Thomas and the Great War

The Discovery

The next morning, Skarloey went to collect the coaches. On his way to the station, he spoke to Rheneas about the legacy of the attack that had effected the narrow gauge railway last week.

"I told Mrs. Last about the bombing and she was absolutely livid. The Refreshment Lady's shop was ruined and a boat at Lakeside had been sunk from a couple of bullets from an attacking plane."

"The manager says that the attack is still giving us extra work from all the damage that has been done," sighed Rheneas. "And those two blue engines with the diesel don't seem to care about anything."

Diesel, silent and still as a leaf, was camouflaged amongst the trucks in the yard.

"Don't tell them I'm here," he whispered to the trucks. They laughed in agreement as Diesel hid behind a black colored van.

Rheneas was immediately suspicious when his eyes turned to the yard on the other side of Crovan's Gate.

"Did you see anything?" he asked Skarloey.

"Looks fine to me," Skarloey puffed as he looked over at the yard.

Diesel's driver had already mailed the indoctrinate papers to the post office and a postman had taken them all the way to the Fat Director's office at the big station. However, it would not be until later when he had heard his reaction.

At the summit station of Culdee Fell, Ernest was looking up at the sky, wondering if another batch of enemy planes would attack from above them. Culdee was already there with his morning train.

"We can't just look up at the sky for all hours," reprimanded Culdee. "Time's time and the manager relies on us to keep it."

"I understand," replied Ernest. "But three days remain before we send our men to war and one of the electric engines is going to take them to the main line junction."

"I heard E2 had disappeared shortly after the bombing."

"And the others?"

"They say that he was destroyed."

Ernest's eyes went wide. "How awful."

"But even so," added Culdee. "We must prepare for the departure of our army."

Ernest left with his coach back down the mountain and Culdee and Catherine waited until Ernest had passed through Devil's Back so that they could start home early.

At the Sodor Aluminum Company in Peel Godred, Stuart and Falcon were collecting ingots of aluminum sent from Tidmouth to be taken to the mainland. Once there, the army would use it for aircraft, mess tins and helmets, among other things.

"We should spend more time here," encouraged Falcon. "Just you and me, hearing less and less of Granpuff's stories, and now here we are with no other jobs to do but help the war effort."

"You can talk all you want," Stuart replied thoughtfully. "But it's the Americans who will keep the Nazis out of the war and the only way to avoid it is if we all had the same beliefs, ideas and concerns....but then again, the world would be a very boring place if we were all exactly the same."

"And imagine the taxes the Yanks have been spending on their own aluminum," murmured Falcon. "This isn't 1773 you know!"

"I see that your driver has been reading history books to you, for the fifth time," chuckled Stuart.

Falcon glared. "Fourth time. I let him skip the Roman Empire and move on to the fourteenth century."

"Too bad that Mussolini is not here," teased Stuart. "I would have enjoyed comparing his own Roman Empire to the one from long ago."