Tales from the rails

Ryan, Tim, and The New Van

One morning, Tim was awoken by a fuss in the yard. His fire wasn't burning well but he wanted to see what was happening. He slowly puffed over with his crew. The trucks were arguing over a van that had come from the North Western Railway. "I'm telling you, she sucks! She's no fun!" Said one. "Dude, that's Tommy's sister!" Said another. "Oof! Oh!" The two yelled as Ryan bumped them hard. Dan passed by with a coal train and laughed at the trucks quarrel. Tim chuckled too. "Alright you lot, cut it out." Ryan said as he began putting them into line. The trucks weren't happy about their treatment from Ryan and grumbled. "So what's this about a new van? Don't they build like a hundred of you guys every couple of months?" Asked Tim. "Well this one is different!" Said a truck. "Yeah, she's been painted pink and she's got 'D&D' painted on her sides." "And guess what, she's not down for causing trouble! Like, it's in the name, she needs to cause trouble!" Then Ryan pulled the trucks away. "A truck that isn't troublesome?" Tim asked to himself, but his driver got him out of that train of thought. "Come on old boy, we got work to do." Said his driver, and Tim puffed to fetch some coaches for the express.

Later that day, Tim saw the van. She was chatting with Tommy in one of the sidings. "Listen, all I'm saying is some of the trucks here are worse than the ones on Sodor!" He said. She began to laugh. "Yeah right, and I'm the prime minister!" She said laughing. The other trucks just watched the two chat. "How long have they been chatting?" Asked Tim to one of the trucks. "Like twenty minutes." Said a truck "They've been talking about who's got the most troublesome trucks on their railway." Added another. Tim went over to them and began getting them into line. "Let's talk later." Said Tommy. "You read my mind!" The pink van chuckled. Tim shunted the trucks into a line and then pulled the train to the Harbour to be loaded with cargo. He then left to get some more trucks in a line. He found Ava and Jarrid, the two were chatting and had their brakes locked on. Tim tried to move them, but he couldn't. The two just kept talking on and on. Vanessa was at the front of the train and was watching. She wasn't going to be loaded up, more just to keep the trucks in order. "Psst. Tim, come here." She whispered, the tank engine puffed over. "My breaks are locked on, think you can bump me a couple times to help loosen them?" "Sure." Said the unsuspecting tank engine. He uncoupled her from the train and lined her up in the siding with Ava sitting at the buffers. The two trucks didn't know what was happening. That was when Vanessa unlocked her brakes. Tim gave her a bump and she rocketed down the line! "Whoohoohoo!" The van yelled as she rocketed towards Ava. Then there was a, "Crash!" The buffers broke and Ava was sent into a pit of coal! Vanessa chuckled silently as Tim grabbed her and took her back to the train. The trucks were stunned at the spectacle. Then Tracey came to pick up the goods train of foods. The train took off. That's when Jarrid and Ava began laughing! "That's a good show you put on!" Said Jarrid. "I know, right? I how we can teach those new guys not to be so troublesome. They all think that they need to hunt every engine down but we can't move without 'em!" Ava said. Ryan overheard this as he worked.

Ryan had to take a supply train to The Grand Gap, they needed some bricks and cement to complete the bridge before they moved onto the rails. So far, the roads had been taking passengers between the stations on either end of the bridge, and the railway was beginning to lose one business after the other to the roads, and they would be in serious trouble if they didn't get the bridge done soon. Vanessa was at the head of the train, she was going to try and keep the trucks in order while also bring some bricks. Then Ava with a load of bricks. A few trucks behind her carried bricks as well. Some flatbeds were carrying cement powder and Jarrid had water in his tank, along with some other tankers. There was a pink brake van at the end of the train. The guard's whistle blew and Ryan whistled a, "PEEP POEP!" And set off with the train. The trip was going well. The trucks made it to the Lickey Incline where the trucks didn't try anything. "Is she going to say something?" Asked a truck, waiting for one of the two to give instructions. "I dunno." Said another. Ryan crested the hill, proud of himself. He rounded a bend and was about to pin his brakes, but that's when it happened! "On, On, On!" Yelled the brake van, she sent the train flying down the hill, and the trucks began to panic! "WOAH!" "Watch it!" "AHHHHH!" "I'm gonna hurl!" They screamed as they thundered down the incline. Ryan slammed on his brakes before they reached the bottom, but they would be useless against the heavy train behind him. Ava and Vanessa slammed their brakes and ordered the others to as well. The train came screeching to a halt, far before The Grand Gap. "Phew! I thought I was a goner back there. Thanks you two." "Yeah, no problem." Said Ava. "Yeah, I was brought here to help. Just doing my job" Added Vanessa. The train went on slowly and made it to the bridge where they had to wait for the workers to unload all the supplies. They waited for an hour and then they departed from The Grand Gap going back down the line. The train went to the station where Ryan ran around and pulled the train back to the big station. 

Sir William V was waiting for Ryan when he returned to the yard. "So, Ryan, I heard that you had some trouble with the trucks today?" Asked the controller. "Yes sir, though nothing serious happened to me or the train." Ryan answered. "That's good to know, because starting next week, I have decided that you will be helping get things moving again at the steelworks, they've refused to work with the roads and are backed up in work." Announced the controller. "Really sir? Thank you sir!" Said Ryan, he whistled loudly in joy that he was going to get to stretch his wheels. The other engines and workmen celebrated that night, chatting about for 30ish minutes before they had to get back to work. Ryan then puffed over to the trucks. "Hey, thanks for having my back there." He said. "Oh, uh, yeah, no problem." Said Ava as the little tank engine puffed away, shunting some coaches into place. He knew he was going to have a tough but good time a week from them.