the tales of the Coaldai railway

redemption

It was a bright morning in the town of Coaldai. Colin had woken up early to prepare a very important train. Nick had also woken up early to take a permanent way train and so was at the station with Colin when lord decal arrived:

"morning engines" greeted lord decal.

"morning sir" responded the engines.

"let's get down to business, shall we " asked lord decal.

"yes sir " answered the engines.

"Nick you will be on a works train at lakeside. Colin you have the most important job today; you will be pulling a 4 coach train filled with potential business partners from companies along the line you will leave at 12 o'clock and arrive at  12:50. understood?" announced lord decal.

"understood" said Colin.

"understood"  said nick sadly.

lord decal walked back to his office as Colin looked at Nick.

"what's wrong Nick?" asked Colin.

"nothing... it's just... I want to fix my mistakes and prove to lord decal that I was worth buying" responded Nick sadly.

 Colin spoke reassuringly " I am sure you will Nick, and I think the best way to start is to take your permanent way train"

"your right Colin, thank-you" responded Nick.

Nick departed heading to lakeside and 2 hours later Colin departed with his very important train. As Colin travelled down the line he felt a strange sensation in his right cylinder but he ignored it. as he passed Coalden the sensation grew stronger so he told his driver:

"driver, my right cylinder feels off" complained Colin.

"we can't check it now Colin, when we arrive at glan y mor I'll check your cylinder" answered Colin's driver.

Colin continued on to glan y mor his cylinder feeling worse and worse. As he pulled into into lakeside it happened: his cylinder burst. steam erupted everywhere as Colin blacked out; Nick had seen the whole thing and rushed over to see if Colin was alright but the station master approached him:

"Couple up to Colin and pull him to glan y mor so this train isn't late and Colin can be put in the maintenance shed" said the station master franticly.

With that Nick pulled with all his might; pulling Colin and his train. Nick struggled to pull the heavy train. desperately he pulled the train as fast as he could move; he wanted to be sure Colin would be ok. it was a gruelling ten minutes before he pulled into glan y mor and immediately a porter uncoupled Colin from his coaches as Nick shunted him into the works shed. After a while lord decal rushed into the works shed and had a quick conversation about the state of Colin after which he walked up to Nick:

"Good job Nick in saving this train" 

"thank you sir, but how is Colin?"

"You want the good news or the bad news?"

"good then bad"

"the good news is the repair is pretty simple. the bad new is it will take 3 weeks minimum"

"oh no who will run trains?"

"well, you will be running freight trains"

"oh thank you sir, but what about passenger trains?"

"for that you and I tomorrow will go to barrow scrap yard to find a passenger engine"

"How will we pay for that sir?"

"the men on the train have all agreed to transport their goods by rail so we will be in need of a new engine anyway."

"that's great news"

"now Nick can you take me to coaldai so I can prepare for tomorrow"

"of coarse sir"

with that, lord decal climbed into Nicks cab and they set off to coaldai.