The Wales & Borders Railway

The Wales & Borders Railway, story 22: The Prince of Wales

It was a very special day on the Wales & Borders Railway, a special train was coming to visit South Wales, he was the most popular and famous engine in the history of Wales, he was fast, he was strong, he could pull 20 full packed Express coaches, even 60103 or 4464 could only pull about 10. Mr Griffiths, the railway director, had spent 3 hours that morning, telling stories about the famous locomotive, "Now, this one of a kind steam engine will stop here, with a V.F.P" Mr Griffiths boomed, "What's a V.F.P?" asked Lilly, "A V.F.P is a Very Famous Person" answered the driver Black 5 44901, you may remember it from Story 18, The Brecon Mountain Railway, it'd been restored after the fire at Pontsticill Station, "What about 44871, has it been restored?" asked Ieuan, "Yes it has, it's at the garage getting a new tender, as its original got severely damaged in the demolition of the shed, they hard torn the shed down and didn't realise it was in there, it's coming along fine, and will be back in service in about a week or two" he replied, the crew were so happy they totally forgot about the famous train, then the crew got to work, 60103 and 4464 on the Express service, 8572 took the local, 44901 took care of the scrap trains, 1211 did the Snowdon Mountain line. About an hour into their jobs, a very strange whistle could be heard, passing the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway.

Then, the workers and the passengers saw 12 coaches at the platform at Cardiff Central, then a huge green Tender full of coal, and then suddenly, a voice could be heard, "Is this Cardiff Central" asked two new voices, "Yes it is, and who are you, I've never seen you pass through here before?" asked Nathaniel, "I'm Dean Redgwell, the driver, and I'm Harry Sanders, the fireman of this Class P2 locomotive, this is 2007 the Princess of Wales, the train that's visiting", everyone was speechless, they hurried over to have a look. "You'll never believe who I saw today at Cardiff Central?", "Who?" asked the workers, "The famous engine, his name is the Prince of Wales", they were so excited. Then, Mr Griffiths came over, "The famous trains at Cardiff Central, if you hurry you might see him" he said happily, the cavalcade of workers rushed straight to the station, where a shiny green Class P2 was settling on platform 3A. "Good morning fellow employees" the cab crew said, "Good morning" answered the others, everything was perfect for Prince of Wales' journey up to North Wales, except his wheels had special grips for the slippery tracks, but they came off on the way there, his wheels would often slip and slide when he tries stopping, he would often overrun the platform, and would have to reverse back up. The Prince of Wales' crew, had got in so much trouble by Mr Griffiths, "You've been here before" argued Mr Griffiths "I don't expect my crew, or my former crew, to be doing 50mph in a 40mph zone".

Like i mentioned earlier, Prince of Wales' grips had gone, he was pulling the special, he was not that far behind 8572 on the afternoon metals to Margam TC, 2007 was behind at roughly 47mph, about a mile up the track was 8572, he'd stopped at a crossing to let bus 68 and the quarry trucks go past, he saw 8572 and had immediately put on his brakes, but it was no good, his wheel slid on the wet track and smashed straight into the back of 8572's train, Mr Griffiths was most annoyed, "What the Devil's going on here?" Mr Griffiths asked, "It was a slight accident sir, which wasn't my fault" Dean replied, "I see, well, I'd like you to return to Canton, where you won't cause anymore trouble", they headed back to the Depot, where the others were pleased to see him, they asked him questions until long after the stars came out, they left Wales the next morning to go to York to the Nation Railway Museum, the workers were so pleased to have come face-to-face with such a famous locomotive.

NEXT STORY COMING UP SOON!!