Continued From Part 1
...By the time the passengers and their cars were all on board, Barry was ready to go. What happened next, no-one knows, Barry was sure Halton hadn't fastened the coupling, David Sheridan, station master at Swansea, was sure that Barry had bumped the train hard enough to loosen anything, they set off in a hurry, "Come on! Come on!" he shouted crossly, Leyland & Gordon watched the train depart and suddenly noticed what was out of place, "THE CARS!!!" Leyland cried "wait Barry, wait, you've left all the cars behind", but it was no use, the Flying Scotsman was off and away into the distance, "oh fiddlesticks" Leyland groaned. The Motorail was racing along the South Wales Mainline, "Hurry, hurry, hurry" he shouted, "the faster we go, the quicker we can get rid of this stupid train", when on of the others saw them, they'd sound the whistle furiously, they didn't respond, instead they were surprised to see that Scotty had left the cars behind. The Flying Scotsman had arrived early into Severn Tunnel Junction, where 4464 Bittern was waiting to take the Motorail through to Plymouth, Barry was very pleased with himself. Just then, the signalman came up to speak with them, "Hello Barry, you're early" he began to feel smug, "Must've been that extra light load you had" said the signalman, "What are you talking about, I...?" Barry looked back, and was shocked to see half of his train was missing.
Barry was lost for words, "Where's the c...?", "Shhhh!" hissed the signalman "keep your voice down, we don't want to alarm the passengers, listen I have a plan, change over with 40 001, then I'll ask its driver to shunt the coaches into the siding, I'll tell the guard to give the passengers an excuse to why they have to wait, it won't be long until the cars get here and we can re-attach them to the train, the passengers will never know". Barry agreed, he was worried, but did what he was told, a line of BR vent vans concealed the passengers' view, as they were shunted into the sidings, they were told that a points failure up the track meant they could go no further, and they'd have to wait until it was fixed, luckily not a single passenger suspected anything. Barry couldn't help but feel guilty, meanwhile, quick thinking Leyland had brought the cars and had given chase, trying to catch up with Barry's train. At last, he arrived, he was uncoupled from the coaches and the 2 halves of the train were reunited, unbeknownst to the passengers, the points failure was miraculously fixed, and a delayed Motorail service was now able to resume its journey bound for Plymouth.
Leyland gave Barry a dark look, Barry was about to speak but Leyland cut in first, "Don't waste your reasoning on me, keep it for Mr Griffiths, I'm sure he'd wish to talk to you, about what happened earlier", Barry felt sick, Griffiths did speak to him, "Well, I heard that you left half of your train at Swansea earlier today, you succeeded in embarrassing me and my railway in front of the whole of South Wales, well done indeed", "At least the passengers didn't find out" said Barry sarcastically, "That's besides the point" fumed Mr Griffiths "everyone saw you with half a train, I expect my crew to do what I tell them to do, I don't expect them to leave half their train behind, and I don't want my crew lying to the passengers". For the rest of Summer, Barry was ordered to pull the Motorail all the time, the other engines were admittedly jealous, but Barry and the others knew he had to, Griffiths decided to have a Motorail service again next Summer, but I don't think Barry will be pulling it at all next year, do you?
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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
