This story is a tribute to Queen Elizabeth's passing 1926-2022
It was a very quiet day, on the Wales & Borders Railway. All the crew were sad, they had all heard about the passing of the Queen, even Mr Griffiths, the railway director, was upset. Every single worker had made their way to Cardiff Central. All the crews were saying, "She will be missed" they were as sad as ever, Malcolm & Andrew were having some thoughts "I wish we could go to the Queen's funeral, but unfortunately we can't, as we're not able to fit into the church, besides, we're just locomotives", "that's a very good point" Mr Griffiths said "I wish we could, but we can't". Just then, Mr Griffiths had a bright white envelope with a big red sticker on it, it was from the posh part of England, "I think it might be from the Royal Family", Mr Griffiths read the letter out loud, "it reads 'Dear Mr Griffiths" he announced "I had enjoyed my stay on the WVR, and the Royal Family and I, had decided you can come over here to London St Pancras International for the Queen's whistle, she has always wanted to see the railway, and I bet she's looking down saying, that she'd love to see the locos, so at the end of the funeral, we want your drivers to blow a chorus of whistles and horns from your locos. Yours truthfully, Sir King Charles III" he finished.
The locos, and buses, were all gleaming with new paint courtesy of their drivers, even Mr Griffiths had a new suit. Old Griffiths didn't have to worry about the train services, because it's Queen's Quiet Day, which means the shops, school, bus stations, train stations, and the pits are all closed, the trains were ready to set off, they were waiting for the barriers at the railway crossing to go down, so there's no crash. The locomotives arrived safely at London St Pancras International, and the buses parked up outside. The funeral commenced, then before long it had ended, there was a minute of silence and then they all blew a chorus of whistles and horns on the locos, Barry, Halton and 60103 had wandered off to get some coal and water, he was all by himself, he had no one else to guide him back to South Wales, "Are we missing someone?" Tim asked, "I think 60103 is" Mr Griffiths replied. They all went to search for them, but they couldn't find them, so they went back to South Wales, to see if they went back there, "BARRY, HALTON!!!" They all shouted, if they're not back soon, a search party will have to be organised, they got a search and rescue helicopter to search for them, it landed in a field, and picked up Mr Griffiths. They searched all over the Valleys and around the railways of England, but no sign of them, they were well and truly missing.
They had to call Robert Horton, Railtrack's Manager, "Yes, Hello?" he asked, "I'm not sure how to put it, but we're missing our 60103 and it's crew" Griffiths stated, they all set to work looking for 60103 and its crew, Barry remembered, "Hang on" he said to himself "there's the old track that takes us from Stockport, to the Cardiff Central, why didn't I think of this before?". The crew headed to Stockport to the recently reopened Old Bridge station. They were soon back home, they'd just passed Hereford, but he thought it looked quite empty, "Where is everyone?" Barry asked, feeling puzzled, "They're all out searching for us, they have gone to London" a passenger said, the crew eventually gave up, and when they arrived back in Wales, they had a big shock to see 60103 and his crew, they were over the moon. I hope this teaches Barry & Halton to not wander off when in a big place like London, or anywhere!
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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
