Tales from the rails

Dan, Jojo, and The Vandals

All public places are all at risk to vandalism, someone, "Leaving their mark," as they call it. It can rang from paint being applied onto something they don't own, whether it's sprayed or by hand, or even breaking things. Railways are no exception to this, with railway buildings, rolling stock, and even the engines from time to time can be found with big cuts in their paint or words painted on them. Josh was once a victim to this, being Labeled, "Scottish Scrap", and this made him not want to come out of the shed for a long while until they took off the paint and repainted him. He is one of the very unfortunate engines in the railway to be affected by this. "Breaking News, LNER's greatest, 'Flying Scotsman', gets into an accident when a sheet of metal was laid on the ground on his line. Several are injured though none are seriously so. He was doing 38 miles an hour just out of the station when he crashed." "My, my, Flying Scotsman's in a wreck. Whatever next?" Said one of the workmen who were listening in on the radio. "I just hope they don't hit us!" Said his buddy. "Alright you two, back to work!" Said the Foreman. Tracey was out of the works but they hadn't started to work on Dan yet, even though they had all the parts. The days dragged on for him, and he was always alone at night. "Why won't someone visit me?" He would ask himself at night, looking down at his buffers. But at the end of the week when he was finally repaired, his crew came to see him. Dan couldn't see around him because painters had set up canvas on scaffolding to keep the paint off the floor and walls of the works. "Hey Dan!" Said DD as he and Delilah walked up to him. "Driver! Firewoman! Where have you been?" Asked Dan happily. "Well, we had school all week and we had to stay after." Delilah explained. "Who cares? You're here now and we can finally spend some time together!" Dan said as his crew walked closer. Then Dan saw they both had backpacks filled with food and water and clothes and sleeping bags. "You guys are staying here?!" Dan asked happily. "Yep!" Delilah said. "Wonderful! I can't wait to hear about your week while I was here!" The two set up their sleeping bags and sat down, eating a few snacks they had brought along. "I've never had... oh what do you call it?" "A sleepover?" Asked DD. "That's it! I've never had one of those!" The little tank engine replied. The three chatted as Dan was painted in his pink undercoat. They continued chatting as he was painted black. It was nighttime by the time the workers were finished, and they had chatted all the way through him being painted his number 1 and his blue stripes. Some paint pots had been left on the canvas, whether it was a mistake or they had to finish something up. "So what have you been up to here Dan?" Asked Delilah. "Oh... nothing really. Nothing to do besides sitting around and waiting to be repaired." "That's a shame." "I know, and what's worse is- the canvas is falling!" Dan suddenly yelled as the scaffolding underneath collapsed towards him! The paint on them flew everywhere, black, yellow, blue, and hints of pink paint flew all over Dan! His crew were lucky to on the other side of him so he was the only one caught in the crossfire. They could hear laughing face into the distance as footsteps left the scene. "I'll go get the Foreman." "No need, I just watched what happened." He said as he turned a corner. "So did you catch it on video? Maybe with a lucky camera?" "I would have to take a guess and say yes, but I don't know for certain which cameras can see in the dark." Explained the Forman. "But anyways, Dan, I guess you have to stay another day so the painters can return and get you properly painted." "Aw man." Dan said looking down at his buffers. "It's okay Dan, just means more free time for us!" DD assured. That put a small smile on Dan's face.

The next day after Dan was repainted, he left the works with his crew happy to be free from the works and back on the line. He went with the idea to go collect his coaches as Jojo raced past him with the express. Dan hurried down the line to the to his station. Jojo pressed on to the top station, where the connection was going to take the express passengers to the mainland. He was making great time, though as he sped through the countryside, he noticed a small group of young men who were giggling to each other. "Must have been a real funny joke." Jojo muttered to himself as he pressed on. Jojo made it to the station and waited at the platform so his passengers could disembarked and the mainlanders could embark on the coaches, Jojo waited and waited, the guards whistle finally blew and Jojo started off, headed for the loop line to get turned around and head back to Levi. Jojo had just left the station when the road met the rails and a SUV was ridding alongside the tracks. He saw a few of the young men who were laughing with each other earlier standing on the roof holding something. "Ready guys? 3... 2... 1!" Jojo whistled loudly as a loud clank was heard, his driver looked out the right side window to see a large metal sheet flying towards him. "WHOA!" He yelled as a second clank was heard and Jojo's driver fell unconscious. Then the young men pulled out another sheet of metal. "Again!" Yelled the driver and they threw the metal onto the line. Jojo braked hard, but it was too late. Jojo's wheels caught onto the metal sheet, and he was lifted off the rails. His wheels then shot the metal sheet to the car, it came at the car so fast it knocked it on it's side, thought no one was hurt. Jojo and the coaches tilted to the left, landing on the rails. The passengers yelled and screamed in the carriages, the windows shattered and some of the passengers were cut! Jojo ripped up rails and sleepers, one bruising his eye. Finally, everything stopped, the crew, passengers, engines, and saboteurs first looked around. The passengers were luckily mostly unharmed, the unbuckled saboteurs who had caused the crash had been thrown around in the car. Jojo's driver had two black eyes, a bloody nose, a broken arm, and a bad headache. Jojo's fireman had jumped clear before the accident, but had a broken leg. Jojo had dents all over his body and the black eye he had gotten. The police soon arrived with many ambulances and Sir William V. The first vandals now saboteurs were all arrested on the spot, they confessed to being part of Josh's paint incident and Dan's as well. The boys were taken away in a carriage by JD and Sam, who gave a whistle to Eddy as he entered the wreckage scene. "Oh lord." Said Eddy as he looked at the coaches. There were children aboard the train, and Jojo was in a wreck, crying and inconsolable. "It's my fault, I didn't stop." He kept repeating to himself. "It's not your fault, Jojo, it was not your fault. No one blames you for this!" Said the controller, but they got the chains on Jojo and secured the cranes to lifting. "Hoist me away to the smelters!" He whined as he began to feel the chains strain. The tears streamed down his face as his crew was taken away in two separate ambulances. The coaches were ruined as well. The passengers were all being looked over by paramedics and EMTs, calming everyone down. Those who didn't sustain injuries were allowed to board another express service and run down the to Levi Station. Liz was at the head of this train, and while everyone boarded the train, she looked back. Eddy had just cleared Jojo's tender of the wreckage and had loaded that onto a flatbed. "Poor thing." She said as the guards whistle blew. She set off as the first coach was prepared for lifting.

When the lawsuit was over, the railway was put out of blame, however, this didn't stop the news from changing the public perception of the situation. Sir William V was watching his television when he flipped onto the news. "Express Accident has 12 injured reported as the final victim count on high speed train crash. We now go to Tom live with D&D number 2." Said the news reporter. "What?" Asked Sir William V. "Thank you Dale. Jojo, how would you describe the accident?" "Scary. There was a moment where time froze for what felt like hours as the metal sheet lifted me off the rails. I never thought a piece of metal would be so powerful against a big engine like me." "Does this make you want to go on another strike?" "What?!" "Hey, what are you doing here?" Said a workman. "You guys are trespassing in a dangerous area, we're working here!" Said another. "Right, back to you Dale." Tom finished and they cut back to Dale. Sir William turned off the television and put his hands on his head. "Oh boy." He said to himself as his head shook slowly from side to side. Sir William V then got a call from the works. "Sir, we got a riot over the whole accident thing that's happened." "What?! But I just watched the news, are you serious?" "It's been spreading on social media since the hour of the crash got into the internet." Said the Foreman. "I'll be right there." Said the controller. He hung up the phone and walked to find his hat on his coat rack. He put it on, stepped outside and into his car, driving out onto the road and down the street. When he arrived he saw people all outside the works, with signs and posters saying what a bad railway it was. "What is going on?" He asked when he got there. "You said it was a riot, Derek!" "Well, it started out that way. They were taking things from the works trying to get them to stop working on Jojo, saying he should be cut up at first, then we called the police. Now they're, 'peacefully protesting'. They want you to do something." Derek, the foreman, explained. He handed the controller a megaphone and the controller reluctantly took it. Some boxes were stacked neatly in front of the protesters, about 30 or so people, mostly younger people. "This is a bad railway!" A sign read. "My friend was on the train, she's been worried sick since!" Read another. "Everyone, please, understand. It was not our engine nor crew's fault that this accident occurred. And I understand that the accident has shaken a lot of people up, believe me! But we have taken the responsibility and are reacting to it with lawsuits, making preparations if this were to happen again, and making safety concerns towards it." "So what, we shouldn't voice our opinions on it?" Yelled a lady in the crowd. "I understand that your opinions matter, and they very much do. But what more do you want? Medical bills have been paid for, the saboteurs are in jail, and the railway is indeed safer!" The controller argued. The protesters talked amongst themselves. Without another loud word to the controller, they left. "Thank you for coming out here sir." Said Derek. "Uh huh. I'm going to see Jojo now." He said and he handed back the megaphone to Derek and walked into the works.

The controller walked up to Jojo, who had been crying for the past few minutes. "They want me scrapped sir." He said through small sobs. "And I won't scrap my top link express engine." Said Sir William V. The controller was not happy with the entire event. "I was going to start with how are you holding up, but it seems you've already answered my question." "I just want to be back in service. And not with the express, not for a good bit." "I understand. Liz will take over your job and you can take passenger services with these coaches once you and the coaches are repaired." "Thank you sir." Jojo said as the tears finally stopped flowing. "Good night Jojo." "Thank you sir. Good night sir." Jojo said as the controller began to walk away. "So when will they all be done?" Asked the controller. "Maybe another week for the coaches, we got most of the windows installed and the paint is on its way. Jojo will take maybe two weeks. We need to order a couple extra parts and some paint." "Alright, well, I trust you and your men can get it done. Good night Derek." "We will, goodnight sir." Said Derek, and the two walked in separate directions, Sir William to his car and the foreman to the works. Sir William V got in his car and drove off towards home.