I've always seen the Sodor series as sexist - all the steam locos are male because they do the pushing and pulling and the hard work, the coaches are females because they just get pulled around and meekly go where they're told, having no engines. Daisy the railcar is of course a female with her own engine and thus rather individual and independent but puts on feminine wiles when she chooses. Then of course you've got the trucks which are lower in the pecking order than coaches, and always misbehave rather like naughty children. Unfortunately some of them get wrecked completely in accidents they cause, and that would take the analogies into rather disturbing areas.
The incident I remember was that Sir Handel bumped some trucks and annoyed them so that they sought revenge.
However, Peter Sam was the engine they picked on, despite warnings from other trucks that it was not Sir Handel but Peter Sam, Peter Sam was bombarded by flying slate and was glad to hear the toot of Rusty's horn as Rusty came to the rescue.
The principle difference between the Talyllyn and Skarloey railways was a direct interchange between the Skarloey and the standard gauge, when Peter Sam was newly arrived, James advised him not to be late or his passengers would be left behind. Peter Sam got into a right tizzy over this, and when his passengers had boarded James' train, he was asked to explain and was told that James would not leave before he arrived because it was a guaranteed connection. By the time Peter Sam realised this, James had departed
It must be over 50 years, more like 55 since I read these books