Changes in the Wind - Part III: Gordon and the Extinct Ones

Chapter 3: London

The train traveled across England and as Gordon raced down the mainline towards St. Pancreas, he could only see a glimpse of what was happening to the steam engines around him as he thundered past stations and yards. Steam engines in British Railway colours of black and Brunswick green could barely be seen with the dirt and grime which covered their paintwork. Gordon never liked BR colours, he found them dull and uninteresting, but he couldn't help feeling sorry for the engines. Horrid paintwork or not, it was awful to be covered in muck and not be cleaned in days, possibly weeks. Gordon then felt incredibly lucky, he glanced at his nice, shining blue paint, bright and recently polished, and understood how the Fat Controller had managed to separate his region from the rest of the others and how fortunate they were for it too.

When reaching London, Gordon could instantly tell it was much colder than it was when he last came here a few years ago. The line felt dirtier and rough to ride on, the grey ballast had gotten darker, and the rails had more slip to them and were harder to grip on. Not much steam was coming out, bellowing up to the sky, instead, there were growls and rumbles of different beasts which Gordon was all too familiar with. The first encounter with a diesel was one waiting for a path with a goods train, leaving London, it stared at Gordon with an amused look in its eyes. The big engine ignored him and continued on down the line toward the station. The next was a whole bunch of them, all lined up, waiting to leave to do their work. They were a bunch of Class 08s, Gordon despised this class and eyed them, not trusting one at all. He continued through and at last, reached St. Pancreas station, all the passengers got off, they weren't going anywhere else after all, and Gordon watched them leave.

It was only a few minutes until he felt a sharp bump from behind.

"Oof," he winced, "what was that?"

His driver looked back and sighed. "Guessing they are replacing the shunters here with those diesels," he pointed out. Gordon looked back as much as he can, he could only see a glimpse of the engine, but there was no white steam forming around the engine. Instead, only small amounts of black smoke came out. The diesel dragged the carriages away, leaving Gordon on his own at the platform. The big engine continued to look around and only see coaches belonging to other diesel engines. Steam engines were so few here, it was disbelieving for Gordon to see nothing but diesels at this once lively station.

Gordon decided it best to leave the station and go and find the sheds, perhaps, a steam engine would be there, because right now, the last time he came to St. Pancreas, was not like this one. It felt like a force of darkness had covered this part of London with misery and fear. But Gordon must be brave, he must find his brother Papyrus. He had to. When coming to the sheds, Gordon noticed it to be just as dark as the station, no life could be heard, with no engines talking loudly and no wheeshing of steam bellowing up into the air. Gordon moved carefully into a birth of one of the sheds. He looked from the side, he had found steam engines alright, but they weren't the same as last time. They remained quiet, distant, and lonely. Gordon looked to the other side to see a class of engines he would not expect to see.

"Excuse me there," he said to the engine, "you're... an O2 class from the LNER?"

The O2 looked over to the big engine and blinked widely, shocked to see an engine so clean and bright be admits the coldness of the yard. "Who on earth are you?" he said curiously.

"I am Gordon," replied the big engine, "I am from the North Western Region on the Island of Sodor."

The engine peered at Gordon all over, looking quite baffled at his appearance. "So you're one of those engines from the books?" he said.

"Indeed," said Gordon, a small smile came across him, "and you are?"

"I'm... I'm Gregory," the O2 smiled back, "you're from what I see a modified Gresley A1."