Tales from the rails

Twins

The strike had been going for a week now. DD and his friends were going back to school and also working overtime to keep up with the workload. His parents had to drive Dan for a bit to keep up with the mornings. The controller decide to buy four engines. Two for the Levi Harbor as they as well were having trouble keeping up with work with only the tank engines. And another two for the mainline. The day came when they arrived on ship. They were in boxes fresh from the works on the mainland, and were being unloaded by the cranes. Afterwards, a man grabbed an axe and  hit the box. He struck a hole. "Hey! Watch it!" Yelled a male voice from inside, an eye peered out from the dark box. "Oh, um, sorry." He said as he continued his work, now equipped with a crowbar.

The boxes had been opened up, the engines now were revealed. All of them in British Railways Black, two of the LBSCR E2 class and two of the LNER J71 class. Ryan and Dom watched as the controller greeted the new engines. "Hello you four! Welcome to the railway." He started with a big grin on his face. "Welcome to the D&D railway. While I was hoping to get you at a later time period, the tender engines are all on strike, and I don't have the money right now to get some new tender engines either. So do you think you four will be able to keep up with the work?" He asked. "Yes sir!" Yelled one of the E2's. "If my brother can, so will I!" Yelled the other one. "We're in too!" Said the J71's in unison. "Very good engines! I hope you will enjoy your time here on the railway, in the meantime, what are your names?" Asked Sir William V. "Cyril!" Said the J71 on the left. "Rowan!" Said the J71 on the right. "Um... we haven't any names sir." Said the E2 on the left. "We will have to change that! I will come up with names for you by the days end. But, in the meantime, Dom and Ryan will show you the ropes of working here, you four go and meet them at the station. And the engines did so, along with Ryan and Dom who kept out of eyesight.

Ryan and the two E2's set off to shunt trucks in the yards and to learn the ropes a little more. "When you shunt, make sure to come up carefully to the truck as to not scare it." He said, but then he bumped the truck hard. "But only do we bump them when they are troublesome, to make sure that they do not cause an accident." He said. The two E2's then began to roll slowly behind some vans. "Hello there vans! We have come to assign you lot to a train, do come along and be mindful for your engines!" They said as they buffered up carefully to one, then they kept going adding a van every time they slowed down a little to be gentle. "No no no! That's not the way to do it!" Yelled Ryan. "Move out of the way! I'll show you the proper way!" He commanded as the tank engines apologized to the vans and scurried to a siding. "Get moving!" Yelled Ryan as he bumped the trucks. "Oof! Ow! Oh!" They grunted as they were thrown into one another. "There, fast and ready." Said the little shunter. The tank engines groaned, they kept doing things their way, and Ryan did them his way.

Dom took Cyril and Rowan to the harbor for their shunting. "Here, we have to get the post train ready for tonight." He said. "Get the red and blue vans in a line, then we can move on." He said as the three got to work. Along the way, Dom gave them instructions on what to do, and the two followed perfectly. They assembled the post train and put it in a siding, Rowan took them to the station to be loaded up with mail. "See, nothing to it. Now let's wait for your brother to get back and then we can move onto the next train." Said Dom. Cyril was sitting at the pier, and Dom was in a siding watching the track for Rowan when he heard something to his right. "What's that sound?" He asked Cyril. "Oh no! It followed me here!" He screamed as he shut his eyes tightly as a line of trucks came thundering towards him! "Stop stop stop!" He screamed as he pinned his brakes, but the wet rails didn't help. He skidded along, waiting for a crash. But nothing happened, for he was caught by the E2's at the other end of the train. "We told you that they wouldn't stop Ryan!" They yelled as they looked back. Ryan looked down at his buffers in shame.

That night, the engines were sitting at the station so they could go to sleep, the controller walked over to them. My engines, first, I would like to say congratulations on stopping a nasty accident from happening." He looked over at Ryan. "Secondly, My E2's, I have picked out names for you." He said, "Tim and Tom! You two can decide which names you want as long as you both agree on them." He said with a smile. "Now then, that is all, I hope you all can get comfortable tonight, for tomorrow I will need the help of all the engines." He said as he walked off. "Man, I'm knackered, I'm going to sleep." Said Tom as he shut his eyes. "I am too." Said Rowan. Tim and Ryan soon fell asleep silently as well, but before the other two could drift off, Dom had a question. "Cyril, you said, 'it followed me here' earlier. What did you mean by that?" He asked. "Oh, I'm jinxed, and I have been my whole life. Normally I have my lucky lamp but that's being delivered on road with my crew." He yawned as he went to sleep. "Oh brother." Said Dom as he looked down at the rails and went to bed.