RS Reviews: James the Red Engine (RRSI)

James The Red Engine

Reviewed by RustyRedScrapIron

James was always my favourite character as a kid, because simply he was red (and red was always my favourite colour).

But what makes his stories some of my favourites in either the TV Series or in the Books, is that how he’s always brought back down to earth for letting his vanity about how he looks and attitude of being either: cocky, boastful or criticizing the old or the different such as: Edward, Toby and Diesel Engines, get the better of him and prove that they can be good friends and co-workers. Plus how he can also prove others wrong when they doubt him because of his incidents, insults and vanity getting the better of him when he reckons he can do “this, that and other” – like how one Kid reckons he or she can do something that another Kid can’t but is proven wrong when the tables are turned upon him/her.

James’ stories in his debut showcase how he lets his vanity get to him for having a coat of red paint put on him from previously having black, and claiming himself as being really splendid which causes him to misbehave before he even takes the express in the first story. From that, like any child making a small mess with their Father or Mother’s best suit and dress, he is told off and warned that he could have what makes him feel good taken away (like a Kid could have his favourite toy taken away from him/her for misbehaving).

But this of course, like any kid who feels frustrated from being told off by the “grown-up” shall we say to act even more irrationally by doing the exact thing the old wiser engine or elder member of the family have told you not to do – in James’ case it’s to not “bump coaches”. But that frustration just causes him to want to prove himself further by thinking that the gossip is all on one engine because he’s the biggest and is the only one who can pull coaches more easily than others. However, that frustration and needing to prove yourself comes back to haunt you when something happens that just makes you feel more frustrated, worried, embarrassed and then sad when being punished further.

Like when a kid is told to stay in their room, or in the house for being naughty they’re always given the chance to go out again and prove themselves to being a good friend or employee to someone. What makes Troublesome Trucks my favourite story in the whole book is that no matter how many times or how often someone or a group can really get you by saying: “You can’t do it, you can’t pull us, you can’t-you can’t!” We’d always keep on believing that we can and will prove them wrong, even if we have a little slip along the way. But in the end, one way or another we do eventually prove them wrong and our boss are pleased with how well we managed and away us – in James’ case he’s allowed to keep his red coat.

Of course, when news spreads round to those who feel “they’re the best in the world or nobody comes before them” we always prove them wrong when the tables are turned upon them. For James, he proved Gordon wrong when the tables were of course turned against Gordon for boasting that when he’s not there to pull the express the railway needs two engines, how someone like him has never lost his way when pulling his routine job and boasting that he seems to know the line by instinct when every wise person or engine knows that there’s always some else who helps operate things (in the engines case it’s the Signalman who makes them run on the right lines).

For all that he had put up with, James could have simply said “no” to helping with the express because Gordon said this that and the other. But obviously knowing what he’d gone through before hand, he was willing to give it a try again and to not go too fast when pulling the coaches or even have something break to be repaired by a bootlace. Like with all jobs in everyday life, if we do something we tried before well and have proven the boss that we can do it well – James is offered the chance to pull the express sometimes (which of course anyone would easily agree too in whatever job they were offered to do at the workplace sometimes – or a Kid volunteering to help out somewhere like with the elderly).

As for the proud know it all, Gordon teaches the naughty trucks manners when for some in his position would think: “Oh I’m too proud to teach them, they’re dirty and etc” but admits that he does like some quiet work for a change and he also acknowledges the protagonist of the book on a good job just like how a fellow employee or another kid in the street can tell the other on a job well done for whatever they’d done within that particular environment and for bringing them down to earth on thinking: “I thought I knew it all, but I was proven wrong.”

What makes this book so wonderful to me is that it’s a simple lesson on what happens when you can act like the know it all and how you can look so great, when in fact all that can simply get you into trouble when you least expect. Or even, how someone beyond has heard what you said and places different obstacles for you to over come (or to simply show why a particular item is needed for a particular situation) and to prove yourself to your boss, family, teacher or friends that you can do well and be good when your given the chance to redeem yourself – even when there’s that little voice, or a group saying “you can’t do it!” or “when I’m not there, they need two of you,” Just by believing that you can and will, or you’ll try and not make the same mistake twice that you can always prove them wrong in any given moment.