T'was a very, very special day on the Wales & Borders Railway, a railway open day was happening at the National Railway Museum in York. The head of collections at the museum, Helen Ashby, had called Mr Griffiths, railway director, and asked him to bring his locomotives to the museum, as a part of the Special Welsh Engines event, he agreed to bring them. All his crew were excited about this event, and so was Mr Griffiths, but not every train could go, Mr Griffiths had to choose wisely, he picked 8572, Flying Scotsman 60103, 4464 Bittern, T9 30285, BMR no.1 and BMR no.2. The locos that were to stay at the W&BR were 1211, N2 Class no.190, Black 5s 44871 & 44901, 2007 'PoW' and crane RS1054 was to stay, too. At the same time, buses 68 & 512 were to stay to help with long distance services between Cardiff, Fochriw, Newport, Radyr and Barry Island. Due to short staff, and the lack of train and bus services around the Valleys, 5 more buses were sent down on loan to South Wales, as 'stock gap fillers', the buses were soon identified at Longwell Green bodied Leyland PD2s (PDW 480 - PDW 485).
Meanwhile in Leeds, the locos that were sent to the NRM were cruising along the mainline bound for York. The cavalcade reached the museum in no time at all, they went in the yard and parked right in the middle around the turntable as part of the Welsh Engines event, they saw all sorts of popular preserved engines like Stephenson's Rocket, Stirling Single no.1, A1 Terrier no.82, Class C1 990, and streamlined Princess Coronation Class no.6229. "Hello, Leyland my boy" said an unknown voice, "I see you've finally arrived", Mr Griffiths was curious about the voice, then a museum worker approached Leyland, it was his brother James Scott, he was working on 33001 a Southern Q1 class steam locomotive. 33001 was the pride of the Southern Region, he was the biggest flop on the Brighton to Gatwick Airport line, they were so pleased to see each other as they hadn't seen each other for yonks, but it was for the best, as James was a bad influence on Leyland, hence why he moved from Southern to Wales & Borders.
Miss Helen Ashby, had asked some of Mr Griffiths' crew if they could do some jobs around the yard, 8572 and 30285's crew were to help to shunt some of the locomotives around the museum, they did so with ease, as 8572 had a T9 to help. James and Leyland had bumped into each other in the canteen, they were talking about the good days when James was telling Leyland to do bad things, like to stay at home and not work, or to be spiteful towards the controller of the railway. The next morning, Leyland and Gordon were ordered to pull the local across to Merthyr Tydfil, when Leyland said "No, I'm not going", "What's gone into you today?" asked Gordon and Renny, they soon found out that it was James who'd been teaching him all the naughty tricks, they never saw each other again, Leyland was very sad indeed, but it was for the best. And as for the buses on loan, they were sent back to Southdown, where they returned to active service along with their other buses.
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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
