The Sudrians: Tales from the Engines

Maximus and Montague (1982)

The Island of Sodor has many beautiful locations, but one of its prettiest was the western coastline. There, you will find many holidaymakers coming to see the beautiful landscape. You will also see Duck and Oliver puffing proudly along their branch line called the Little Western. However, when the summer end and the cold winter arrives, the traffic along the line gets less busy. This allows repairs to happen along the railway line and to the infrastructure of the other businesses. It also allows the roads to be less congested which means road works will be done to these locations when needed.

The Sodor Construction Company was usually seen along the roads doing these works. Most of the pack were friendly to the Little Westerners. But there was always a pair of twins that Duck hated coming to his part of the island. Max and Monty were dump trucks, for lorries that were so massive they cared little about safety and were extremely reckless whenever they were out of sight of Mr and Mrs Packard. Duck had always had grievances about them whenever they would recklessly drive around the railway.

At the end of winter, just as the blossoms were coming in, the Fat Controller had asked the pack to redo the yards and roads at Callan. Old buildings were demolished and new ones would be rebuilt to make sure they were safe and modern for the line, it will also allow more space in the yard since Callan's yard was used in case Arlesburgh's yard was packed up to the brink. The roads were also being redone, they had been neglected a lot, with potholes and rather bumpy bits on the road, so it was decided that the pack will fix them along with renovating Calan's station and yard as well.

Max was in the yard, being loaded with rubble by Oliver the Excavator, the job only needed one dumb truck, and Max knew this area better than his brother Monty. Duck arrived in the yards to collect some empty stock and watched Max, suspiciously. Kelly rolled up to him, knowing his disdain. "You can't watch them all the time," he said, bemused, "besides, they always get told off when they're caught."

"Yes," said Duck, "but every time they do get caught they would have done it at least twenty times."

"Twenty times! That's a lot," said Kelly.

"Seems rather small to me," huffed Duck disdainfully, "because they always go back to doing it."

Kelly smiled kindly at the Great Western engine. "Don't worry," he said, "I will be the one to keep a watchful eye on them."

Duck smiled back at the crane gratefully, he then shunted the trucks onto his train and set off down the line to Tidmouth. Meanwhile, Max was getting impatient. He glared at the steam engine which was now leaving Callan with his goods.

"Hurry up," he called to Oliver, "the old, fuddy-duddy is leaving before me, and he arrived after me!"

"It's not a race," scolded Oliver, he then unloaded that last bit of rubble, "there you go, they want this at Knapford Harbour."

"Easy," smirked Max, and he skidded away.

"Watch your speed!" yelled Kelly, "Duck won't be please if you keep this up!" But Max didn't care and exited the yard and began to race down the road.

As Max rumbled down the road, he began to get bored, it was less fun driving fast down the roads without him, but as he headed down the line, he noticed Duck steaming down the branch line. An idea came to him and he smirked. "Rather have any other engine than Mr Quack," he chuckled, "but better than nothing, let's see if he can be entertaining."

He then picked up speed and bucketed down the line, he zoomed down the line and managed to catch up to the train. He smirked triumphantly as he zoomed past the Great Western engine. Duck was outraged, he whistled angrily at the lorry, but Max didn't care. "Easy to beat you in a race ol' fuddy-duddy!" he cackled.