangest thing was that Annie and Clarabel, Thomas's two coaches, weren't actually there either. I began to feel uneasy.

Then came the last scene, where Diesel 10 pulls into the station. The station itself looked... abandoned. The roof was missing a lot of tiles, the walls were covered with graffiti, and some of the odd bits and bobs on the platform were either bent or broken. Diesel 10 stops here and still wearing his sinister smile.

Just before the intro ended, an image flashed on the screen for about one frame. From what I could make out, it looked like Sailor Moon. She actually was nude, as seen in the final episode of the show. She looked genuinely excited, as if he had been really horny. She had suds all over her body.

The Episode began with Diesel 10 going around an abandoned railway. It was literally abandoned -- there was no sign of Anyone else. (even Thomas!) All this lasted for about one minute, until something even the slightest bit interesting happened.

Diesel 10 came up to Toad the brakevan, but he looked scared, as if he knew what was coming its way. He was coupled up to him, but he never actually moved forward -- he was just skidding in place. He was getting faster and faster. Toad wasn't going anywhere, he had his brakes on. Diesel 10 then realised this, and gave one last huge big tug, which then resulted Toad to break into planks and splinters. Diesel 10 then turned his eyes to me, and said "Now do you realise what I've done?". His voice was deeper. And kind of raspier.

But yes, I did realise what he'd done.

He was the one responsible for the railway being abandoned. He scrapped all the engines and residents of the railway, as what he did to Toad. He was EVIL.

Then he said "Yes, that's right...". Evidently he knew what I was thinking. Now that's just messed up. Then the screen cuts to static and shows Diesel 10's face. It was horrifying. Diesel 10's eyes were black with glowing red pupils and blood streaming from his face. He had an evil smile with very sharp fangs, and Blood Red writing above him saying "I AM GOD".

I stared at that image for half a minute, never taking my eyes off it, I felt as if he was actually looking at me, smiling at me...that face, it just took 10 seconds for it to etch itself into my brain for good.

Then the screen flickered with red static again 3 times, and on the 3rd time I heard his laugh except this time it sounded distorted, demonic even...

Suddenly in an actual split second, Diesel 10 screeched loudly with his mouth wide open to an unnatural length revealing nothing but a literally spiraling abyss of pure darkness before the red static came again, this time much louder and distorted, so loud that it hurt my ears, I yelled and grabbed my ears as the red static screeched for a good 7 seconds.

Then it stopped and showed nothing but black screen. As I sat there staring at the black screen, the tape suddenly ended.

I Ejected the tape, broke it into pieces and put it in the trash.

That night, while sleeping, I was in pitch black darkness. I could hear what sounded like The Pink Panther theme and Aqua's Barbie Girl playing at the same time.

The music died out as I then heard Diesel 10 laugh.

"You're a lot fun to play with. Won't be long now until you join me and all my other friends?"

When his claw grabbed me and I saw his bleeding black and red-eyed, grinning face, I woke up with a fright.

That morning while I was eating breakfast, I heard a voice right behind me, like a whisper...

"Try to keep this interesting for me."

I looked around to see where the voice came from, and what I saw made me shocked.

What was on my living room couch staring right at me was a Plarail model of Diesel 10 looking like he did in the episode, looking at me and smiling!

That's All Folks!