Equestrian Railway Tales

by Sudrian Engineer

Leaks and Laces

The next day, James woke up nervously, and looked around. Nobody seemed mad at him, so he thought he was in the clear in regards to the top hat incident. However, as he was being prepped for the day, he heard a throat being cleared next to him. James looked over to see Sir Topham looking quite upset.

"James," he started, in a stern and upset, but still caring, voice. "I understand that accidents happen, but letting off steam on my new top hat was rather rude. If you can't behave, I shall take away your red coat and have you painted blue. Engines on my railway must be aware of things around them." He nodded to the engine and walked away. James knew Sir Topham only said it to try and get him to be more careful, and wasn't that upset at first. This all changed, however, when Marissa, a blue LSWR M7 who was helping out for a few weeks, began to tease him.

"How about that Big Red? Threatened over some simple steam, what a laugh." She proceeded to laugh rudely at James, who became very cross. Once Matthew pulled the throttle, the red engine jerked forward.

"Easy now James," Matthew said, "You don't want to cause any more trouble." This comment only proved to make James crosser. From Edward's footplate, Troy could only sigh.

"There'll be trouble over this, mark my words." he said as James puffed away.
In his foul mood, James didn't even try to be gentle while gathering the coaches from their sidings.

"Ouch! Ouch! DO be gentle!" they called. Matthew tried his best to lower the bumping to a minimum, but it did no good, James was still being very rude. He bustled into the station, growing crosser as he saw nobody around him unless they were boarding the coaches. It seemed word of the incident had spread, and nobody wanted to risk getting soaked.

"Why does a splendid red engine like me have to fetch his own coaches?" James complained. "Gordon doesn't have to. At least I'm worth looking at."

Rarity wanted to make a comment about how different colors suited different people, or engines as the case may be, but Matthew shook his head, stopping her. "Matthew dear. I understand not wanting to start a fight, but I feel that this is important." Rarity said.

"You can tell him when he is calmer, but," He began to whisper to the pony, "He seems to have a temper as firey as his paintwork, telling him now may anger him more."

"I...see." said Rarity doubtfully. "Well, it doesn't matter, we should be setting off soon."

Matthew nodded as everyone climbed on board. Soon, it was indeed time to leave and James shot off as soon as the throttle was pulled. "Woah James," his male driver said, "You need to be more careful."

But James wasn't listening at all. "I'll show them! They think I can't pull coaches, I'll show them!" he grumbled to himself. The train rattled over the points outside the station and onto the open Main Line. As they cleared the last set, James surged forward trying to go faster.

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" he called. James's speed continued to rise, despite Matthew's attempts to slow him down. Soon, they were going so fast, the coaches were swaying from side to side.

"You're going too fast! Slow down, You're going too fast!" they cried. James simply laughed and tried to go even faster, but his crew had finally managed to get some control back. Matthew gave a relieved smile as he was now in slightly better control. Soon though, he noticed the brakes coming on as the coaches chanted.
"We're going to stop, we're going to stop, WE'RE GOING TO STOP!"

Soon enough, the train ground to a halt. "What's happened?" James asked. "Why have we stopped?"

Matthew hopped out and grumbled, speaking a bit rudely to the engine. "A leak in a pipe most likely. You've banged the coaches hard enough to put a leak in anything."

Rarity followed him out of the cab. "Matthew, while I do understand your frustration, don't you think you might have been just a teensy bit rude with James?"

"And he wasn't rude to us for ignoring our warnings of being careful?"

"Yes, but two wrongs don't make a right darling"

"You're right, they make a left." The man smirked as they soon found the leak in the pipe. "Well, here it is." he started, "Now how do we fix it? Hmm."

Rarity just sighed at the man's remark. As she thought about how to fix the problem, she recalled something. "I believe I may have the solution Matthew. Paper mache."

"We would need a lot of newspaper... NEWSPAPER, THAT'S IT!" The man hugged Rarity in excitement and began to start towards the back of the train, calling to her. "You start at the front, ask the passengers to get off." Once all the passengers had disembarked, Rarity addressed them.

"Our sincerest apologies ladies and gentlemen, but I'm afraid there's been a slight issue with the train." There was a general sound of grumbling from all but one passenger. "You see, our brake pipe has a hole in it, and we require some newspaper to mend it." Rarity continued.

The man was wearing brown shoes, blue overalls, red shirt, white gloves, and a red hat. He simply had an understanding smile as he listened to the Drivers. Matthew had a nervous expression as he spoke, "There is a leak in the brake pipe. We can use newspaper as a temporary cover, but we need a leather bootlace to ensure it stays on."

All the passengers murmured amongst themselves, but none of them were wearing boots. The locomotive crew couldn't help but wish Troy was there as boots were all he ever wore. There was however one man who was. He was dressed rather smartly complete with a bowler hat and his name was Jerimiah Jobling. He shuffled and tried to hide his nice new dress boots from sight. Rarity, with her eye for fashion and detail, noticed this. "You sir," she said, "can we please use your bootlace?"

"I won't!" Jeremiah said. "I just purchased these, and I can't have you lot destroying them!"

Matthew rolled his eyes as he answered, "Then I am afraid we will stay here until workmen can arrive, making all of you late." At first, the passengers began to say they were bad drivers, but Matthew and Rarity simply walked back to the cab to wait. The passengers, no longer having the crew to vent their spleen on, all turned on Jeremiah instead. All of them, that is, except for the man with the red cap.

"Please sir," He said, calmly, "Let them use your bootlace so we can all get to where we need to be. I am sure you can easily get a replacement."

Jeremiah resisted at first, but eventually aquecised. "Fine. I'm sure they'll be more understanding of a missing bootlace than me being late." he grumbled. The man smiled and got Matthew and Rarity, said duo quickly thanking Jerimiah and setting up their temporary fix. Matthew looked for the man to speak to him, but noticed he was helping the passengers back into the coaches and smiled.

"Come on Rarity," he said, "That will hold till the coaches get to the works after we finish this job."

"Of course Matthew!" Rarity said. "We've lost enough time as it is, we really should hurry."

"Don't give James any ideas, I doubt Mr. Jobling will give up his other bootlace." This comment, though meant to lighten the mood, only caused James to become sad.

'This is all my fault' James thought to himself as he pulled off. 'I really should have listened.'

Later, once the train arrived back at the main station, Sir Topham was waiting, very angry. Before he started to speak, he noticed the look on James' face, and calmed down a bit, able to see that the red engine felt bad enough. "James, I'm very disappointed with you." Sir Topham said. "I'd rather hoped that you would have seen sense after what happened yesterday. Since you clearly haven't, you will stay in your shed until you DO learn some."

James simply looked at the controller sadly and replied "Yes Sir, I am sorry sir." Matthew could tell by the engine's tone that he already was starting to realize the wrongfulness of his action, so he patted the side of James' cab as they headed back to the shed. "I am sorry for being harsh earlier James," he bagan, "I promise things will start to look up soon. Sir Topham just wants to make sure all his engines are really useful. I am sure you will be let out again before you know it."

"I hope so." James said sadly as he puffed away to the shed.

That evening, at the sheds, the engines were talking. Gordon and Henry ignored James, making fun of him as they talked to each other, Edward wasn't back yet, and Thomas, well Thomas smiled sadly at James. "You know James," the tank engine said to him, "while not exactly the same, I was in a similar position to you before I got my branchline. I am sure the others have told you, but I had my own accidents and incidents."

He paused a moment before continuing, "Sir Topham, though upset, knew I could still be a good engine. I bet he is thinking the exact same about you as well. He may seem stern sometimes, but he really does care about us. I know you can be useful James, just like Edward, Henry, Gordon, and myself, you just need a chance to prove it." Thomas then yawned, tired from a busy day on his branchline, so he made one last comment. "Goodnight James, sleep well." He fell asleep, as James gave a small smile.