Rolling Stock

Rolling Stock is the third episode of the first season.

Plot
Murphy, a 2-8-2 Mikado locomotive, is brought into the yard one day by his driver. He is drowsy and does not see, until the last moment, several boys on the track ahead of him. He then wakes up, looking at them and wondering what they are doing. He is very surprised and shocked to see them vandalizing several of the freight cars, pulling their break wheels to make them roll. He whistles indignantly at the boys and they run off.

Later on, Murphy is stopped at a station, filling his water tank. Just then, Frederick pulls into the station with a passenger train. Murphy complains about the insensitivity the boys show to railway property, and Frederick agrees. The two then part, with Murphy continuing on his journey.

Later, Frederick is pulling into a station outside of Raleigh, near the yards. When he does, he sees several boys similar to the ones Murphy described. Thinking that they are the same boys, Frederick watches them closely. Sure enough, as he is leaving the station, Frederick's tender, Chester, sees the boys vandalizing several coaches sitting in a siding and he tells his crew to contact the sheriff as soon as possible. The crew agree and write a note on a piece of paper, dropping it at the nearest signal box.

At the end of the day, Frederick is filling up with coal when Murphy backs into the coaling tower. Just then, a police car pulls up and the sheriff manhandles over some boys. He asks the two engines if these are the boys they saw earlier. Murphy is not sure, so the sheriff brings the boys around to Chester, who gets a good look at them and confirms they are the boys he saw. The sheriff takes the boys away and Murphy congratulates Frederick and Chester on catching them.

The next day, Warrick, an 0-8-0 switcher locomotive, is at work in the yards. He lines a cut of cars up to couple with a freight car at the end of a track. As he slows to couple onto the car, he hears an odd noise coming from the end of his cut of cars. He stops but sees that the car at the very end has not coupled on, but is continuing down the track. A brave switchtender jumps aboard the car to apply the brakes, but is hurt in the process. Warrick brings him to the yard office in order to call an ambulance for his broken arm. Later, the switcher tells Murphy of what has happened, and Murphy is sure the boys who vandalized the car are responsible. He has his driver call the sheriff to report what has happened, over the protests of his own tender, Lynn.

However, when the sheriff arrives, Murphy has left with a train. The boys apologize to the man who was hurt, but he is not upset at them since they say that the car which injured him was not the car they vandalized. When Murphy returns, the boys offer to help with his maintenance, much to Murphy's surprise. After being cleaned, coaled and watered, Murphy sits in his sheds and the boys come and apologize to him for what they had done. Murphy accepts the boy's apologies.