The Sudrians: Tales from the Engines

Squawking Van (1985)

One gloomy winter's morning, Edward was taking a goods train up the branch line to his junction. The wind blew nicely across the hills and the sea breeze made things feel a little more brighter. Edward couldn't help but smile happily as he puffed down the line, the trucks did not dare play tricks on him. But there was another one on the train that was about to give Edward grief. As they passed through the tunnel and began to go around the hill that went past the ruined fort, Edward felt a sudden tug behind him.

"Ohh!" he said, the train was getting heavier and heavier. Then the guard blew his whistle and the driver applied the brakes. Edward stopped in the middle of the line and his crew got down. They arrived at the guard's van, which the guard herself was inspecting the van all over.

"What's the matter?" asked the fireman.

"Search me," said the guard, "I heard a screech from this old bucket, but I couldn't find anything!"

"Probably something wrong with the brakes," said the driver, speculatively, "we'll get them checked once we've arrived at Wellsworth."

They agreed, and Edward set off once again. But now he was late to the junction. "Bother," he sighed, "I hope Molly is still there."

Thankfully, the yellow engine was still waiting, she looked agitated though as Edward stopped next to him. "What happened Edward?" she asked, concerned, "it's not like you to be late without reason!"

"Sorry," puffed Edward, still slightly out of breath, "but this brake van caused issues before Suddery."

Molly's eyes narrowed, she looked back to see the brake van and then her face twisted into looking like she immediately understood what happened. "Oh..." she sighed, "you mean Squawker."

"Squawker? Is that what the brake van is called?"

"Yes," Molly replied, "oh he's a troublemaker, Edward, he's not like Toad, Baresford, or Foster. Be careful of him."

"Oh, so this is Squawker?" Edward said he had never met this brake van before but had heard tales from the other engines. But why was he doing all the way here? Last he was on Winston's branch line, Winston had constantly fussed about him and had given him to Fergus instead to keep him away from him. Edward thought for a moment and then looked back to Molly. "I'll go talk to him," he replied, "I'm sure there's a reason why he does this."

Whilst Molly organised the trucks onto her train as quickly as possible, Edward moved to head down the train. He then came to the back of the train to see a very old Furness Railway brake van. He did not look much like the newer brake vans and looked more like a goods van if it weren't for the door at the end. He stared coldly at the blue engine as he stopped beside him.

"You are Squawker I presume," Edward said.

"And yer Edward," replied Squawker in a gruff manner, "thought yer were on me train, decided to give yer a nice welcome."

"I should give you the warm welcome instead since you are on my branch line," interjected Edward, "however, I wouldn't say your nice welcome was really... nice."

"Considering what I did to that big ol' red oaf on the smelly fish line, consider it nice."

"Old?" said Edward, "but Arthur is much younger than both of us."

Squawker glanced back at Edward with an annoyed look. "Listen bud, I ain't 'ere to be best pals with yer, I'm just 'ere to run trains."

"Could you explain the reason why we halted earlier though," asked Edward, trying to be as polite as possible, "because you were the cause of me running late with my train here."