One winter evening, Fluttershy spoke to Henry about an upcoming task. “We’ll need to keep you in steam,” she explained, “as we’ll be out early tomorrow.”
“Why is that?” Henry asked. His first working of the day was usually the 09:00 from Knapford to Vicarstown and return.
“We’ve got to take the Flying Kipper,” Fluttershy explained. “Don’t tell anyone, especially Gordon, but if we pull the Flying Kipper well, Sir Toppham Hatt will let us pull the express; that special coal we gave you is working very well.”
Henry smiled as he took all of this on board. “Hurrah!” he cried. “That will be good.”
All kinds of ships use the harbour at Tidmouth, the big station by the sea. There are passenger ships, cargo ships, and fishing boats also call here. They unload their fish onto the quay, and some of it goes to shops in the towns of Sodor. The rest is taken to Vicarstown and over the bridge to places far, far away. This is the train the railwaymen call ‘The Flying Kipper’.
Henry and Fluttershy were ready at 05:00 in the morning. Therre was snow and frost, but the sky was clear, and there was no fog, so visilbility was clear up ahead. Fluttershy shivered in the cab despite her warm winter clothing, and ran all the final checks as she hooked Henry up. Unlike most trains, the Flying Kipper was operated entirely using 12 ton fitted shock vans, as the train was operated at much higher speeds than most freight workings. Express freight was slowly becoming more common, but until the time came that all the unfitted stock was replaced, express fright was going to be the exception, rather than the norm.
Men hustled and shouted loading the vans with crates of fish. The last door banged, and the guard showed his green lamp that shone through the gloom like a beacon of hope for the engine crew. The Flying Kipper was ready to go.
Fluttershy slid open Henry’s regulator, but as she did Henry’s wheels caught an icy patch on the rails, and this, combined with the heavy weight of his train, caused his wheels to spin furiously, until Fluttershy closed the regulator and let the wheels stop revolving. Once this had happened, she reopened the regulstor much more gently, and the train slowly got underway, a combination of the heavy load and tight curves of Tidmouth Harbour.
“C’mon, c’mon, don’t be silly, don’t be silly!” Henry called to the vans.
The vans shuddered and groaned. “Trock, trick, trock, trick, all right, all right!” as cried as they rumbled along the rails and out of the harbour proper.
At long, long last, they were cleared into the main line to Vicarstown, and Fluttershy opened up Henry’s regulator, a satisfying two cylinder beat echoing along the main line as he sped along with his train of vans. He rolled along, the rising sun barely visible against the backdrop of hills and towns, producing a wonderful lighting effect as he rolled along the line. Clouds of smoke and steam poured from his funnel into the air, being produced in large quantities due to the cold air, and the light from his fire shone brightly in the early morning light.
“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” called Henry to the trucks.
Fluttershy simply smiled as she looked ahead. “You’re doing a great job Henry; keep it up!” she said.
They flew through stations and under bridges at speed, but very few people (mostly die-hard railway enthusiasts and people who had the misfortune of working at such antisocial hours) were actually there to see them through the stations at this time. The light slowly grew better, and the signals shone green the entire way, due to this time of year being very quiet and this worked out as a lack of traffic on the line, especially at this hour.
Suddenly, a yellow signal was visible ahead of them. Fluttershy applied Henry’s brakes in anticipation.
“That must mean the signal ahead is at red,” she said to herself. “Alright Henry, prepare to stop!”
However, the signal up ahead showed a green light, which meant the line was clear. “OK Henry, full speed ahead!” Fluttershy called, as they accelerated away. But they couldn’t have known that the points from the mainline to a siding had frozen in place, and the signal should have been set to red, or ‘danger’! However, snow had forced it down in such a way it was now displaying a green aspect. They were headed for disaster.
Another goods train was waiting in the sidings to let the Flying Kipper pass on its way. Only then could it resume its journey. To pass the time, the driver, fireman, and guard were all sitting in the guard’s van, drinking cocoa and playing cards.
“The kipper is due!” said the driver, rising from his seat.
“Who cares?” said the fireman. “This is good cocoa!”
The driver spoke up again, and prepared to leave the brake van. “C’mon, back to our engine,” he said to the fireman.
They got out just in time.
Henry realised something was wrong when he suddenly lurched to the right and onto a siding. His eyes widened in horror as he saw the goods train and the brake van rushing toward him out of the darkness.
“Fluttershy!” he called. “Jump!”
“What?” she asked, then looked out of the cab and screamed.
“Jump!” Henry shouted again. “Jump! We’re going to crash!”
Fluttershy hesitated, and then bailed from Henry’s cab, rolling into the snow, which luckily saved her from having a nasty accident.
Henry wasn’t so lucky. With nobody at the controls, he had no way of stopping. He smashed into the brake van, and reduced it to matchwood. He then was thrown into the air, rode over the top of the frames of the brake van, and then fell off of one side and landed in a snow bank.
That was the last he saw before he blacked out.
The next morning, the noise of cranes was what stirred him awake. In front of him was an angry man, holding a mug of cocoa.
“That’s the best mug of cocoa I’ve ever brewed, and then you spoil it by crashing into my brake van!” he snapped.
Just then, Fluttershy walked over and shouted at him. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about than your stupid cocoa! Somebody could have been hurt or killed! Even worse, Henry may have to be sr- scra- scrap-” she couldn’t get the last word out, and simply collapsed in a sobbing fit.
“Scrapped?” Henry finished. “Fluttershy, if it comes to that, remember I’ve had a long life, and it was all worth it, especially working with you.”
To say the least, Henry was in a mess. His boiler was dented, much of his motion had come loose, and he generally looked a mess. There was little to rebuild, frankly.
Sir Toppham Hatt’s car pulled up at the crash, and he got out to see the issue.
“Please sir!” Fluttershy begged. “Don’t scrap him! The crash wasn’t his fault!”
“The signal was in the down position, sir,” Henry added.
“Cheer up Henry, it wasn’t your fault,” Sir Toppham Hatt told him. “Ice and snow caused that crash; the point rodding froze and bent, and then snow forced the signal arm down.” He paused. “I have an idea to resolve your problems once and for all.”
“What is that?” Fluttershy asked.
“I’ve been in contact with a place called Crewe, in Cheshire. It’s home to a small locomotive works, and they’ve got some space at the moment. I’ve arranged for you to be rebuilt into an LMS Black 5, with a stronger boiler and a much larger firebox. That way, you won’t need special coal anymore. How does that sound?”
“Yes sir, that will be good,” Henry said doubtfully.
Henry enjoyed his time at Crewe alongside the engines of the Heritage Centre, but eventually it was time for him to come home. And what a sight he was to see, resplendent in green once more as he flew along the line, with a larger, much sturdier chassis, a tapered boiler and Belpaire firebox, and a larger tender to hold more coal and water. People shouted and cheered as he flew past, not least Fluttershy, who was simply relieved that the big green engine was back.
I am sorry to say that many schoolboys are late to school because they wait to see Henry pass by. Henry is often used on the express now, and apparently does it better than Gordon-just don’t tell anyone I said that!
Not bad.
Very nice work. Fluttershy's emotional moment was perfect and I loved that Henry told her to jump for her own safety.
10045596
Thanks.
10045780
The idea for Henry to tell her to jump comes from the Sodor Pony Railway Adventures adaptation of this story, and the crash itself was based on crash photos from the incident this is based on.
10046097
What incident was this based on?
10046861
Lichfield derailment, 1946.
10046880
Okay, thanks
10046922
Note; it was Lichfield Trent Valley (Lichfield has 2 stations).
Fun Fact: In the Re-Mastered Version of the episode, just before Henry crashed into it, one can see quite clearly that the engine pulling the goods train was.... James!
10063685
Interesting.
One of the dock workers bears resemblance to Ringo Starr.
10075557
Indeed he does.
There*
freight*
How am I not surprised there.
While Henry has had a lot of nasty and horrible crashes in the tv show, this one imo still remains one of his worse ones to date. I mean the one in journey beyond sodor was still tragic, but that's not important right now.
Whoie the crash was tragic, sir topham hatt was able to help Henry so he wouldn't get scrapped over how damaged he was. Something I wish could have happen to a pacific I know in the US that had its crown sheet collapse in June 1995. And sadly, that engine has a very unlikely chance of ever steaming again, even after it was bought by a new owner 3 years after the accident. Still though, I'm glad these Sir Topham Hatt always puts lots of effort into helping his engines continue to run, even if they grow old and start to have problems. Which is something many preservationists and railroaders do these days, which makes me feel very happy.
Huh, I thought belpaire fireboxes were only found for engines built for the Pennsylvania railroad.
11320894
1. Oops.
2. Not many people awake at that time.
3. The JBS one was nowhere near as destructive (or dramatically effective, as such an accident is actually impossible under railway safety systems; BR operational rules required sticking signals to be taken out of service and a temporary speed restriction imposed).
4. I'm guessing that's an allusion to the Gettysburg accident.
5. The Belpaire firebox is an Belgian invention, created by Alfred Belpaire in 1864. In the UK, several railways adopted them as standard; this is why the Pannier Tank, for instance, has its distinctive design, as a saddle tank cannot fit on top of a Belpaire firebox properly.
11320976
Yep, and a good friend of mine did a video on it back in 2020, and I'm the one who actually is responsible/requested him to do it.
Also, I see.
I had mixed feelings about The Flying Kipper.
On one hand, it was one of the biggest and crashes in the show.
On the other, I love the music for it.
11526662
I doubt they'll top the Classic era, especially when you see what's being turned out under AEG.