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This article is about the episode. You may be looking for Duke, the Slovenian VHS/DVD or the Buzz Book.
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“Why? What did he do?!"
"He turned him into a generator! He's still there behind our shed. He'll never move again.”
― Duke telling the story of Smudger to Stuart and Falcon

Granpuff is the first episode of the fourth series. It is based on the story of the same name from the Railway Series book, Duke the Lost Engine.

Plot

One cold winter night on the Island of Sodor, the howling wind keeps the engines in the shed awake. Toby decides that the engines need to listen to a mysterious story, albeit with a happy ending. Thomas then tells the others a story his driver had told him recently, of three little engines who lived on a little railway in their own sheds. There was a green engine named Stuart, a blue one named Falcon and an old brown tender engine named Duke. He was the oldest engine on the line and named after the Duke of Sodor.

Duke felt very proud of this and decided it was his responsibility to keep the younger engines just the way it was. While other engines went and came, Duke outlasted all of them. Stuart and Falcon gave Duke the nickname "Granpuff." The two were very fond of him but they did sometimes tire of hearing about His Grace and would occasionally tease him.

One day, Duke soon warned Stuart and Falcon that if they did not behave, they would end up like Smudger, an engine he used to work with. Smudger was very cocky, conceited and a careless showoff, who ran roughly and often derailed, spilling his loads. Duke tried to warn him but Smudger simply did not care about some spills and laughed at Duke. However, he stopped laughing one day when the manager told him they were going to make him useful at last by taking his wheels away. From then on, the only running Smudger did was as a pumping generator behind the shed and he was never able to move again.

Stuart and Falcon began behaving better for several days after hearing about Smudger. They both became very useful and all three remained happy friends for years. However, this all came to an end one day when the engines had little to do because the hills and the mines were closed one at a time and so was their railway at last. As a result, the engines were all put up for sale. Stuart and Falcon were bought but no one wanted to buy an old engine like Duke. Stuart promised Duke that he and Falcon would find another railway for him to run on.

Duke's crew oiled and greased him one last time, put tarpaulins on him and bid him a final goodbye as they locked him in his shed and left to find new jobs. Duke went to sleep, waiting for the day he would be able to run again. As time went by, torrents of rain washed soil down from the mountains and plants grew all around. Nobody would know that a small shed was there nor an engine asleep inside it.

Percy is disappointed that the story does not have a happy ending. Thomas assures Percy that there is one but it will have to wait for another night.

Characters

Locations

Trivia

  • Duke's nickname "Granpuff" originated from Wilbert Awdry's nickname given to him by his grandchildren due to the smoke from his pipe looking like that of a steam engine.
  • This episode marks the first of a few things:
  • This episode also marks the only appearance of Peter Sam's shocked and horrified faces.
  • In the original UK dub, the lines, "Their names were Duke, Stuart and Falcon," and "Whenever they did anything that Duke thought wrong, he would say 'That would never suit His Grace,'" are heard earlier.
  • In the original UK dub and US dub, when the narrator said "On their own little railway," the music is heard later.
  • Falcon and Stuart's nameplates were placed over the much larger "Sir Handel" and "Peter Sam" nameplates covered with black tape. This is because the post-Mid Sodor scenes were filmed first.
  • Most of the whistle sounds were omitted in the original UK dub and the US dub.
  • The Chinese Mandarin dub of this episode credits George Carlin as the narrator and the Hindi dub credits Michael Angelis.
  • The cab roof from a scrap Thomas model can be seen.
  • A K'Nex stick can be seen poking out of Duke's Shed in poor condition.
  • The crawler tractor from TUGS is visible when Stuart and Falcon bash into each other.
  • In the US and original UK dubs, the crash sound of Stuart and Falcon bashing their trucks into each other is different from the later UK dub and international dubs.
  • The Korean title of this episode is the same as Duke's name.

Goofs

  • The episode is mistitled as "Grandpuff" in the credits for Shining Time Station: Second Chances.
  • Duck's handrail is loose on the front of his smokebox and a crack can be seen in his face mask next to his eye.
  • Thomas has some scratches on the side of his boiler.
  • In the close up of Henry, his face is tilted forward a bit.
  • In the UK and international dubs, Skarloey and Falcon have Rheneas' whistle sound in some scenes and Rheneas also has Skarloey's whistle sound.
  • For most of the English dubs, Falcon has Duke's original whistle sound.
  • Duke's eyes are misaligned in some scenes.
  • Wires from the servos can be seen coming out from under Skarloey and going into the red coach.
  • Immediately after the narrator says "Duke was proud of this and loved to keep the little engines in order," Duke's eyes appear to shift further back into his face mask.
  • In the alternate shot of Stuart and Falcon bashing into each other, the props and mountain can be seen through their cabs.
  • As "other engines came and went", Stuart is wearing his new nameplate as "Peter Sam".
  • In the shot of Smudger's second on-screen crash, the front truck shakes.
  • When the narrator says "Smudger stopped laughing then," his crew have black marker on them.
  • When Stuart and Falcon ask what happened to Smudger, their eyes are misaligned and the former's eyes also jitter for a brief second.

In Other Languages

View content
Language Title
Albanian Granpufi
Brazilian Portuguese Granpuff
Chinese Mandarin 小老头
Czech Dědeček
Danish Store fut
Dutch Prins Puf
Finnish Pappa-veturi
French Grand-souffle
German Die Opamotive
Greek Μια ωραία ιστορία
Hungarian Nagypöff
Italian Vecchio sbuffo
Japanese ガミガミじいさん
Korean 듀크
Latin American Spanish Granpuff
Norwegian Storetøff
Polish Dziadek
Romanian Bunicuţul
Russian Дед Пуфф
Serbian Deda Puf
Slovenian Dedek
Swedish Storetuff
Ukrainian Старе Пихкало
Welsh Taid

Merchandise

Home Video Releases

UK

UK DVD Boxset

WAL

US

CAN

  • Rusty to the Rescue and Other Thomas Stories (Direct-to-VHS)
  • Engine Friends

US/CAN DVD Pack

AUS

  • Rock 'n' Roll and Other Stories (Direct-to-VHS)
  • Series Four

AUS DVD Packs

NZ

  • Rock 'n' Roll and Other Stories

ZA

IND

MYS

PHL

ITA

NL

GER

NOR

DK

SWE

FIN

SRP

SVN

GRC

GRC DVD Boxset

THA

JPN

KOR

CHN

HK

TWN

Episode

Reference



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