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// Toby's Megatrain 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: More Tales from Sodor 
// by The Blue EM2 
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Most days, Toby brought the stone trains down from Ffarquhar Quarry to Knapford Harbour. Despite the awkward trackwork around Knapford, he thought that the run was a wonderful treat, not to mention a good opportunity to stretch his wheels on a decent run. Percy struggled to understand why, so one morning he asked Toby a question.

"Toby?" he asked, as their fires slowly warmed their boilers. "Why do you enjoy the harbour runs so much? It's only to a harbour, after all!"

Toby smiled. "It reminds me of home, or rather my old home," he said. "Before I came to Sodor, I worked on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway alongside my brothers and sisters. On the way to Wisbech North, there was a small yard next to a wharf, and we would often have to shunt trucks there, before setting off on our next duty. It provided a nice change every now and then from moving vans and coaches!"

Flash then arrived, and hopped onto Toby's footplate. "Good morning Toby!" he said. "Remembering the old days?"

"I am," Toby smiled. "As much as I am happy here, and aware that the old Wisbech and Upwell Tramway is no longer there, I do miss East Anglia."

"So do I," Flash admitted, as he opened Toby's regulator. "Come on, let's go. We need to get water at Ellsbridge as the standpipe here is out of action."

Toby, being a steam tram, only has a limited water supply. This wasn't a problem on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway as there were water points at every station, but on Thomas' branchline there were not many water stops, as the line was normally operated by engines with larger water tanks. Toby did worry about water, concerned what would happen if he broke down. "What would happen if the water column at Ellsbridge is out of action?" he asked.

"If you're worried about getting fish in the tanks, don't worry," Flash smiled. "I'm not filling you up with a bucket! The solution would be to refill at Knapford Junction, or just drive very carefully until we get to the shed."

This made Toby feel much better. At Knapford Harbour, Toby was being used as a shunter. On some days, another engine brought the loaded stone trucks down and left them in the sidings for Toby to collect. Toby would then shunt them into the yard, and then the workmen would fill the trucks with other things that the ships brought in, including a cargo of fish left one time as a joke. Then, the other engine would come back with more full trucks and take the empties away. This process would repeat itself several times throughout the day.

But one day the other engine never came. "That's odd," Toby said. "Mavis isn't normally late. You don't think she got stuck in Discord's Dip again, do you?"

A few moments later, the harbour master ran over with a lobster sandwich in his hand and a piece of paper. "Sorry for the delay," he said. "Diamond Tiara phoned ahead. Mavis is having engine problems and may be a little while yet. Please wait patiently."

A few moments later, Mavis rattled in, her engine growling and roaring in a manner that it shouldn't have been. As she stopped in the yard, her engine gave up the ghost and stalled. "Oh dear," she said. "I've stopped."

Diamond Tiara hopped out and popped open the engine housing, to almost immediately be faced with a cloud of black smoke. "That's not good," she said. "Mavis is in no condition to operate, so I'm afraid I'll have to stay here and fix it. I swear it's that fuel the crew at the Shildon building project put in your tanks..."

Toby looked at the sidings in alarm. "We can't even think of putting the loaded wagons into the sidings!" he exclaimed. "They're still full of empty wagons!"

"And fourty eight of them too," Flash said. "It'll take forever to move this lot."

"Should we move all of them together?" Toby asked. "It'll save us a trip tomorrow."

"Are you sure you can pull all of that?" Flash asked, doubtfully. "Even empty trucks will be extremely heavy. Each of those wagons is 13 tons, which works out to 624 tons tare."

"We pulled a similar load on one of the Strawberry Specials back in the day," Toby recalled. "We can at least give it a good try."

Flash eventually agreed, and the heavy load set off back towards Ffarquhar Quarry. But Toby had forgotten two things. The first was that he only had a very limited water supply. The second was that the trip to Ffarquhar was uphill the entire way! Toby had to work incredibly hard to keep the train moving, and slowed to a crawl on the climb to Ellsbridge station. When he arrived, Flash jumped out, grabbed the pipe from the water tower, and ran it into his tanks, eventually turning the tap.

Nothing happened.

"The pipe's blocked!" Flash called.

"Oh no!" Toby cried. "I don't have enough water to pull this lot."

Flash put a hand to his chin. "I have an idea," he said. "We could leave the trucks here, work up to the next water point, and then come back for them."

"Like we did for the Strawberry Special!" Toby smiled. "Where is the next water point?"

"The river," Flash smiled. "I'll get my bucket."

"What?" Toby exclaimed. "You said-"

Flash facepalmed. "That was a joke, Toby!"

Toby shunted the trucks into a siding and was soon on his way to Ffarquhar. He made it with only 10 gallons left, and was soon refilled so he could work back down the line. Percy had wanted to help, but Pinkie reminded him they had their own trains to pull. Toby rolled back down the line and was soon coupled up to the trucks. With a loud roar and blasts of steam, he started off up the hill, steam pouring into the sky. People from all around came to watch the spectacle, and the tram engine sure was a sight to see, working incredibly hard on the grade.

And I'm proud to say that he got all 624 tons to the quarry without stalling, too!