James is a red engine who is vain to a fault, and likes going very fast indeed. Unfortunately, he has a tendancy to sometimes go too fast, and this often landed him in trouble of sorts.
But it was another pleasant morning on the Island of Sodor, and everybody was busy. Toby puffed out of Knapford Station running light engine. He had been required to help out in the sidings as the workload had overwhelmed Stepney, and he was now on his way back to Ffarquhar to collect some trucks.
A butterfly flew in front of him, and hovered briefly on the wind. "Oh!" Toby said. "Look at that, Flash! Pretty, eh?"
"It sure is!" Flash replied. "Summer breeze, cool air, friends by your side, what more could you possibly want?"
Moments later, the AWS triggered in Toby's cab, bringing him to a stop in front of a diamond switch. "What the?" he asked.
Seconds later, James roared through and into the junctions, seemingly tipping slightly as he flew by.
"Hey! Slow down!" Flash shouted.
"Terribly sorry, darling, but the timetable's tight!" Rarity called.
James, on the other hand, took no notice of the fact he had just whizzed through at dangerously high speed. "Make way! Make way!" he called, as he skidded to a stop in the platform. The stop was so sudden that many of the passengers were thrown out of their seats. They sat back up or got out, grumbling as they did so about smooth running and 'stopping distances'.
James, however, paid them no notice. "Hello Henry!" he called. "How are you today?"
Henry sighed. "Good morning, James," he replied. He was getting tired of James' recklessness, but as he was about to speak, Sir Toppham Hatt emerged from his office.
"James!" he boomed. "You came into the platform going much too fast! I know emergency braking when I see it, and you are doing it too often! Not only will such reckless running cause an accident, it causes discomfort for the passengers!"
"Well, sir," Rarity said, "this new summer timetable does require us to run very close to the speed limit, and judging the stopping distance into Knapford isn't particularly easy."
"But Sir Toppham Hatt is right, you know!" Henry added. "Such aggressive braking will wear down the brake blocks and cause an accident!"
"Especially considering you have a history of brake malfunctions," Thomas added, pulling up with Annie and Clarabel.
"What are you doing here?" Fluttershy asked. "Your branchline starts at the junction!"
"There's a burst water pipe at Knapford Junction," explained Twilight, "so all Ffarquhar trains are starting and terminating here."
"Be thankful there are water pipes," Gordon added, pulling into the platform with a semi fast. "The men on the mainland keep taking them away. Flying Scotsman was telling me yesterday they have to keep refilling him from a lorry, which is most undignified."
James spoke up, keen to return the conversation to its original course. "I remember all that!" he said. "But they refitted me, removing the wooden brake blocks and fitting metal ones. And, of course, I was painted red!" Seeing this as a good chance to slip away from the conversation, he pulled away with his train.
Henry sighed. "Those metal brake blocks didn't help him in that tanker crash. I hope he learns from that one." Henry set off as well, coupled to nothing.
Twilight called back. "Fluttershy, you've got the lamps set up wrong! You want light engine, not minerals!"
James steamed confidently along the line. "I'm the fastest engine on Sodor!" he proclaimed.
"I beg to differ!" Rarity exclaimed. "Why, Gordon can easily run faster than us, and Electra can sprint at 80 miles an hour with no difficulty!"
"Well then, I'm the fastest red engine on Sodor!" James replied.
"You're the only red standard gauge engine on Sodor," Rarity answered. "There's no chance of Mike being able to get up to these speeds!"
"So my statement stands correct!" James laughed. "Silly old Henry, clever me! Why, I can stop in no time at all if I want to!"
At the next station, James' train terminated, so he was switched onto a goods train. "Why this again?" he complained. "I'm far too splendid to pull trucks!"
"No engine is above pulling trucks, you know," said a familiar voice. Stepney finished shunting the trucks into position and whistled. "I'm very used to mixed workings. I did them all the time on Hayling Island. Most of us were older than the coaches we were pulling!"
"If only Sir Toppham Hatt would import some birdcage coaches for us," Sweetie Belle sighed. "The Little Western is in dire need of some bigger coaches. The four wheelers can only take so many people."
"These trucks should be glad I'm the ones pulling them," James snorted, and pulled away without another word. He was grumpy now, and having a bad day, and going faster than the safe speed for unfitted wagons (35 miles per hour). So annoyed was he, Rarity had to snap him out of it.
"Look out James! There's a train entering the section in front of us!"
James looked up, and gasped. "Brakes please!" he called. Rarity slammed on the brakes, sparks flying from the brake blocks as he came to a sudden and dramatic stop. Unfortunately, he had overshot the signal, and Rarity had to let the brakes off and back him up to clear the section.
"I do say," said Derek, as he rolled to a stop. "That was some quite violent braking. I haven't seen brake blocks spark like that in a long time."
"My father once had to do an emergency stop at the controls of a Deltic," Octavia pointed out. "The blocks were glowing white hot when they had stopped completely. You may want to get those changed."
"Or he didn't leave enough stopping distance," Derek continued. "An unfitted goods takes a very long time to stop, even from 30 miles an hour. Be careful!"
James dropped off his goods at Crovan's Gate, and was sent over to the works to have his brake blocks checked. However, the workers at the shop found nothing wrong, and so James was cleared to run back to Tidmouth light engine. Unfortunately, what nobody knew was that James' brake blocks were indeed faulty. They were old and worn, and it wouldn't be long until they failed altogether. James was, of course, oblivious to this, and continued to fly along at incredible speed on his journey home. He stormed up Gordon's Hill, puffing and panting like an angry dragon, until he reached the top. Rarity shut off steam and applied the brakes.
There was a horrendous screeching noise as they engaged, but they seemed to be having little to no effect. They were worn so badly they could barely produce the friction required to slow James down.
"This isn't good!" James shouted.
"I can see that, darling!" Rarity called. "I'll put you into reverse!" She took off the cutoff lock, wound it full back, and then locked it again. James' wheels began to spin backwards. Instead of slowing him down, he simply began to slip, and he reached the bottom of Gordon's Hill doing well over 70 miles an hour.
"OH NOT AGAIN!" James cried, as he flew along uncontrollably. "I CAN'T STOP!"
Rarity grabbed the cab radio. "This is NWR No 5, over. We have lost control and cannot stop! Requesting derailment siding be set for us!"
"Copy that. Wellsworth derailment siding has been set for you, over."
James continued to fly along out of control, passing Gordon flying by with the express. Sir Toppham Hatt looked over in alarm.
"Oh not again," he grumbled.
Wellsworth was coming up. The siding was set. "Time to bail!" Rarity said, and jumped clear as James hit the siding. The red engine tipped over and crashed into the ballast, smacking into the buffers... and through them... and straight into the booking office (which was thankfully empty), where the basement suddenly collapsed beneath his weight, causing him to fall straight into it.
The breakdown train arrived a few minutes later to recover the mess. James was in a mess. Dented boiler cladding, a battered chimney, scuffed paintwork. It would be a very long time until he was rail worthy again. As he was lowered onto a flatbed, Rarity was horrified. "Good Heavens! You look a mess!"
"That's one way of putting it," James replied. "At least we've learned two important things from today."
"What are they?"
"One; I am most certainly the fastest red engine on Sodor. The second? I am never going that fast again!"