//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: the Nightmare Begins 
// Story: Ghost Train: the Untold Story of Timothy 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

After hearing her father's words, Luster thought nothing more of the story, and concluded that Timothy's accident, whilst tragic and frightening, was nothing but a made up tale designed to spook people around the campfire. She also learned that the incident had been turned into a TV movie some 30 years earlier, and after viewing it concluded that the entire scenario was too ridiculous to be true. After all, the entire concept of a ghost train was absurd. Ghosts didn't exist!

Time passed on the Island, and Halloween was fast approaching, with the children of the island making the necessary preparations in readiness, and the railway preparing to operate the usual haunted train events. One quiet evening, Percy and his driver, Cherry Pie, were returning from Ffarquhar Quarry. A shunting job had gone on longer than expected, and both of them looked forward to getting home before it got too late. Night had fallen, and the fog had already started to descend.

"Where are we?" Cherry Pie asked. "This fog makes everything look different!"

"No to mention it's dark," Percy replied. "Ah! I know where we are! That's the warning and marker board for Cole's Farm Crossing, where I hit that load of lime 30 odd years ago."

Cherry Pie laughed. "Mom told me all about that! It sounded pretty funny."

"It sure was, especially given the prank I got to play as a result."

Cole's Farm Crossing lay a short way north of Hackenbeck, an unstaffed halt on the Ffarquhar Branchline which was a request stop only. Percy rolled forward, only to suddenly see the home signal was down. "What? We're supposed to be the only train out on the line!" He came to a stop at the signal, and looked about.

"Maybe an engine's shunting at the cement works up ahead," Cherry Pie suggested, and went for the cab radio. "Knapford Box, this is 4001, are you receiving me, over?"

4001, this is Knapford Box, please state your message, over."

"Knapford box, requesting permission to pass the SAD at Cole's Farm Crossing and proceed to Ellsbridge, over."

"4001, permission denied, section is occupied. Hold your position, over."

"Knapford Box, I understand that the section is occupied and I am to hold my pos-"

Cherry Pie was interrupted by a loud whistle. "Did you hear that?"

4001, please repeat, over."

"Knapford box, loud whistle heard."

"4001, continue to hold position. We will get back to you when we have further details. Out."

Percy was confused. "Who's there?" he called. But nobody replied.

"I don't like this," Cherry Pie whispered. Her normally calm and jolly demanour had been replaced with apprehension and a feeling of dread forming in the pit of her stomach.

"Children... I like children..." a voice said suddenly.

"Huh?" Percy asked. "Somebody said something!"

"I heard it too!" Cherry Pie leaned out of the cab. "But I can't see anything."

"Children... I like children..." There it was again, only louder this time, followed by another whistle blast.

Percy whistled twice to warn the other train there was still a train in the section. Suddenly, a red tank engine shot out of the mist, running far faster than was permitted on the branch, its whistle screeching as it approached. There was a look of pure hatred on the engine's face as it approached, and it appeared as though it had no intention to stop.

"Bail! We're going to get hit!" Percy cried.

"SUFFER WITH ME!" the red engine roared as it ran toward Percy. Percy closed his eyes, awaiting a head on collision!

Moments later, he opened his eyes. Whatever had been there was gone. The signal had now cleared, and the fog was mostly gone.

"4001, line ahead is clear, you may proceed. Out."

Cherry Pie looked in confusion, her face white. "What on Earth was that?" she asked.

"I have no idea!" Percy replied. "It looked like an engine, but it wasn't a design or locomotive that I recognised! It was as if it was a ghost!"

Cherry Pie suddenly put two and two together in her head. "Percy, do you know the old story of Timothy?"

"That TV movie from 30 years ago? The one based on an urban legend?"

"Yes," Cherry Pie replied. "I'm not sure if my hunch is correct, but the engine we just saw bore a marked resemblance to the one in the story." She opened the regulator. "Come on. We have to get back to the sheds."





It was truly dark when they returned to the sheds. Percy's lamps barely projected through the gloom, and he was glad when he got the right away into the shed berth. Tidmouth sheds were currently undergoing maintenance which put a few of the stalls out of action, so Thomas and Percy were staying at the three bay shed that sat at Tidmouth, where Toby lived. As he entered, he saw Luster Dawn oiling Thomas round in preparation for tomorrow's work, whilst Toby was being kept in steam by a young boy wearing blue and white sneakers, a pair of brown slacks, a black T shirt with an emblem of a baseball glove and baseball on it (the shirt also had blue trim), and a white jacket. He had light orange skin and dark blue hair, and the resemblance to Flash Sentry at that age was quite uncanny.

"I hope you have a nice night's rest, Base," Toby said. "Tomorrow could be very busy with the Halloween traffic."

"You two, Toby," the boy replied. His name was First Base- the name he used instead of Fred Bradley (or 'Brad', as some had taken to calling him). "You working tomorrow, Luster?"

"No, it's a day off for me," Luster Dawn replied. "It'll be nice to have a rest and catch up on my reading."

Thomas noticed Percy entering the shed. "Hello Percy!" he said. "You look as though you've seen a ghost!"

Percy remained quiet as Cherry Pie brought him to a stop. Then he spoke up. "Thomas, I had a nasty near miss out on the branch today. I stopped at Cole's Farm Crossing as the Home signal was at danger-"

"A rare occurance," Toby noted.

"-And then a red tank engine shot around the bend shouting something about suffering! Moments before a crash would have happened, it vanished!"

Now it was Luster Dawn's turn to look uneasy. Thomas, on the other hand, scoffed. "Have you been using Henry's special coal again?" he asked.

"I saw it too!" Cherry Pie insisted. "Come to think of it... the engine we saw closely resembled the one from the story of Timothy we heard a few nights back."

Luster Dawn sat down on Thomas' running board. "But dad insisted that story was made up! Besides, they made a very bad and cheesy movie out of it 30 years ago! If such an engine did exist, surely we'd have heard about it by now."

"Maybe," First Base said, the first thing he'd said the entire conversation. "But there's only one way to be certain. Urban legends, although heavily exaggerated, are often based on true events. Silverpilen's a good example, as that was a real train turned into a ghost by hearsay."

"How do we establish if there's any truth then?" Thomas asked. He was now very confused.

"Simple! We go to the North Western Railway archives and look through the data they have. Shall we go tomorrow after I've finished work? I'll be clocking off at 5."





The next day, after work, Luster Dawn and First Base went to the North Western Railway's archives, a long, rectangular building attached to the side of Knapford Station by means of a door leading out of the booking office. The pair opened the door and stepped through, immediately caught up in the very distinctive smell of air conditioning and air filtration systems designed to preserve very old documents and film recordings. Developments in archiving technology meant that documents could now be viewed entirely digitally, but the North Western was not planning on releasing its entire archive online yet, which meant going to the physical archives was the only option.

Standing behind the desk at the archives was a woman in her mid thirties with skin somewhere between peach and yellow in tone, and her brown eyes radiated warmth and kindness. She also had red hair, currently done up in a ponytail to prevent it from falling all over the place, and wore a blue dress in addition to black shoes and white socks.

"Good afternoon!" she called. "Or should I say evening? How can I help you today?"

"Hi mom!" First Base replied, as they reached the desk. "Luster Dawn and I wanted to look through the company's records of accident reports."

"Well, there are rather a lot of those," she replied. "Most of them clustered around the year 2015."

"We wanted to check from 1955 onwards, Mrs-?" Luster Dawn ventured.

"Amy Dempsey, but I usually go by Azure Dawn."

"Thanks. Anyways, may we take a look at the records?"

"Oh! Sure thing!" Azure smiled, and picked up a clipboard. "Right this way, please!"





The pair set themselves up on one of the computers, and set to work looking through the various reports. Most of them were very mundane, given that the North Western Region (as it had been back then) had a very broad definition of 'accident'. The majority of the incidents were tail lights falling off or locomotives crashing into level crossing gates, but occassionally there was something a bit more dramatic, such as a train overruning a platform and having to reverse back.

"Hmmm, nothing so far," First Base mused. "Nothing about an engine that resembles the one Cherry Pie saw. What colour did she say it was?"

"Red," Luster Dawn replied.

"An odd colour indeed," First Base answered. "Then again, James is painted red so I can't really comment on that. Wait a moment, what's this?"

He had moved to a report from October 1965. "The Ell River Bridge derailment?"

Luster Dawn opened a news article from the same month and read it. "'Tragedy strikes railway as passenger train falls through bridge'. That hardly sounds good."

First Base took a look. "'Tragedy struck last night when a passenger train fell through the Ell River Bridge and landed in the river below. Eighty people were killed, and 5 injured, including the driver'. Wait, is there a photograph of the crash scene?"

Moments later, he opened one. The mangled wrecks of coaches were visible, but most of the site had been cleared of any wreckage. "No image of the engine."

"Are you two OK?" Azure asked, looking over their shoulders. "Oh. That was a nasty one."

"You know about it?" Luster Dawn asked.

"In my professional post as company archivist, yes, but also on a personal level. My grandfather was travelling on that train, and sadly he did not survive." She pointed to the left on the monitor. "There's an image of the engine involved in the crash on the official accident report filed by HMRI, if you want to take a look."

First Base navigated over to the file, opened it, and when it opened he noticed Luster Dawn recoil in shock. "What is it? It's only a Small Prairie!"

"The design, paintwork, and number exactly match those in the story," Luster Dawn replied. "The engine in that story was a Small Prairie, painted red, and with the number 150!"

First Base looked closer. "Says it was built in 1927, but there's no real information on the engine before it came to Sodor, which it did in the 1950s. But I have no idea why they brought a GWR engine here! Wouldn't it be out of gauge?"

"Duck?"

"Touche."

Luster Dawn shook her head, in a mixture of worry and concern. "So dad was lying to me. This engine did exist, and the story, far from being made up, is an historical event. I have a few things to ask him when I get home."

Little did they realise that the truth of the story would be the least of their worries.