It’s worse than that - he wasn’t being lazy, he was convinced that if he came out of the tunnel, the rain would ruin his paint. Even after it stopped raining, he still wouldn’t come out just in case it started raining again.
Basically he had a mental illness, and his punishment was to be bricked up and forced to watch the other trains going past. One is friendly, one says it serves him right. Because he has no steam, he’s unable to communicate. And all the time his paint is slowly getting ruined anyway because he’s stuck in the tunnel.
As someone who’s had a breakdown, it really resonates in a different way than it did when I was a kid.
That whole universe is horrifying. Remember when they closed off that one guy behind a brick wall because he wouldn’t work hard enough?
It’s worse than that - he wasn’t being lazy, he was convinced that if he came out of the tunnel, the rain would ruin his paint. Even after it stopped raining, he still wouldn’t come out just in case it started raining again.
Basically he had a mental illness, and his punishment was to be bricked up and forced to watch the other trains going past. One is friendly, one says it serves him right. Because he has no steam, he’s unable to communicate. And all the time his paint is slowly getting ruined anyway because he’s stuck in the tunnel.
As someone who’s had a breakdown, it really resonates in a different way than it did when I was a kid.
It’s not punishment, it’s allegory for the walls mental health issues puts up.
I agree with your lesson, just not the wording.
It’s neither, its a real incident that happened on the railways. All Awdry’s Railway Series stories are.
Mate I don’t think real trains can get depression.
Look up shed 17, the real story of Thomas the tank engine.
https://youtu.be/462KBuAhncU
That was pretty horrifying.