Thomas and Friends: The Retold Adventures

by The Blue EM2


Coal

“I suffer dreadfully, and nobody cares.”

“Rubbish!” snapped James. “You don’t work hard enough, that’s what. Try turning a wheel for once, that ought to help you.” And he steamed away in a rush.

Poor Henry did suffer dreadfully, and indeed few people, if anybody, cared at all. Some days Henry could pull trains. But others he had no strength at all.

Sir Toppham Hatt spoke to him as well, and his words didn’t exactly inspire confidence. “Henry, you’re too expensive,” he said one morning. “We’ve replaced most of your parts at least once, and you’ve been freshly repainted, but it seems to have done you no good at all. If we can’t repair you and make you work properly, we will need to get another engine to replace you.”

This made Henry and Fluttershy very worried, and that was saying something, as Fluttershy was worried most of the time. “Oh no,” she whispered. “They’ll scrap him if we can’t make him better!”



That same morning, Fluttershy backed Henry down onto his train, and noticed that Sir Toppham Hatt was waiting on the platform. He was dressed differently to normal, as he had traded his top hat and tails for a boiler suit.

“I’ll watch in the cab and see how Henry performs,” he said, climbing aboard. Fluttershy gestured to the fireman’s seat and waited for him to settle down.

Henry started successfully, but struggled to maintain speed on the line, and Fluttershy was able to explain why.

“Henry seems to have some sort of issue with the fire temperature,” she explained to Sir Toppham Hatt. “This causes him to steam badly and for his fire to not give off enough heat.”

Sir Toppham Hatt nodded, most concerned at this news. If one of his own engines steamed badly, it meant reduced reliability, and that was something he wanted to avoid if it was at all possible.

The problem got worse as Henry went along, until it was very clear that Henry could go no further. He had slowed to a crawl when he got to Wellsworth, and eventually ground to a halt in the platform. The fact this was a scheduled stop was lucky, as otherwise it could have led to all sorts of problems. Fluttershy went down to uncouple Henry, and then proceeded to move him off of the train and into a nearby siding, where he wheezed pathetically. “Oh dear,” he thought. “I shall be sent away for this, and I shouldn’t want that. Who will stay with Fluttershy?”

Edward was moved into position and took the train onwards to Vicarstown, the original destination, whilst Sir Toppham Hatt and Fluttershy discussed the matter of Henry. “Excuse me Fluttershy,” asked Sir Toppham Hatt, “but what do you think is causing the issue.”

Fluttershy, having put on a glove to prevent her hand getting dirty, bent down and picked up a lump of coal. “I believe sir,” she began, showing it to him, “that the coal is causing the problem. We’ve had a bad lot of coal in recent months, and it’s only been getting worse as time has gone on. The other engines such as Gordon can cope as they have large fireboxes that can burn more or less anything. Henry’s is smaller, and as a result cannot cope with poor quality coal. If we were to use Welsh Coal, I believe he’d be a different engine.”

Sir Toppham Hatt seemed surprised. “Given how few mines are left in Wales, it’s an extremely expensive option. But I do feel that Henry deserves a proper chance to show what he can do. I shall dispatch James to fetch some from Barrow in Furness as soon as some comes into stock, and we shall see what effect it has.”

Henry didn’t look at all convinced. But what would happen in the next few days would cheer him up noticeably.



One day later, the special coal arrived. The coal was in a mix of big and small lumps, with lots of smaller pieces to support the big ones. Safe to say, Fluttershy was looking forward to seeing if it worked in Henry’s firebox.

“Now we’ll show them,” she smiled. Henry simply grinned in return.

The first thing Fluttershy did was pile the coal, putting the large lumps like a wall around the outside of the firebox. She then covered the glowing part in the middle with the smaller lumps.

“You’re spoiling my fire!” Henry complained.

Fluttershy smiled. “Just you wait and see Henry, just you wait and see. We’ll have a roaring fire just when we want it.” She then opened the regulator to move Henry out of the yard, and what a sight it was, Henry producing steam and rolling forward majestically. He was sent around to collect his coaches, and then ran into the platform, steam shooting from his cylinders and running from his funnel.

When Henry stopped in the platform, Fluttershy opened his cylinder cocks in order to let the excess steam out of the cylinders.

“How are you Henry?” asked Sir Toppham Hatt, emerging from his office.

“I feel fine sir,” Henry replied. “In fact, I haven’t steamed this well in years, or possibly ever.”

“Is there a good fire Fluttershy?” Sir Toppham Hatt asked.

“Yes sir,” she said. “Never had one better, I think, and we’ve got plenty of steam.”

“No record breaking, you hear me?” Sir Toppham Hatt asked again. “Don’t push Henry too hard.”

Fluttershy laughed. “Oh no sir. I think I may have to hold Henry back!”



Just then, the guard’s whistle went, and they had to go. Henry roared along the line, steaming like never before and running more efficiently than he ever had on his record for the North Western Railway. He raced through stations, and under bridges, and through tunnels, all the while people were turning out to see what was going on.

“It’s Gordon!” cried a schoolboy. “It has to be! No other engine goes that fast!”

“Gordon isn’t green!” said another. “That’s Henry!”

“But it can’t be Henry!” the first said again. “Henry cannot go that fast!”



But indeed, it was Henry, who wanted to go faster, but Fluttershy wouldn’t let him.

“Steady on Henry,” she said, “there’s plenty of time yet.”

So, Henry did, and he came to a stop at Knapford Junction right on time, just as Thomas rolled into the platform.

“Where have you been lazybones?” asked Henry, firing Thomas’ words back at him. “Oh, I can’t wait for dawdling tank engines like you, goodbye!” And before Thomas could say anything, Henry roared away into the distance, vanishing out of sight very quickly.

Thomas just looked confused. “What just happened?” he asked. “Have you ever seen anything like it, Twilight?”

Twilight had to admit that she had not.