Stacy Cleans Up

This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the VHS.

Stacy Cleans Up is the fourth episode in the third season.

Plot

When Dan arrives at the station, Stacy asks him a favor to empty all of the wastebaskets, and quips that they can't have Shining Time Station looking messy. Dan is more than happy to help his aunt and first stops by Mr. Conductor's signal house to inform him that it's garbage day. Dan is amazed by the number of garbage bags Mr. Conductor brings out after several trips, and asks how everything could fit in this small house. Mr. Conductor replies that he's very organized and disappears.

Schemer enters carrying a large cardboard box with Kara and Becky in tow. He tells everyone to gather around for Schemer special deluxe one-day only event. Schemer opens the box and announces that he's giving away "Lollapalooza Pops" and hands two of them to the girls, keeping one for himself. When asked why he's giving them away, Schemer reveals that someone is paying him to give out free samples. The begging unwrapping the large item, first taking off the tin foil which Schemer explains keeps the "artificial natural" flavor in. The next layer of wrapping is wax paper needed to keep the germs out. Another layer made of cardboard is intended to help the pop keep its natural shape. Next, a layer of plastic to keep the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays out. As the package becomes smaller, they're surprised to find a layer of hospital gauze to keep the bugs out. Once completely unwrapped, the large confection turns out to be nothing more than a tiny red lollipop. The lollipop for each present character is eaten in one bite which doesn't give them much time to savor it, but Schemer still remarks how good it tastes. The girls then complain about all of the waste that the excessive packaging created, and Becky wonders how they'll be able to get rid of it. Schemer stops Dan as he walks by the arcade, in hopes that Dan can take it away, but he doesn't have any more room in his wastebasket to hold any more trash. He reveals that there's plenty more garbage out back at the station as Schemer scatters the wrapping around the arcade.

As passengers arrive, Stacy greets reporter Ted Typo, who appears and shows her his Indian Valley Gazette headline that the garbage dump is closing. Stacy exclaims that it's terrible, which Ted misinterprets as a comment about his writing. Stacy clarifies that she's referring to the dump closure and wonders where they're supposed to put all of their garbage. Ted then hands her a big stack of newspapers to hand out to the passengers, despite Stacy's concerns that they don't have any place to throw them out after reading. Ted is momentarily offended at the idea of disposing them and insists that people would cherish the newspapers as he hands a copy to a passing passenger.

Inside the jukebox, Rex and Tex debate what to do with their garbage now that the dump is closed. They decide to cram it into a box, cover it with a gift wrapping and give it to Tito as a birthday gift. Tito is touched by the gesture and says that they shouldn't have. The brothers reply that they know, and then make a hasty retreat before Tito opens his gift!

Back in the station, Mr. Conductor appears on the ticket counter to inform Stacy that a train is slowly pulling in on track four. Stacy is puzzled as track four hasn't been used in years, and confirms that there aren't any trains scheduled to be on it. Since Billy is away, Stacy asks Mr. Conductor to keep an eye on things inside the station as she goes to try and find the engineer. Meanwhile, Ted Typo is leaning against the workshop door daydreaming when Dan nudges him out of the way when he opens the door to exit. Ted is looking for a big story and Dan persuades him that he has one. As Ted pulls out his notepad, Dan tells him that most of the garbage in the bag he's holding came from the signal house in the mural. Ted sarcastically guesses that a little man lives in the signal house, which Dan affirms. Dan then realizes that Ted doesn't believe him as he tells the lad to run along before little men start sitting on his hat. Right on cue, Mr. Conductor materializes on Typo's hat and waves to Dan!

A stranger enters the station examining an old map. At the same time, Stacy and Dan meet at the station entrance, where she reveals that she couldn't find the train's engineer. Dan then informs her that he's all finished, and she asks him where he put all of the trash he collected. He says that he dumped the trash in one of the train's cars outside marked "garbage". Stacy suddenly notices the man and asks if it's his train outside. The man, in a Scottish brogue, affirms that it is, and after Stacy identifies herself as the stationmaster, introduces himself as Rusty Rob McRail (who turns out to the the engineer of the same train), Chief Engineer of the R&O freight line. Stacy asks him if it would be alright to put the station's trash on his train, and he agrees as everyone else has been asking to do that. Stacy rushes over to ask Becky to gather up all of the empty paint cans in the workshop and to throw them on the train outside. Meanwhile, Schemer asks him if he would be able to throw the arcade's trash into Rusty's train. Rusty gives him permission to do so, and then decides to lay his map on the ticket counter for a better view as Stacy and Becky excitedly put Billy's old paint cans inside the train. Dan asks Rusty what he's doing, and is informed that he's reading a map. He asks Dan if anyone has ever show him how to read one. Dan, without saying anything else, looks at the map and turns it around, making Rusty realize that he was reading it upside down! Rusty compliments Dan's skills and asks how he would like to be an engineer on his train. He puts his oversized hat on Dan's head, but now the lad cannot see, which Rusty admits would hold him back.

Schemer, Stacy and Becky head back inside the station to thank Rusty and ask if they can do anything for him in return. Rusty does not want anything except for clear directions to the Indian Valley garbage dump, but Stacy breaks the news that the dump is closed. Rusty sighs with disappointment but becomes irrational when Kara comes in to remark that his train smells bad. In fact, Rusty retorts so would she if she were filled with garbage and sat in the sun for thirty days (one month). When asked by Stacy and the kids if he has really been on the move that long, Rusty confirms that he started out with a train of trash, junk and worse - half-eaten egg-salad sandwiches, the mention of which makes the gang recoil in disgust. He was turned away from his town dump and told to take his garbage somewhere else, but every dump he stopped at, from Lucy's Leap to Farmer's Dell and Loon Key, was closed. Everyone tells him that it's terrible and they think he should move onto another dump. However, he tells them that every single garbage dump in the area is closed, so his train can't move anywhere anymore at this point. Some flies (unable to be seen by the viewers) appear in the station and buzz around and everyone has trouble with them. Everyone says that no one wants garbage sitting around the station, but Schemer admits that flies love it and tries to catch one to see if it can become a nickel.

When the adults are no longer inside, Mr. Conductor appears on the ticket counter and asks the kids what the noise is about and if the buzz noise is coming from the honeybees, but Dan corrects him that they're garbage flies. Mr. Conductor then says that he is really into honeybees (unless they try to sting him), but he hasn't thought about garbage flies. When Kara asks him if there are a lot of honeybees on the Island of Sodor, he tells the kids the story of James Goes Buzz Buzz.

After the story, Dan wishes that the station had honeybees instead, and tells him that the garbage dump is closed. Mr. Conductor then says, "For every door that closes, a window opens." However, Dan misinterprets this by telling him that the windows are shut and it still smells inside. Becky, on the other hand, believes that Mr. Conductor means like the expression, "If life gives you lemons, you make lemonade". She then asks him what else they can do about getting rid of the trash, and he gives everyone an idea of going through The Anything Tunnel to figure out what to do next.

Later, everyone is wearing clothespins on their noses since the smell from the train is now a lot worse than how it was earlier. Schemer is looking inside the gumball machine and shaking it, Dan and Kara are standing in front of the information booth in the center of the station, Becky is reading a newspaper on the bench at the station's entrance, and Stacy is back to work at the ticket counter. Ted Typo comes back inside the station and believes he smells a story for him to write about. When he sniffs, he is really bothered by the awful smell, so he covers his nose with his fingers for a few seconds and Stacy gives him a clothespin to wear on his nose and close it up. But now, everyone is talking strangely by mispronouncing several words since the clothespins are staying in place. Stacy lets Ted know that the garbage train outside cannot move until they figure something out. He attempts to start a news story about a garbage dump opening up at the station, but she refuses to let it happen. Becky has found a story she wrote for her school newspaper about how the Indian Valley Railway needs a recycling center. Ted takes a look at it and asks Becky what a recycling center is. She explains that it's a place where all the trash gets separated; all the glass, metal cans, papers, and they get to be used again. Stacy is delighted about this idea, but Rusty doesn't know about it yet, so Becky runs off to take him back inside the station and tell her about the plan. Everyone agrees to help out, but although Schemer turns right too soon, the thought of old egg-salad sandwiches makes him change his mind about helping everyone out (they are completely unaware that he is missing from the group) with moving the items from the trash bags to the recycling bins. Instead, he plays a song on the jukebox called "Five Hundred Miles".

After the song ends, work is over, and when everyone (except Schemer, who seems to be no longer around at this point) takes off their clothespins, they find out that there's fresh air at last, thus Becky declares this, saying that they can now use them for hanging up clothes again. Mr. McRail thanks everyone for helping him out. He then puts on his own clothespin just in case of another bad smell situation, and says goodbye (mispronounced) to everyone, and everyone says goodbye back to him before they immediately realize that they forgot to give him all the recycle bins and the remaining trash bags to have them loaded onto his train, which they do offscreen as the episode ends.

Cast and Characters

Main Cast

The Flexitoon Puppeteers

Guest Starring

David Hewlett as Ted Typo
Michael Polley as Rusty McRail

Mentioned Characters

Billy Twofeathers (mentioned)
James (mentioned)

Thomas Story

James Goes Buzz Buzz

James gets stung in the nose by a bee, which turns swollen red.

Jukebox Band Segment Song

Five Hundred Miles

Cartoons and Songs

If Everyone Did a Little
- Molly Moo-Cow and the Butterflies (1935)
- Happy Harmonies - To Spring (1936)
- Fleischer Studios - Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936)
- Fleischer Studios - The Fresh Vegetable Mystery (1939)
- Noveltoons - Cheese Burglar (1946)
- Noveltoons - The Wee Men (1947)
- Noveltoons - Naughty But Mice (1947)
- Noveltoons - Santa's Surprise (1947)

Trivia

In the Fox Family Channel version, some scenes were mixed around or edited out:
- Music is added when Schemer, Becky, and Kara unwrap a few Lollapaloozapops.
- The scene where Tex and Rex make a birthday present out of a garbage can for Tito was edited out.
- The scene where Dan meets Mr. Typo was edited out.
- The song "If Everyone Did a Little" was edited out.
- After the commercial break, the scene where everybody was wearing clothespins and Becky shares her recycling idea from the school newspaper was cut out.
- The scene where the Jukebox Band were preparing the song covered in gas masks, clothespins, and handkerchiefs was cut out.
This is the first appearance of Ted Typo, who replaces Jake Scoop as the show's resident reporter for the Indian Valley Gazette.
The close-up shot of the Indian Valley Gazette newspaper with the article about the garbage dump closing reveals a few clues about the props' origins. On the newspaper's front page, top-level is a small advert for the Humphrey Funeral Home (1403 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Another clue is the story heading beneath the advertisement "Politicians Comment on Scrapping of M.V.A. Plan". At that time (around 1992), the metro Toronto M.V.A. Plan involved a controversial long-overdue reassessment of privately-owned property worth. The prop was likely a small Toronto community newspaper made to look like the "Indian Valley Gazette".
This is the first episode to have Stacy's name in the title.
The voice heard during Rusty McRail's telephone conversation is actually sped-up audio from a scene with Stacy and Harry from Promises, Promises.
James Goes Buzz Buzz was given the UK title, Buzz Buzz, in the credits.
Mr. Conductor tells James Goes Buzz Buzz to Dan, Becky and Kara in this episode.

Gallery

Stacy Cleans Up/Gallery