The Polar Express Remastered

by The Blue EM2


On Christmas Night all Christians Sing...

I pulled myself out of the pile of coal, by now very dirty, and spoke up. "Silverstream!" I called. "You're OK!"

"Why wouldn't I be if I'm sat here?" she asked, adjusting the regulator slightly. "Pharynx, the Conductor, asked me to keep an eye on things and regulate the controls whilst the engineer and stoker change a light at the front."

"What's it like?" I asked, walking over to the seat. I noticed that the injectors were set, and the cutoff had been moved to the fast running position. I could also notice the brake handle set up oddly. "You may want to move the brake handle to 'run'. Otherwise you're just wasting steam."

"Oh. Thanks!" Silverstream moved the lever a bit, and the hissing of steam stopped noticably. "You wanna give it a try?"

"Sure!" I said. I hopped into the driver's seat and lowered the regulator settings slightly. There was no need to be using that much steam to hold these speeds. "Do you know how much water we have left?"

"Apparently, we'll be picking up some more from a water trough somewhere up ahead," Silverstream replied. "Of course, you haven't touched the cab control that almost everybody wants to operate on a steam locomotive."

Indeed I hadn't. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a chord dangling down, and iron chain that was running from the ceiling of the cab. I quickly reached up for it, and pulled it down. A loud chime whistle boomed across the cold landscape of... where were we now? We had to at least be in Canada, given the speed we were doing.

"How was that?" Silverstream asked.

"Well, I've wanted to do that my whole life," I replied. Oddly, this whole experience was putting all my doubts and fears to temporary rest. I quickly looked out of the cab up ahead, only to see somebody with red skin frantically waving at me, almost an instruction to stop!

"Wait, what?" I said. "I think that person there wants us to stop!"

"Oh!" Silverstream said, sticking her head out as well. "That's Tirek, the engineer. He's telling us to stop. Full emergency."

Without a second's thought, I moved my hand to the brake lever, moved the squeeze handle that kept it in place, and slid the brake lever over from left to right. Running to Full Emergency Stop. The engine skidded along as the brake blocks along the train bit into place, but after what felt like an eternity the train finally came to a stop, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but ice to be seen for miles.

The three of us got out of the cab, remembering to secure the engine, and walked to the front of the engine. Whilst there, we could see two people bickering. The first was the man with the red face from earlier. He had wild white hair and harsh yellow eyes, as well as a white beard that ran down his face, as most beards do.

The other person, a woman, had charcoal grey skin and glowing green eyes, hidden beneath blue green hair that ran down to her hips (although she had what looked to be a hairband in her hand). Both of them were wearing blue boilersuits and black boots, suitable for this line of work.

"This was your idea, nincompoop!" the woman snapped. "Why on Earth you thought trying to change the light whilst the train was still in motion was a good idea I'll never know!"

"You know what the conductor is like!" Tirek replied. "Honestly, Chrysalis, I have never seen a man so concerned about timekeeping, especially when the clock is still at 10 minutes to mightnight!"

"Better that than 30 minutes to noon," Chrysalis sighed. "The point still stands that trying to change a lightbulb on a steam engine whilst it is on the move is not only highly dangerous, it is a breach of railroad safety protocol. Not to mention you left a child in charge of the engine!"

"Why did you go with me then?" Tirek asked.

"Because if you managed to kill yourself there would be nobody to drive the engine, you fool!" Chrysalis snorted. "Besides, don't you think Scranton would notice if you went missing?"

So they were locals too. What a small world I live in. "I- is the lightbulb fixed now?" I asked, cautiously.

Both Tirek and Chrysalis suddenly swung round to see us. "Well, this is unexpected," Tirek said. "Good work on stopping the train, you three!"

Smoulder, who hadn't said a word up to this point, spoke up. "Thanks," she said.

Just then, Pharynx ran up to the front of the train. "Why am I not surprised that you lot are the reason we have stopped?" he demanded. "We cannot afford-"

"To run late," Chrysalis replied. "But it's rather hard to run a passenger service when the line is blocked by caribou. I'm not prepared to damage the engine; after all, it belongs to the City of Altoona, and I doubt that they want it damaged!"

Seeing the confusion on our faces, Tirek quickly explained. "The Polar Express company only owns the coaching stock. The company hires a different locomotive and crew each year depending on the route being taken across the country. This year, starting in Scranton made the most sense, so Steamtown cleared the engine for operation and voila."

"We work for Steamtown," Chrysalis clarified. "We need to head back and sound the whistle to clear this lot out. Come on, Tirek!"

As the two loco crewmembers headed back to the cab of the train, Smoulder followed them. Silverstream, Pharynx, and myself boarded the front platform as the whistle was sounded and the light illuminated the line ahead.

"ALL AHEAD, SLOW!"

The train started off, and soon began to steam up a fairly steep climb. However, the train continued to gain speed. "This is a rather odd interpretation of the instruction 'ahead slow' I noted."

"Tell the engineer to slow down," Pharynx instructed Silverstream. The girl tried her best, but her words were stolen away by the wind.

"They can't hear me!" she told the conductor.

"Is this a bad thing?" I asked.

"Well," said Pharynx, "considering the fact that we have lost communication with the engineer, we are standing, totally exposed, at the front of the locomotive, the train appears to be accelerating uncontrollably, and,” he went on, “we are probably approaching Glacer Gulch, which at 89 degrees is the steepest downhill gradient in the world, I’d suggest we all hold on...”

The engine suddenly lurched into an incredibly steep drop.

"...TIGHTLY! GRAB ONTO THE SAFETY BAR!"

The train roared up and down steep climbs and fierce drops like a rollercoaster. If it weren't for the fact we could rip off at any second, it would have been quite fun, but it was rather terrifying to be honest. Once all the up and down was done, which took about two minutes at most, we roared towards a lake.

"This is bad!" Pharynx shouted. "Williston Lake has completely frozen over! The track is covered in ice!"

The train thundered onto the ice and snaked about wildly, the wheels unable to gain traction on the ice. We smashed into a block of ice which tipped the engine over, nearly causing Silverstream to go flying overboard.

"HELP ME!" she shrieked, holding on for dear life. Pharynx grabbed her hand, and I grabbed Pharynx's coat, when I suddenly felt another hand haul me back. Once the engine was level again and had come to a stop, I looked back. Nobody was there.

Pharynx walked across the running board to the cab, and slid the roof hatch open. "What on Earth happened there?" he asked. "You were breaking the speed limit!"

"The regulator came loose so we had to refit it with a spare pin," Chrysalis explained. "But for some reason the boiler primed, rendering us unable to shut the valve properly. But then-"

"Look!" I called. The ice was starting to give way under the train's weight!

"GET US THE BLAZES OUT OF HERE! FULL REVERSE!" Pharynx shouted. The engine began to reverse, the wheels slipping on the ice and increasing the temperature of the ground further. In the distance, the light revealed something.

"There's track over there!" Silverstream called.

"Move toward the tracks!" Pharynx called. The engine began to swing wildly back and forth as the driving wheels struggled to get grip. Chrysalis opened the sanding gear to compensate, as the wheels finally gained grip. To control direction, she pulled the reverser backwards and forwards to change direction. To avoid ripping the running gear apart, she used the loco brake to bring the driving wheels to a dead stop, changed the reverser, and then reopened the regulator. This highly unorthodox solution worked, and we began to drift toward the track.

But the intense wind and high speed moves had another affect. My zip pocket suddenly slid open, and the ticket flew out.

"You're gonna lose your ticket!" Silverstream called.

"It's not my ticket, it's yours!" I replied.

"It's mine?" Silverstream asked. She reached for it, before we both grabbed it together.

The engine finally reached the rails, and just in time, as the ice finally gave way under the train's weight. The coaches dropped onto the rails with a bang, but we were safe and clear.

"Thanks for saving my ticket!" Silverstream cried, and hugged me. Tightly.

"I'd- like to be able to breathe!" I exclaimed.

"Did somebody say ticket?" asked Pharynx, who was standing behind us. "In which case... tickets, please."