the tales of the Coaldai railway

new years

It was new years eve on the Coaldai railway and not an engine was asleep as they were all exited about moving on to the new year of 1961. Nick was busy with a late night freight train and Mark was busy with the last passenger service of the night leaving Colin and David the only engines at the shed. The two engines were preparing to have a small 'party' with the other engines but being engines they couldn't do much except somehow acquire a couple trucks of welsh coal and a tanker of high octane diesel fuel to no expense of the railway. They had also convinced the workers of the line with no close family to attend and bring food. Lord Decal even brought a radio for music.

"Will this work" asked lord decal presenting an old radio.

"perfect" replied Colin "this will be a great little shindig"

"just remember" said lord decal sternly "no illegal activity, the railway can't aford another investigation"

"understood" said the ten workers and two engines.

soon Mark arrived but Nick was nowhere to be seen. The engines waited and waited but nick never arrived. It was soon decided that an engine would have to go and look, Colin probably would have volunteered if the points in front of him weren't  jammed against him. So because David had a good head of steam he was sent with a bright lamp to find Nick. the journey was long as he travelled down the line passing through a few stations until he saw a familiar red shape:

"Nick are you alright?" asked David.

"yeah I just ran  out of fuel" responded Nick embarrassed.

"where is your driver and your guard?" questioned David. 

"They left to find help a little while ago" replied Nick.

"well no point waiting here" responded David "we'll go to the next station and telephone up the line then go back to the sheds ok?"

"ok" responded Nick.

The engines departed, the icy rails meant the engines couldn't travel as fast as they would have preferred but soon they arrived back at the shed after making the call where they were greeted by a round of cheers. The engines spent the night enjoying the high quality coal and fuel while the workers became a few sheets to the wind and they all ended the night on a high by yelling "Happy new year" as loud as they could and then slowly dispersing until only David and Colin were awake. Colin was feeling unwell as a rather tipsy worker had poured a bottle of bootleg vodka into his saddle tank.

"I don't... feel well" groaned Colin.

"that's what happens when you pour a bottle of bootleg vodka in your tanks" replied David.

"at least I *hic* am have lived on this railway before these financially time problematic" stated Colin slowly.

"what are you rambling about" asked David.

"dynamite lead to fines leads to no-mine leads to poor financials" mumbled Colin before promptly falling asleep.

"interesting" said David as if planning something before falling asleep.