Things were finally back to normal on the Island of Sodor. With Storm King's defeat and the reopening of the Magic Railway to tourism, people were flocking to the island like never before. This meant that business was firmly as usual, and the railways of the island were very busy indeed.
One morning, Sweetie Belle was oiling Stepney over, ready for his day's duties on the Little Western. Suddenly, a car pulled up outside the shed, and Sweetie Belle went out to see who it was.
It was Sir Toppham Hatt. "Good morning, Sweetie Belle," he said. "Firstly, I would like to complement your sister's skill as a tailor. These new trousers are superb."
"I'll be sure to pass the news on, sir," Sweetie Belle replied. "Where are Stepney and I needed today?"
"Toby and Mavis are currently overworked in the Anopha Quarry, but I can't send a bigger engine as there are weight restrictions on the viaduct that leads to the quarry. As a result, I want you two to help them out for the day."
"Yes sir!" Stepney said. "Right away sir! I've never been to the quarry before!"
Sweetie Belle jumped onto his footplate. "Onwards to adventure!" she exclaimed, and they steamed off into the distance.
"Make sure to be back before dark!" Sir Toppham Hatt called.
After a long journey, and several water and coal stops, Stepney arrived at Anopha Quarry. Toby and Mavis, as well as their drivers Flash Sentry and Diamond Tiara, were waiting for them.
"Hello!" Toby called. "We're glad you're here. We've got a lot of work to do today!"
"Are those trucks mine?" Stepney asked.
"Only some of them," Mavis replied. "We've got masses more back there to clear out and move to the marshalling yards. Make sure they aren't overfilled; one of the brake vans is a bit picky about the load heights!"
"The more, the merrier!" Stepney cried, and he set to work. The work was hot, messy, and very noisy, but Stepney didn't care. The dustier he and Sweetie Belle got, the harder they worked.
Mavis stopped to refuel partway through the shunting, and she and her driver watched on as Stepney bustled up and down. "For an engine of his size and power," Mavis noted, "he works very hard. He's producing enough volume for several whistlers!"
"They are very determined," Diamond Tiara noted. "I'm seriously impressed. I understand now why Sir Toppham Hatt entrusted those three with the Little Western; they never give up!"
Later, when Stepney was taking on water, the foreman spoke to Sweetie Belle. "There's a consignment of trucks that need to be taken to the Harwick line that's being rebuilt. Would you be happy to take it?"
"Sure!" Sweetie Belle smiled. Of course, she had forgotten what Sir Toppham Hatt had said.
Night fell, and Stepney was ready for his goods run. The trucks were loaded, the brakes were ready, and Stepney's lamps were set up incorrectly.
"You need to move that bottom lamp to the other bracket, and add another one at the top," Flash pointed out. "That's a fitted goods, not light engine."
"And be careful out there!" Toby added. "It's dark, and you need to be careful."
"I will!" Stepney replied. "Thank you for a lovely day; I hope I can come back again one day."
"The line can be spooky," Mavis added. "Be careful!"
"Thanks for the warning!" Stepney answered, and sounded his whistle. He pulled away into the night, his heavy load bouncing behind him.
The Harwick line would come off at Peel Godred, at the end of the Peel Godred line. The run to Peel Godred was uneventful; apart from having to weave in and out of engineering trains, Stepney had a clear run, and dropped off his trucks in record time. Sweetie Belle changed his lamps, and after being turned on the turntable, Stepney headed for home.
It was dark and spooky as they ran along the line. In the dark, everything looked different. There was no real sense of where anything was, and to make matters worse the fog was rolling in, reducing visibility to almost zero.
"I have no idea where we are," Sweetie Belle said quietly. "We normally only run the Little Western at night, not out here."
"You're telling me," Stepney replied. "I can barely see even with my lamp. Mavis was right; everything does look spooky!"
Up ahead, a signal box was visible, and in the distance, a green light. "Full speed ahead Stepney!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "The signalman must have been expecting us!" They proceeded onwards into the night.
Only problem is, he hadn't been expecting them at all. The signalman had not been informed of the light engine move, and thought it was a slow goods. As a result, Stepney had been sent onto the wrong line.
It soon began to dawn on the engine and his driver that something was wrong. "It can't be taking us this long, can it?" Stepney asked Sweetie Belle.
"I've lost all track of time," she replied. Suddenly, they found themselves in amongst strange buildings and flickering red lights. Metal girders lay everywhere, chains hung from ceilings, and all around were the sounds of torches and bubbling liquid. "I think we've gone wrong somewhere, as I don't recognise this place. We should wait until the fog clears."
A few minutes later, the fog slowly lifted. Stepney looked all around and realised, to his horror, where he was. Lying all over the place were the broken up wrecks of steam and diesel locomotives, including, to his horror, a Terrier! "The scrapyards!" he cried. "We're in the scrapyards! We have to get out of here, now!"
Sweetie Belle was about to go for help, when suddenly a pair of horns echoed in the distance. Out of the gloom, two Class 08 shunters approached. Both of them were painted green with orange cabs and lining. One rolled up behind Stepney, and the other parked alongside him.
"Well, well, well," said the first. "What do we have 'ere? We were expectin' junk parts, but a full steam engine will do nicely." He read the name. "'is name's Stepney, Bert. Rings a bell."
"Sure does, 'Arry," said the other, whom Stepney inferred was Bert. "We 'ad another Terrier here a little while back. Shadwell, I think 'e was. 'e made some good scrap, and I think this one will too. Buffer 'em, Bert. Where you're goin', there ain't no comin' back."
Bert collided with Stepney's rear bufferbeam, and began to push him towards the building. The doors of the building slid open, to reveal more machines, mostly cutting tools and blowtorches. Sweetie Belle had applied Stepney's locomotive and train brakes, but Bert was simply too powerful. Eventually, they left Stepney in position. Above him was a massive crane, designed to rip a boiler free of the frames and crush the water tanks.
'Arry laughed. "Bye, bye, Stepney. At least you'll get to see your brothers and sisters again!" Both diesels cackled as they backed up, and the door closed.
"Section clear, locomotives and personnel are clear of machinery. Start up the grabber."
Sweetie Belle dived out of the cab and began waving at the control booth. "STOP! STOP! THERE'S STILL SOMEBODY IN HERE!"
But it was too late. The crane began to lower down, the central hole positioned over Stepney's dome. It advanced relentlessly, never giving an inch. Stepney tried to move, but clamps had locked his wheels in place so he couldn't escape. He closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. "NOOOO!" he cried. "THIS ENGINE'S NOT FOR SCRAPPING!"
The grabber ignored him. Sweetie Belle, in desparation, started throwing things at the grabber to get it to stop, but that didn't work either. All the while, the pair never ceased calling for help.
But just as the grabber was about to clamp down on Stepney... it stopped. Stepney opened his eyes, to see it had stopped inches above him. "What?"
Sir Toppham Hatt was watching from a nearby gantry. "You two," he said, "are lucky that I was here tonight. I was able to tell the foreman of the mixup. I'm sending Duck to tow you both back to Arlesburgh."
Stepney sighed in relief. "Thank you sir," he said. "I thought I was a goner. But Sweetie Belle and I have learned something important today."
"And that is?"
"There's no place like home."
And we are off :3
I'm still of the opinion that a Arry and Bert should have been sent to CF Booth to be turned into razor blades or cannibalised for spare parts, given that this adaptation does suffer from the same problem that the original did in that the gruesome twosome got off scot-free..
You can say that again about Arry and Bert, and don't get started on another certain episode with them I would honestly take a rocket launcher to those 2 blockheads!
Can't wait to see the episode when Sir Topham Hatt to say when things go wrong when he's trying to get to Lady Hatt's birthday, "Bother bother."
10215176
Yes we are.
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10215244
Would that episode be a season 8 one, by any chance?
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10215249
I seem to have hit a home run of sorts.
10215486
I'm not adapting everything in S5, remember.
10215783
I'm not referring to just that one, I'm also referring Middle Engine. Cause it's dangerous for engines to pull and push cars at the same time, yet those 2 blockheads pull that trick anyway!
10215798
Ah, that one.
10215810
What's really annoying is Sir Topham Hatt does absolutely nothing about their antics. No scolding, no punishments, no nothing.
(Okay there was that in the episode "Halloween", but that was basically the only time)
I mean he tells Diesel to stop being a jerk yet Diesel keeps doing it. What is it gonna take for Sir Topham Hatt to see Diesel won't let go of his tricking deeds?
I mean many fan series did better handling with it. ShunterProductions, Victor Tang, NWR1991, WildNorWestor. Even you.
10215818
Thanks.
10215821
You're welcome.
10215824
I really do appreciate it.
10215828
No problem.
10215841
Excellent.
Nice new story. Looking forward to some of your original work.
10215949
That'll be later on.
10215818
Then again, he didn't do anything about them trying to pull off their own version of "Cupcakes" here, either. This is a good start, but Sir Topham Hatt giving them what they deserved would have made it even better (and that's before we get to the idiot in charge of the crane).
10215994
If you've ever read Cheerilee's Garden, Sweetie Belle's demise is very similar to the fate Stepney nearly suffered.
10216138
Weird, that.
10216176
This collection will be a bit more...varied.
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There'll even be some CGI stuff in there.
10216218
And some fixfics in there too.
10216225
The show has produced some awful ones, like Wonky Whistle.
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https://m.10216277
Have fun.
Do an epsiode when Twi gets sick and Shining has to fill in as Thomas' engineer. I would like to see that and maybe have the two go to Boulder Quarry after it was shut down.
10216499
Shining drives Bear, remember?
10216014
Although like I've previosuly stated, we've still got the problem of the antagonists not getting what they deserved. There may well be numerous cases of illegal vehicle dismantling and metal theft traced back to the gruesome twosome and their drivers.
10216905
Very true. I think there's a fanfiction in that.
And a dead Terrier, to boot.
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I know that maybe have Bear in the works being mended. Maybe call it 'Thomas and Shining' that would work for an epsiode title. I would like to see if Shining can handle Thomas' cheeky personality and would end up becoming friends in the end. It would be nice to see those two get along.
10216927
Hmmm.
10217247
This is an S160.
I know I'm a little late to the game commenting one this, but I have to admit, I was scared out of my wits by this episode. I have, no joke, had at least one nightmare about this episode, specifically the claw scene. (I've also had at least one nightmare about the galleon scene from the TUGS episode Ghost.)
OMG!
Are those diesels (Bert and 'Arry) and scrapyard people so determined to destroy a steam engine that they willing to even endanger and possibly kill a little girl?!
I'm surprised those diesels, their drivers and the scrapyard people were not prosecuted for all this.
Which, on the subject, who are Bert and 'Arry's drivers? They were never mentioned or shown in this story.
10241115
Given their psycopathic charges, would you really want to stick your head out?
10241140
Good point. Although, if I was to take a guess on who their drivers are, I'd say EG Snips and Snails. Those two are number 1 guess on my list.
10241115
I have to say that if I'd been in TFC's shoes, the police would have been swarming the ironworks within the hour.
10243617
Fair enough.
This show was my childhood, you my sit at hereby bequeathed the honorable title of being a LEGEND!
10258161
Thank you.
Nice.
Indeed.
This episode sure was a spooky one.