Tales from the rails

Shifting Sheds

Drenk sheds is an old shed, it used to be the main shed when Dan first worked on the mainline in the early days. Most of the other engines don't know the history behind the sheds, but they all care about one thing that they hold very, very close to them. The buffer stops, every engine you ask will always talk about their buffers stop at their shed. It lets them know that their day is done and that they worked hard. Each engine has their crew etch something onto the buffers to mark them as theirs. One day, Sir William V was in his office when there was a knocking on his door. "Come in." He said as he signed a paper. It was his grandson along with the inspector. "Hey Grandpa." Said DD as the two walked in. "Ah, DD, and Mr. Clarkson! What brings you here?" "I ran an inspection on Drenk sheds since that little incident with Ella. The building is going to be coming down soon, the support beams are rotten and the walls are all old." Said the inspector, getting right to the point. "Oh, I see. Is it still safe enough to live in?" "Somewhat. I give it about another year before it falls in on itself and eight months before it shows." The inspector said. "But in other news, your grandson was graded in his architecture class and got an A+ on his homework." He held up a few papers that had designs of a new roundhouse. "Well, my, my! Seems someone is going places in the world of building!" Sir William V said as he took the papers and flipped through them. "Yep! And the inspector said that contractors want to buy the design and build them on the island! They're offering up a pretty big sum of money!" DD bragged happily. "How big?" "Lowest contractor said 150,000." "Wow!" "That's what I said, and i can put it towards a car, college, a house, or just save it up for a while!" DD said with his big smile. "Well, these ought to be used for the new roundhouse design. I want you to go through with my contractor, Dennis." Said his grandpa. "Will do grandpa! I'll meet you in the car, Mr. Clarkson." DD said as he walked out of the controller's office. "I'll be on my way sir." "Right, Mr. Clarkson. But make sure that Dennis doesn't try to lowball my grandson." "Right, how much then?" "At least 200,000. Those plans look like they've been drawn up by a ten year architect." "Right sir, I will sir." Mr. Clarkson left the office and got into the car. He and DD sped off.

Later that day, Tatum arrived at the sheds. Sally was there, shunting trucks in the yards. "Hey Tatum. Done with your work already?" Asked Sally. "Yeah, figured I'd rest before we all get into another argument all together tonight." She answered jokingly. "Oh, it's just a few colorful words here and there." She chuckled back. "I think you guys are super, duper loud!" Said a van, the others in the yard laughed. "Oh buzz off." She then bumped the truck. "Oh, oh, ooh!" It whined as it rolled back. The trucks all laughed again. Tatum rolled towards the shed doors. Her crew got out of her cab and opened the doors for her. They swung inwards and Tatum slowly rolled onto the turntable. The turntable has dials by the doors that control the turntable, lining up perfectly with each berth. Tatum sat in the turntable as her crew began to work on moving her around. Tatum began spinning, but suddenly, it stopped! "Uh oh." She said. "Just move a bit Tatum." Said her driver. Tatum began to roll forwards. She suddenly felt as though she couldn't stop! She braked, but nothing happened! Suddenly, she stopped, though her buffers were caught in between the wood support beam of the ceiling. Then the turntable started again, and her buffer cut into the support beam! There was a "CRACK!", and then a "CLUNK!" Dust began to fall from the ceiling. And then it sagged down. "Uh oh. Turn me back! Turn me back!" She yelled as she realized that the roof was about to cave in on her! Her crew did so, and once Tatum could, she raced out of the sheds just as the sun began to shine in from the new hole in the ceiling. Sally watched everything. "What happened in there?!" She yelled over, panicked. "The roof caved in! I accidentally broke a support beam and it caved in!" She called back. Sally puffed over. "Oh boy. I wonder what of ours is all damaged. "Hanna and the boys aren't gonna like this." When the then engines and coach arrived at the sheds that night, they were first worried about Tatum. "Are y out alright?" Asked Edward as he looked around. "Yeah." "You sure?" Asked Dan, just for reassurance. "Yes, I'm fine!" She said annoyed. "Good. Because I want my stuff." Said Hanna flatly. "Our wedding photos are in there." Said Rhys. The workers had finally made it stable enough for the crew to come in and miraculously, the berths were relatively undamaged, it was mainly the turntable area that had been ruined. The crews were all looking around. "All the sleepovers. The fun game nights..." Delilah started. "Gone like that." Said Edward's driver. "Come on guys, let's get their things." Rhys said. They each had a few boxes to store everything and hammers and power tools for removing the buffers. The engines were happy that their things like scrapbooks and lucky totems and sleeping caps were okay, but sad about the sheds. Everyone heard a car pull up. Sir William V, Dennis, and Mr. Clarkson arrived on the sight and looked at the damage. "Don't worry everyone." Said Sir William V as the three men got out of the car. "We're going to rebuild the sheds. New plans, new shape, everything!" "But why?" Asked Rhys, the blue tank engine was a little worried. "The old shed design was old, so old I couldn't even find the old blueprints." Mr. Clarkson answered. "It was going to be coming sooner or later. "How long will it be, before we get the new sheds?" Hanna asked. "Well, two months. Maybe three. Even if I get my men on it right this second, we need the materials and such." "I've already got some orders in place. But I will need two engines to help reliever them. I have Lydia on it and I figured I'd ask on-" "I'll do it sir!" Dan jumped in and the controller was a little surprised at first but then quite pleased. "That's a good engine. You'll start helping with some goods trains tomorrow." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Where do we sleep tonight?" Asked Tatum. "If you engines need to, we have tarps. Otherwise any empty shed that won't be taken is okay." The controller said. "I'll squeeze into the carriage shed with Hanna." Edward said. "I don't mind the tarp." Dan answered. "I'll take a tarp too." Rhys said. "Me three." Said Sally. "I'll go check Levi for a berth." Tatum said. "Well that's settled. You five have a good night, and Dan, you have a busy day tomorrow." The three men got back into Sir William's car and Sir William V drove the three off. The three engines were tarped up, Edward and Hanna fit perfectly in the carriage sheds, and Tatum puffed off to Levi sheds. She made it to Levi, where three berths were open. "Well if it ain't me little sister!" Said Josh with a smile. "Need a spot?" "Yes please, I kinda, um... I kind of destroyed Drenk Sheds. Though they said that it was coming down anyways so I guess it's all good." Tatum explained. "Oh, alright. Just make sure not to bring the sheds down here!" Josh laughed as Tatum got onto the turntable. She was turned around and got into the berth next to Josh. Tatum went to sleep as the other engines kept talking about their day