Tales from the rails

A Proper Engine

One day, Rhys had to take a trip down to the iron mines to take some iron to Maddox Goods Station. Walter was tagging along. Rhys saw DD, the J50 tank engine, and Marie. The two were getting a small train ready to take down to the steel works. Rhys had never really been to the iron mines, so he didn't really know who these engines were. "Hello, I'm Rhys!" He introduced cheerfully. "I'm DD, and that's Marie, and up there is Night Owl." DD introduced as he bumped a truck into line, the little noisy thing was trying to say in a warm siding. Rhys looked up, high above them was a little bridge where there was steam puffing and trucks rattling. "He'll be waiting for you at the dumping site." Said Marie, she buffered up to DD and was coupled up to the rest of the train. The guard suddenly blew his whistle. "That's our queue, bye Rhys." Said DD as he whistled back with Marie. They hurried off and Rhys went off to the dumping site. Rhys saw a tiny 2-4-0 tender engine coming to a stop by a weird looking set of buffers, but what he noticed was that the engine didn't have buffers! Not even a buffer beam. Rhys thought this was very weird. The iron ore was transferred to the standard gauge trucks, and Rhys whistled a, "Thank you!" To Night Owl and set off with his trucks and Walter in tow. Down the line, Rhys had a red signal. He came to a stop and began to wait. He saw up ahead an empty log train headed down the line towards him. The engine gave a long and loud whistle. It was Bernard. Rhys noticed something about him too. Bernard had no buffers or a cowcatcher! "Hey Rhys!" "Hello Bernard!" Rhys said enthusiastically. Bernard and the trucks passed, and Rhys saw that all the trucks didn't have buffers either! The signal turned green and Rhys set off down the line towards Maddox. When he got there, he dropped off the trucks and took Walter back to Drenk so they could rest. Walter was having a good time, lightly swaying in the cool spring breeze. Rhys made it to the station and rolled backwards into the yards. He rolled towards the carriage sheds and began shunting around his coaches and Walter so Walter was at the back. Rhys then went to the sheds, he was done for the day until later that night, so he needed to get some rest. He hurried to sleep, and his crew headed to the bus station to head home and get some sleep before the mail train.

Rhys began to dream. "Where am I?" He asked himself in the dream. It all seemed real. "Why, you're in the good ol' US of A!" Said a voice. It was the stereotypical American accent, but the place the voice was coming from didn't make sense. It was Sir William V. "Home of Cowcatchers and big locomotives!" Rhys looked down at his buffers and saw a knuckle coupling and a big red cowcatcher! "No, no, Nooooo!!!" He screamed, and then he woke up, huffing and puffing. "Oh, just a dream. Just a dream." His crew were firing him up. "You alright, old boy?" Asked his driver. "Yeah, yeah. Everything's good. Just a little nightmare, that's all." Rhys said, brushing off the topic and decontrolling his breaths. Rhys went to grab Walter, behind the coaches. Rhys began to gently shunt the coaches around to get to Walter. The coaches stayed asleep as Rhys shunted them around. He grabbed Walter who all remained asleep as Rhys moved him in front of the coaches. Walter was coupled up to the coaches and Rhys pulled them back over the points and then pushed them back into the carriage sheds. The four hurried out of the yards and raced over the Levi Harbour. His crew were mostly awake, a little tired as it was dark out and the clouds covered the sky. The four made it to the little hill and rolled down it. They hurried through the station and entered the Levi Loop, headed for the Harbour. Rhys saw the cranes and workmen moving bags of letters from ships to the mail coaches, that would soon be sent out all over the island. Rhys shunted Walter at the back of the train and went to the front to wait so they could leave. Soon a ghostly whistle shot through the yards. The Engine Who Pulls The Flying Kipper entered the yard, its train of fish all packed up and ready. "Another improper engine." Rhys thought to himself: "Why keep your identity secret from everyone else instead of just doing your job?" The two trains were soon ready to take off. The Mail Train departed headed for Drenk, as Levi had a separate mail service at the harbour to take the mail out to the town. Rhys began to turn his wheels, with little resistance from the train behind him. As they entered the station, a ghostly whistle shot through the air, a little quiet, but Rhys knew it all too well. "Come on Rhys, we'll beat 'em to Pleasentville this time." Said Emma. "Yeah, and we'll finally figure out who it is this time!" Rhys said to the little blue tank engine. "Yeah." Rhys said as he began to climb the hill. He didn't let that slow him down. The trip went on as usual, dropping off mail at every mainline station, all besides Maddox as the Postal service never ran there, they had it shipped to Drenk. They had to wait a few minutes before it was safe to depart. Behind them they could hear the small huffs and puffs. Rhys began to start up again, setting off his whistle and gripping the rails, his wheels turning fast. Rhys rounded a bend and hurried along the line. He soon was beginning to get ahead of the clock, earlier and earlier. "This time I'll beat 'em." Rhys thought to himself as he went around another bend. He saw the lights of Lickey Station up ahead, so he knew he had to slow down. They came to a stop, Rhys looked back to see the lights coming down the line. They grew brighter and brighter! A ghostly whistle shouted and the train thundered through the station. It quickly climbed the hill and was out of site in seconds. "Bother, they always get us here." He mumbled as the guard blew his whistle. Rhys went down the line fore the next station. At the last station, Rhys didn't even see the engine. The kipper was now dropped off at the harbour as it made sense to. He was beat again, he dropped off the mail, and ran around the train, taking it home in defeat. When Rhys made it home that night, after shunting Walter to the back of the carriage sheds, he rolled into his berth and soon fell asleep.