the tales of the Coaldai railway

ditches and diesels

It was a cold February and the railway was calm; Lenore had been sent to a nearby locomotive works to be repaired and paired with a proper tender, Mark was moaning about his boiler ticket and finally Nick had been given a new coat of paint.  

"I mean I know my ticket is almost up but it's gonna take ages to get a new boiler let alone the other parts" grumbled Mark.

"I get what you mean" wheeshed David "but why can't you get an extension on it or something"

"I'll speak to lord decal about it" replied Mark "do you know who is supposed to take those trucks back to the junction Nick?"

"which ones?" asked Nick.

"the one we got from barrow" replied David.

"oh, I am" responded Nick.

Mark responded "Be careful, those trucks are some of the worst in the network"

"I can handle any trucks, for lord Decal has trusted me with new coat of beautiful paint" said Nick proudly.

"your talking out your cab mate" grumbled David.

 "hey, I can't talk out of my cab" replied Nick, completely missing the point.

"anyways, good luck Nick" called Mark as he watched Nick leave the shed.

 The yard at Coaldai is quite large with several sidings but one these sidings goes down an embankment. This happened because the land by the river got washed away by a storm leaving the tracks on a slope with buffers inches from the water. This siding is the last siding before the exit to the yard. Normally this isn't a problem but today the yard manager had decided to to hire his teenage nephew as a signalman.

Nick soon entered the yard and approached the siding the trucks were in and bumped them roughly. 

"now, now, I don't want any tricks from you lot" growled Nick as he roughly shunted the trucks.

"ow.. ow, we want a proper engine not a red box" grumbled the trucks.

Nick ignored them as he reversed with the trucks towards the yard exit. The low growl of his engine spread across the yard as he dragged the heavy trucks to the exit. Soon the lead truck noticed that the points were set towards the ditch, the trucks whispered and plotted, soon they enacted their plan and biffed Nick hard, he tried to stop but unfortunately he couldn't. He only stopped when he hit the buffers at the end of the ditch siding. 

"Oh goddammit" yelled Nick

The trucks said nothing, only cackled. 

Nick tried to leave the ditch but found the weight of the trucks prevented him from doing so. Mark was called to try and help but he couldn't help. Nick was left with his train for the entire afternoon... until a loud express engine whistle was heard.  Lenore approached the back of the train and pulled him out, soon after Lord Decal walked up.

"thank You Lenore for your help, I do apologise for asking you to do this on the day you return" said Lord Decal.

"It's fine sir" whispered Lenore.

Lord Decal walked up to Nick and Said" Nick, I don't blame you for this, but be more careful next time."

"yes sir" said Nick sadly

 "oh and could you tell Mark I have arranged for him to  have a fast track overhaul" said Lord decal as he walked away.