WI: Barry the Rescue Engine Released in the 1980s

[JCC the Alt Historian]

For those who are not apart of the Railway Series or the Thomas the Tank Engine Fandom, Barry the Rescue Engine was a book in The Railway Series that was created sometime during the 1980s by Christopher Awdry, but was cancelled before it could be published.

This book in the Railway Series would have been about a steam locomotive (a BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0, specifically) named Barry who would've be rescued from the Woodham Brothers (Barry Island) scrapyard in Wales.

According to Chapter 15 of The Thomas the Tank Engine Man (released in 1995) entitled "Really Useful Engines", Christopher Awdry explained that he submitted the outline for Barry, but the response from the young fans was that they wanted more stories Thomas and his friends, not any more new engines. So he quoted: "But, I haven't altogether given up; you could say Barry is dead but not yet buried!" Also, it was also implied that the publishers demanded to have more Thomas centric Railway Series books. This was likely due to the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends TV series being based on the Railway Series books was popular and put Thomas into the spotlight as the main character of the series.

Since this happened during the 1980s, Barry the Rescue Engine was likely replaced by either issue 30 of the Railway Series More About Thomas the Tank Engine (released in 1986) or issue 33 Thomas and the Twins (released in 1989), though I'm going towards the former since it was written SPECIFICALLY so that its stories would be adapted as episodes of the TV series, and three out of four of the books stories would be adapted as episodes during Season 2.

Let's say that in an alternate timeline that Christopher Awdry is able to publish Barry the Rescue Engine sometime in the mid-to-late 1980s instead of More About Thomas the Tank Engine. How would effect the remainder of the run of the Railway Series? How would this effect Thomas and Friends, since Season 2 adapted three out of the four stories from More About Thomas the Tank Engine? What stories could be adapted in those three stories places?

 

[JCC the Alt Historian]

If Barry the Rescue Engine is released in 1986 instead of More About Thomas the Tank Engine, that means that Season 2 of Thomas 7 Friends will have three less stories to adapt into episodes.

The book had three stories that were adapted into episodes of the TV series, they were Thomas, Percy and the Coal, Better Late than Never and The Runaway. The book's fourth story, Drip Tank, was never adapted into the TV series.

Without Thomas, Percy and the Coal, Better Late than Never and The Runaway existing, the second season of Thomas & Friends will have to adapt three more stories to take their places. These stories could be Percy's Promise and Double Header (renamed to Time for Trouble in the TV series) were originally suppose to be made during Season 2, but were dropped and pushed back to Season 3. Here, they could be adapted a season earlier, though two more episodes will have to be adapted in Season 3 to fill their gaps as well. I could also see Bulls Eyes being adapted earlier (in OTL, it had been made in Season 4) to complete the Branch Line Engines saga earlier, though another episode will have to be made in Season 4 to fill the gap that Bulls Eyes would leave.