Shunting trucks and hauling freight

K is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine.

I had never actually watched a Thomas episode before about a week ago. There are an infinite number of trains, which all look more or less the same except that some are different colors, and they all have different names. Somehow K has learned to identify each one. I wonder how much space in his developing brain is taken up by determining which blue train is Thomas, which is Edward, and which is Gordon. Actually, I should worry more about myself. He still has years of neural plasticity ahead of him.

The British episodes of Thomas are all the same. The American ones appear to be a little more varied in their plots, but the British ones go like this:
1. Featured train gets excited over some assignment or compliment.
2. Exciting assignment or compliment goes to train's head.
3. Train refuses to listen to someone telling it what to do.
4. Instead, train does whatever it wants.
5. Train gets into trouble and disappoints everybody.
6. Train repents, listens to advice, does extra work, gives away exciting assignment or disclaims compliment.

Every British episode of Thomas features the following lines:
"[Train] was upset."
"[Train] felt terrible."
"Fizzling fireboxes!" or "Bust my buffers!"
"[Other train] was happy to help."
"[Other train that gets exciting assignment] was delighted."

K always runs for his (generic) toy trains first thing in the morning, and yesterday he kept repeating over and over as he played with them, "Thomas felt terrible. Thomas felt terrible. Thomas felt terrible."