AU Sodor Book ???: The NSAC Conflict

Story Four: Cinders at Crovan's Gate

It was now 1973, and Henry was back in service. He was praised as a hero for stopping the robbery of The Sudric Flyer. The NSAC was scrounging for every cent they could get after the failed robbery attempt, and law enforcement were beginning to track down members. They decided to set a diversion to distract the authorities for just a while longer until they could perform some smuggling activities to bring in cash. One of the members happened to work at Crovan's Gate, and hatched a plan. While the men were firing up Edward after an extensive overhaul, the NSAC member lit a match near the coal pile, causing The Works to go up in flames. Tremblay, The Works Diesel, rushed to save the steam engines from the fire. He quickly rescued all of them, but when he went back in to rescue a workman, it happened. The barrels of diesel fuel went up in flames, causing an explosion the sent rubble flying all over. Shrapnel from the explosion found a firm home in Tremblay's face, as the flames started to surround his body. Eventually, he too explode, causing the rest of the workshop to go up in flames. Many important parts and blueprints were lost, but the NWR headquarters at Knapford just so happened to make duplicates of all the blueprints in 1971, meaning most wouldn't actually be lost. The NSAC were extremely pissed that they did all of this for practically nothing, and the man who started the fire just happened to go missing the next day, with his body washing ashore near Harwick a few weeks later. The police now had to work even harder, now that there was a murder charge on the NSAC's long rap sheet. It would still be quite a bit before they were caught, though.