Thomas And Friends: The North Western Engines Series One

Revenge Of The Trucks (Series One Finale)

Oliver The Great Western Engine enjoyed nothing more than travelling up and down The Little Western with goods trains with his brakevan Toad.
"Goods work is our coal and water, no goods means no railway. " He would often say.
However, not every engine agreed with him. James in particular hated trucks.
"How can you possibly enjoy pulling such dirty, noisy things little Oliver? They're nothing but trouble if you ask me!" He grumbled to Oliver at Knapford Yards one morning.
"Nobody did ask." Smirked Stanley as he rolled by.
"Says the shunter." James retorted.
Stanley just rolled his eyes.
"They're not that bad really, sure some are worse than others, especially ballast trucks, but if you treat them right, they'll treat you right. " Oliver smiled.
But Oliver spoke too soon.
There were a trio of very troublesome trucks who most engines tried to avoid taking out.
Their names were Fred Palhay, Rickety and S.C.Ruffy.
S.C.Ruffy was the worst of them and caused numerous engines to have accidents, he even managed to derail Toby once!
Oliver had to collect a load of ballast from Arlesburgh West. When he arrived, the trio were all at the back of the train, S.C.Ruffy was coupled to the Toad.
He stared coldly at Oliver.
"Don't pull me apart again Ollie..." he said darkly.
Oliver just ignored him and buffered up to the front of the train.
"Ready Toad?" He called.
"Ready when you are Mr Oliver!" Toad replied.
"Lets get these lot down to the docks then." Oliver smiled and pulled the train away.
"I hope those three don't give him too much trouble." Bert said to Rex.
"Indeed, there's right devils them three!" Rex agreed.
"Oh they'll be fine! Stop worrying you two!" Mike scoffed.
Oliver was making good progress along the line.
The trucks behaved well for most of the journey, but that was soon to change...
There is a hill near Suddery on Edward's Branch Line, it's not as steep as Gordon's Hill, but is much longer.
Trains can become runaways on this hill and have to take great care.
Oliver approached the hill and prepared to slow down.
"BUMP HIM LADS!" S.C.Ruffey suddenly shouted.
Oliver was shocked and began speeding up!
"Toad! Brakes!" He cried.
Toad was dosing and didn't hear him.
"Wait a minute! I've got a brake whistle!" The tank engine took a deep breath and blasted it as loudly as he could.
Toad immediately woke up!
"Oh. Oh my!" He cried and slammed on his brakes.
"Sorry Toad, I'm not lettin' ya!" S.C.Ruffey muttered and snapped the coupling between himself and the other trucks. He and Toad came to a stop at the bottom of the hill!
"IT'S UP TO YOU NOW LADS!" He yelled!
Oliver was scared!
"Not again!" He cried.
The trucks pushed him faster and faster.
He then remembered something.
"I'm a fast tank engine, if I can get them uncoupled I can outrun them!" He muttered.
He then saw BoCo coming the other way.
"BoCo! Help me uncouple them!" He cried.
BoCo immediately understood what he needed to do and reversed quickly.
He matched Oliver's speed and his driver carefully uncoupled the trucks with a shunters pole!
"Got it! It's all up to you now Oliver!" The diesel cried.
"Thanks BoCo!" Oliver replied and began speeding up. Inch by inch, he moved away from the train.
"He's escaping boys! Get him!" The front truck shouted.
"I must get away from them somehow!" Oliver panted.
He suddenly saw some points ahead.
He whistled frantically to the signalman.
"What on earth? Oh you've got to be jok... really!? Hang on!" He gasped and dashed to the lever.
Oliver swerved onto the other line and the trucks continued onwards.
"It's not over yet!" Oliver panted, "I must warn everyone at the docks!"
Oliver raced on as fast as he could.
He could see the docks ahead, the trucks were not far behind.
The little westerner blasted both tones of his whistle.
"CLEAR THE DOCKS! RUNAWAY TRAIN!" He yelled.
"Arr! Porter! Get to the ferry dock! We'll wait for it to pass there if we can get past those points!" Salty cried.
"Right!" Porter responded, "come on!"
They got there just as Oliver sped onto the dock whistling frantically!
"LOOK OUT! THEY'RE COMING! THEY'RE COMING!" He shouted.
He saw the ferry dock ahead and braked hard.
He stopped with his buffers against Salty's.
The points were quickly changed behind him.
"The sidings around the back should stop them!" Salty called.
"Incoming!" Cranky called to the engines.
The trucks charged into the docks.
"WE'VE GOT YOU NOW OLIVER!" They cackled.
They suddenly swerved away from the ferry dock and towards the sidings.
"NO NO NO! They cried.
The runaway smashed into the buffers which broke upon impact.
They rolled towards the endge of the quay towards a grumpy barge.
"LOOK OUT BULSTRODE!" Porter yelled.
"Wait what?!" The barge cried.
He saw the trucks and gasped!
"For crying out loud! I was just fixed!" Bulstrode grumbled as the trucks piled into his hull.
This time, he didn't sink but was very sore.
"I know I'm supposed to be collecting your ballast, but you aren't supposed to be throwing trainloads of it at me!" He cried.
"Sorry Bulstrode, I'll get a crane to get those trucks out of uour hull right away.
Oliver dashed to the rescue centre to collect Rocky.
He collected the large crane and quickly brought him back to the docks. The Fat Controller was waiting anxiously for him.
"Are you alright Oliver?" He asked, "BoCo told me all about your little runaway!"
"Yes Sir, I just hope Bulstrode is after my trucks piled on top of him. " Oliver sighed.
"He's fine Oliver, but  I will arrange for him to be repaired, I'm proud of you!" The Fat Controller smiled.
"But, I didn't stop the trucks Sir!" Oliver gasped.
"While that is true, you did your best to warn everyone here of the danger, I don't think any other engine would manage to do what you did!" The Fat Controller chuckled, "once you've finished cleaning up the mess, I'd like you to go to the Steamworks for a fresh coat of paint."
"Yes Sir! Thank you Sir!" Oliver beamed, he couldn't have been more proud.
Oliver returned a few days later with a fresh coat of paint. The trucks didn't dare play tricks on him as they were scared something like the 'Bulstrode incident' might happen to them.
"It's all how you deal with a situation that makes it better." Oliver smiled, "that is The Great Western Way."