It was a scorching Christmas afternoon on the Wales & Borders Railway, the railway has a few locomotives such as Flying Scotsman (60103) LNER B12 (8572). 60103's driver is Barry Hulser, along with his fireman Halton Crawford. 8572's driver is Leyland Scott and his fireman is Gordon King. There were tons of children waiting at Cardiff Central on Platform 2, and their parents were all excited for the main attraction, which is to see Santa Claus himself. All the children were wrapped up nicely in their coats, hats, gloves and scarves. Everyone was excited for Christmas, and so were the crew; they decorated their locos and coaches, from roof to wheels, with colourful fairy lights and tinsel was tied down so it doesn't blow away. Everybody boarded the two trains, "this is so old-fashioned, this is so old-fashioned, the children grumbled. The crew were still excited to take the children two and from Santa's Grotto, which is really just an old Express coach which was going to be scrapped, it was repainted to a nice bright red, it has lights and many decorations.
"Come on, come on" 60103's driver said crossly "I'm waiting, and so is the Christmas Express", the passengers were taking a very long time to get into the carriages as there were a lot of people. Finally the passengers had boarded the carriages and the Christmas Express was ready to leave, "Let's go" Kirk mumbled from behind "let's get these kids to Santa's Grotto". Then the guard blew his whistle, he waved his green flag, and the Christmas Express started off slowly, the rails were slippery and took a bit of time to start moving properly. Eventually, the giants started on their adventurous journey, to Santa's Grotto, "Out of our Way!!!" Barry & Halton both said to a bunch of deers and sheep that were sprinting across the rails. They were now entering a little town called Didcot, you could hear the children shouting; "yay we're going to see Santa, yay we're going to see Santa" the children were as happy as can be, the carriages were rattling, because of the children jumping about in excitement, and being Mk1s they were very lightweight. "I hope the carriages don't break, I hope the carriages don't break" Tim Pegasus, the guard said worryingly, he always worries about everything, "these carriages are going to break" he was too worried about the coaches he didn't pay attention to the fact that he was needed in the cab of 8572, as Leyland had something he wanted to tell Tim, "SCREECH!" 8572 screeched to a stop at Steventon Level Crossing. The Christmas Express had set off once again.
Then, they had reached Santa's Grotto, located just West of Didcot Railway Centre, the kids ran out of the carriages, and ran into the queue. They had such a lovely time, they saw Santa Claus and his sleigh, they also got an early Christmas present. Everyone bought a cuppa and a nice warm steak and kidney pie, the children had pop and a slice of pizza, they apologised to the crew for calling the event old-fashioned, "We're so sorry for calling you old-fashioned" the children apologised "we all really enjoyed the ride and we can't wait for the ride home, can we go the long way home, so we can enjoy the ride and we can have a longer ride?" "Of course we can" said Barry and Leyland kindly "get onboard and we can set off right away". The 2 marvaels puffed away from the platform and had set off as fast as the wind, bound for Cardiff Central via Bristol Temple Meads. The children enjoyed the food and the drinks they had brought with them on the train, then they finally arrived at Cardiff Central. The children were pleased to get back to their homes, but they did miss being on Mr Griffith's Christmas Express.
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The Wales & Borders Railway
Short StoryBased on Thomas & Friends, but is in wales with different characters, engines and vehicles still talk, but don't have faces
