the tales of the Coaldai railway

Braking bad

It was a bright morning in the town of Coaldai. Mark had just woken up to see Nick was also awake:

"morning Nick" greeted mark

"morning Mark" responded Nick " are you ready to pull your inaugural train?"

"pardon?" said mark confused.

"oh sorry" apologized nick "your first train"

"oh I see, please try to use simple English around me because.. you know.. I am not a native English speaker" responded Mark.

"of coarse" said Nick.

"In answer to your question Nick, I am not sure because I have never pulled a passenger train: I have only ever shunted or pulled goods trains." said Mark answering Nicks question.

" I am sure you will do well" reassured Nick.

"is there any difference between goods and passenger passenger trains?" questioned Mark.

"I don't know, I have never taken a proper passenger train." responded Nick.

Soon Nick had left to take a coal train; Nick was left on his own. About half an hour later he went to shunt his coaches into the station and  gave them a hard bump:

"hey" complained the coaches " that hurt"

"sorry" apologised Mark " I am not good at taking passenger trains"

mark took the coaches to the station and waited for people to climb on board. Soon he was ready to leave but the guards whistle never came. He waited and waited and waited; growing more agitated by the minute until finally the guard came running round the corner sprinting into his compartment and blowing his whistle loudly; with that Mark thoroughly annoyed, began to set off determined to make up for the delay.

 Mark raced down the line determined to not be late on the first train. Only to be halted at another signal as Nick rolled past with a long freight train; this only served to anger Mark even more as he was now even more late. He soon pulled into coalden and stayed there for 5 minuets. as he departed he gave the coaches a hard bump:

"hey that hurt" complained the coaches.

"I don't care" yelled Mark "I'm already late, I need to make up for lost time"

"how rude" moaned the coaches.

Mark continued down the line but for some reason his train slowly began to feel heavier and heavier and by the time he got to lakeside he couldn't move.

"what happened" grumbled Mark.

"I don't know" replied his driver calmly "but what I do know is you need to calm down. your anger has been getting the better of you this whole trip"

"I guess your right" agreed Mark.

Then suddenly they heard the guard call out "there's a leak in the break pipe"

"how did that happen?" asked the driver.

"probably when Mark bumped them at coalden" answered the guard.

"well how do we fix this?" asked the driver.

"I have a really stupid idea" responded Mark.

Mark explained his idea and after a bit of work they set off. Mark slowly struggled on to glan y mor before arriving over 40 minuets late. he uncoupled from the train and rolled into the engine shed where lord decal was waiting for him:

"I am aware that the guard was late earlier causing you to be late but I am also aware you bumped the coaches and caused a leak in the break pipe of the coaches and for that I am very disappointed."

"I am very sorry sir"

"however, I am still puzzled as to how you fixed the brake pipe?"#

"simple sir, I got my driver to use his laces and the guard to use his comic book to plug the leak until we got to glan y mor"

"I see, well lucky for you Colin is returning sooner than expected so he will be able to help you. good day."

with that lord decal departed as Mark reflected on the days events.