the tales of the Coaldai railway

thief's and friends

It was a dark Night in the British railway station of Jarade a few stations down Seldom junction and a pair of nervous engines were sneaking through the yard. The two engines were Mark and David and they were cautious beyond belief. The lights in the yard were flickering and the diesels in the shed were snoring, every little noise made there eyes dart about.

"Are you sure it's here?" whispered Mark nervously.

"Yes of course" replied David equally as quietly.

"Are you sure it's worth as much as you say?" whispered Mark terrified.

"Yes, now shut up" responded David angrily.

As he said this one of the diesels snored particularly loudly making the two engines fall silent as Marks driver approached and whispered quietly "I found the vans"

The engines said nothing but began to make to move to the shady, old sidings in the corner of the yard. The track there was old and rusty, it was unpleasant run on but they ignored it for the cargo they were after. The engines soon found what they were after as well as something else: a maroon pacific with no tender next to the vans they were after. The engine was looking down at it's buffers, it had no name plates, it looked the like the numbers had been painted over and builders plates removed.

"who.. are you" she asked terrified.

"calm down, I am David and the engine next to me is Mark" whispered David "who are you?"

"I was never given a name" responded the engine sadly "you aren't here to scrap me, are you?"

"heavens no" replied David kindly "we are here to take these vans"

"oh" said the engine relived but still sad.

"what's wrong" asked Mark.

"I was put here by a strange jinty who said they'd be back to take me to Barry island" said the engine scared "she took my tender"

"that's terrible" said Mark who looked at David and said "we have to help her"

"don't bother" said the engine "I am the black cat of my class, the thirteenth built, the jinx, the..."

David cut her off "rubbish. Mark grab the vans, I'll take the pacific"

"ok" replied Mark.

The engine said nothing as David coupled up to her and Mark grabbed the vans. They left the yard swiftly but as they were leaving they were spotted by the diesels who gave chase.

One of the diesels yelled "They have taken our semi-legal trucks that we can't call the police about"

The other one yelled "and a princess royal for some reason"

The first one yelled again "Get them"

This began a long chase, David, Mark and the engine running down the line from a pair of diesels both in a strange blue livery. The steam engines were scared off their frames at the prospect of being caught by the diesels. They passed through another station. This gave David and Mark hope but the engine was still terrified. David was struggling to pull the large engine and was wheezing terribly:

"are you ok?" yelled Mark.

"no" panted David .

"we're almost here" yelled Mark.

The points to the Coaldai railway were fast approaching:

"you can't escape us" yelled the first diesel.

The points to the Coaldai railway changed suddenly sending the steam engines down the Coaldai line. The points changed again, sending the diesels unwittingly away from the steam engines. The three engines came to a stop in yard to take a breather, but as they stood two familiar shapes rolled up along side them.

"How did you think we wouldn't realise you had left?" asked Colin,

"ahh, Colin you almost made me burst a valve" yelled Mark,

"Where the hell did you go?" asked Nick.

"let's go to the sheds, we'll tell you there" Replied David.

"and what about her and those weird vans" Asked Nick looking as the pacific and the old vans.

"we have to take then with us" replied Mark.

"fine" responded Colin.

With that the engines went back to the sheds, trying to be quiet as to not wake any of the towns.