There are three small engines who work on the Arlesdale railway, which runs from Arlesburgh to Arlesdale. Mike, Rex, and Bert are what are known as miniature engines; they are so small that their drivers stand taller than they do when they are standing up!
One day, two men arrived on the island, armed with cameras. One of them, a Mr Awdry, took still pictures, and the others, Mr Boston, took moving pictures (or 'videos', as we call them). They went about the island taking pictures of lots of interesting things, though Sir Handel began to grumble about the number of times he was required to do a runby in order to get a 'perfect shot'. Mr Awdry and Mr Boston spent an entire day on Thomas' branch line as well, and Thomas was most peturbed as to why the two men were photographing Toby instead of him!
"Why are they only taking pictures of certain things?" he asked, bemused.
"Well, I suppose there ARE lots of pictures of you," Twilight replied, "given you are used on the North Western's official marketing. Toby is a much rarer item, which explains their focus on him!"
"I'm rare," said Thomas. "I'm the only E2 left, after all."
"You're also 'rarely sensible'!" Annie boomed. She and Clarabel laughed, as they both thought they were very funny indeed. But later that day, the two men took Thomas' picture at Ffarquhar station.
"Thank you!" Thomas called.
"Where are you headed next?" Twilight asked them, as they got into their car, a somewhat battered old British Motor Corporation Austin 100.
"Our next destination is the Arlesdale railway," Mr Awdry replied. "As it has newly opened, I have no pictures of them."
"But we won't get any more pictures today," Mr Boston sighed. "The rain has come in, and I daresay it may rain for a while." As they drove off, the heaven's opened. It rained and it rained and it rained. It rained all afternoon, all evening, and all night, giving Miami a run for its money in terms of rain. But the next morning was glorious and sunny, but the air was cold too. The perfect conditions for taking pictures of steam locomotives.
"Good morning Bert!" called Featherweight. "We have a special train to pull today!"
"When do we not have special trains?" Mike grumbled. "If he's getting trucks then I am seriously annoyed. Only I should get trucks, after all."
"Filled with fruit prethervative!" Twist laughed.
"This special train is special indeed!" Featherweight continued, as he lit Bert's fire. "We have two men visiting. One of them takes moving pictures, and the other writes books with pictures in them. Maybe, one day, you'll be in one like that Master Neverers book I own!"
"But I don't want to be a moving picture in a book!" Bert exclaimed, seriously confused. "I want to stay as I am, nor do I want to be stuck in a tube!"
"What?" asked Rex.
"You know, people keep saying things about putting stuff on their tube."
"Oh!" Pip exclaimed. "YouTube!"
And the others burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" Bert asked. But nobody answered, as they were laughing too hard.
Later on, Bert backed onto his train, filled with the usual crowd of tourists, and Featherweight coupled him up. Just then, Mr Boston and Mr Awdry appeared on the platform. "Hello Bert!" said Mr Boston. "Aren't you a smart and shiny engine!"
Bert was very impressed that these two men knew his name. "Why, thank you sirs!" he said. "You can ride with Featherweight in my cab if you'd like!"
"We shall do that later," Mr Awdry replied. "But you shall be seeing us alongside the line from time to time. Cheerio!"
Bert set off with a smile. "Those men know how to talk to engines," he said to Featherweight.
"Indeed!" his driver replied. "So many people complain about the steam and smoke. It's as if they don't realise steam engines run on coal!"
There were still many puddles left over from the rain the previous day. Bert found that whenever the road and the railway intersected, sure enough Mr Boston and Mr Awdry were there, taking pictures. "Hello!" Bert called to them. "Hello! Good morning!" But neither of them replied. "Well, that's a bit rude. You'd expect them to at least wave at an engine."
"They can't wave and get good pictures at the same time!" Featherweight told him. "I do photography as well, and I can tell you that if the camera shakes, it comes out all blurry, and can't be used!"
Bert still didn't get it. "I won't whistle to them when I next see them!" he said. But when they next met, the road and the railway ran side by side with no fence or wall. The car that the two men were driving ran over a pile of water left over from the rain, which had turned into soft, sticky mud. It flew through the air and all over Bert.
"That was messy!" Featherweight called. "I didn't get too much on me though."
"MY PAINT!" Bert cried. "I'm covered in mud. They splashed me, they splashed me! I bet they even did it on purpose." Suddenly, a flash bulb went off nearby. "And they even took a picture of my muddy face!"
Later that day, when Bert was being turned at Arlesdale, Featherweight took a wet cloth and wiped the mud off Bert. "I'm a right picture indeed," the blue engine moaned. "I'm all covered in mud, and a right state too."
"There you are!" Featherweight said. "You're clean now, and ready to go once more. Besides, those two men didn't mean to do it. It was an accident."
Bert was paying his driver no heed at all. "They splashed me," he said quietly, when nobody was listening. "So I shall splash them. Tit for Tat."
For the return run, Mr Boston joined Featherweight in Bert's tender. Water dripped from the trees and off the branches nearby. Just beyond Arlesdale Green is a steep climb through a forest, and these trees were wet. Just then, Bert had an idea. Just as he started into the climb up the slope, he suddenly let rip. The ground shook and the carriages rocked as smoke and steam roared out of his chimney like a volcanic eruption.
"What are you doing?" asked Featherweight.
Bert laughed. "Do you know what day it is?" he asked. "Laundry day! Tit for Tat! TIT FOR TAT!" The amount of steam roaring into the air dislodged water on the branches, causing it to fall onto Mr Boston.
"I'm soaked!" Mr Boston cried. "Soaked!"
Bert simply laughed. But he was soon not laughing when Mr Duncan found out what had happened.
"What in the world were you thinking? I will not tolerate rudeness to visitors. Go to your shed."
"It still doesn't change the fact they splashed me first," Bert grumbled. But off he went anyways, and sat there, sulking.
Little did he know, Mr Boston was watching alongside Mr Awdry. "Oh dear," said the first. "This rather is our fault."
"Poor Bert," the second added. "I think we both know what should be done, don't we?"
As they walked over, Bert glanced up. "Here to gloat?" he asked.
"No, we're here to say sorry for splashing you with our car," Mr Boston replied. "It was an accident, and we weren't looking where we were going as we were too excited about taking pictures."
Bert sighed. "Well, sorry for splashing you, sir."
"To make it up to you," said Mr Awdry, "we shall clean you."
When Mike and Rex got back, Bert was all cleaned up. "What happened?" Rex asked.
"We heard you had an argument with some rude visitors," added Rex. "Who covered you in mud!"
"They're actually very nice," Bert smiled, "and cleaned me up. They're going to write about us, and show moving pictures on the television. One of them even said something about somebody on the internet writing about us!"
"What?" Pip asked.
"Would anybody actually read that?" Twist enquired.
But it happened... didn't it?