"Do you know what I think?" asked Bert, not long after the next season had begun.
"No, as I'm not in your smokebox," Mike replied. "Do we have much time for thinking?"
"I'm not really surprised you'd make such a remark, given you've probably never done any yourself," Bert retorted.
"Any what?" asked Mike.
"Thinking."
"Ohh." The insult flew clean over Mike's smokebox. "Well, aren't you going to tell us what you think?"
"Something," said Bert, "is going on in the workshop."
"The sky is also full of clouds and rain," said Rex. "What is this, state the obvious week?"
"Perhaps they're doing work in there," Mike suggested. "It is a workshop, after all."
"Indeed," said Bert. "But something very important is clearly happening in there. The door was open yesterday afternoon, as I was waiting for clearance to access the turntable. I moved forward slightly, and looked inside. Sitting on the floor, was something. I moved forward again, and saw it was a boiler."
There was a momentary pause.
"Is that it?" Mike asked, sounding disappointed. "A boiler? I imagine they make those all the time. It could well be a spare for one of us."
"How many spare boilers also come with frames attached?" Bert retorted, sounding annoyed.
"It isn't standard practice," Rex admitted. "So, a new boiler, some frames attached to it. Were there any wheels?"
"Yes," Bert smiled. "And 10 of them too. It would seem something very substancial is being built inside that workshop, and that the men who work it are working wonders within." He then paused, for dramatic effect. "I think... dot dot dot... that they are building... dot dot dot... a new engine."
"DUN DUN DUN!" Mike and Rex said at once.
"A new engine?" Rex said. "Then again, I do recall hearing Mr Duncan saying something about another engine being needed when I came back in with leaky tubes. Clearly, he ordered a new engine rather than simply have one imported from somewhere. But that still leaves a lot of unresolved questions."
They decided to wait on it until their drivers came. As they were being prepped for service, Mike decided to be the first to speak up. "Twist?" he asked. "Can I ask you something?"
"Ath long as it'th not an Ithley Brotherth Joke, go ahead," Twist replied.
"It isn't!" Mike said.
"Good," Twist replied. "Athk away."
"What's the new engine called?" Mike asked innocently.
"How did you know about the new engine?" Twist asked, suspicious. "Nobody has thaid anything about it, and it was thuppothed to be a thecret!"
"Bert saw a boiler in the workshop, and put two and two together," Mike replied.
"That makes four," Bert said.
"Or 22," Featherweight offered.
Pipsqueak stared at him. "How on Earth did you get that?"
"One two, and another, put together side by side produces 22," Featherweight replied, a smile on his face.
"In this case, and means 'plus'," Bert pointed out.
Featherweight facepalmed. "Bert, it was a joke!"
Twist, seeing all the interruptions were going nowhere, decided to intervene. "We don't know what the new engine is called. After all, we haven't lit hith fire yet! Onthe we've lit hith fire and let him thpeak, he'll tell us what hith name ith."
"That's handy to know," Mike said. "I wouldn't want to be called anything else."
"Likewise," said Rex.
"Well, we picked our own nicknames for that reason," Pip replied. "Because we were given our real names by our parents."
"How interesting," Rex said. "Given when I was red, they used to call me Mike-"
"Please don't start all that again," Pip interrupted.
A few weeks passed, and the engines were readying for a day's work when suddenly the workshop doors opened. There was a blast of steam, and much wheeshing of cylinders, and out of the workshop rolled a new engine. He was much bigger than the others, and had long red frames. However, there was something odd about his appearance. His wheels were inside the frames, not unlike Bert, and his motion and valve gear rotated on the outside, fitted into large cylinders on the sides of his frames. He had a tall brass dome, a tall chimney, a large whistle mounted to an equally large cab, and a tangle of pipework attached to the side of his smokebox, much of which was attached to a Westinghouse air brake ejector which panted noisily as he rolled to a stop. A jumble of machinery was festooned along his running board, and his tender was large and spacious. He also had a set of grab rails installed on the front of his smokebox, and he smiled broadly as he was brought to a stop by a member of the depot crew.
"Well, he's got some interestingly shaped parts," said Rex. "Look at that square topped dome!"
"And what a funny colour," Mike added.
"It's not!" said Bert. "I think it suits him."
The engine smiled, and then spoke with a Scottish accent. "I think so too. The men at the depot say that it's only while I'm being tested. Then, it'll be something else. Maybe black or blue."
Mike looked like he was about to make a Queen reference, but then thought better of it. Another person, a boy, wandered over as well. He had light chocolate brown skin and two tone brown hair with a pair of brown eyes, and he had a multicoloured propellor hat nestled on his head, that never stopped spinning no matter what happened. He wore an orange T shirt with a white stripe across the upper chest, cream slacks, and brown and white laced up shoes.
"Hi!" he said. His voice was high pitched and would have been mildly irritating were it not for the earnestness of his expression. "I'm looking for the Arlesdale Railroad. Am I in the right place?"
"You most certainly are!" said Mr Fergus Duncan, who had just joined them. "Everybody, this is Button Mash. He's our newest driver, and has only recently arrived on Sodor, so make him feel welcome."
"Yeah, me, my dad, my mom, and my big brother only recently moved to Arlseburg," Button said.
"ARLESBOROUGH!" everybody corrected.
"I'm really called Brian, but I got my nickname thanks to my computing and gaming skills," Button said, sounding as though he was completely oblivious to how this sounded. "What's your names?"
"I'm Mike," said Mike, "and these are Rex and Bert. The drivers are Featherweight, Pipsqueak, and Twist."
"Does she also shout?" Button asked.
"Why ith that the firtht thing people alwayth athk?"
"What's that engine called?"
Suddenly, Douglas arrived in the yard with a goods train. "If yer lookin for a name, yon sirr," he said, "the livery reminds me of the old days in Scotland. Up in the Highlands, there was another railway that used that livery, called the Highland. We used to refer to those engines as Jocks."
The new engine had a brainwave. "Of course!" he said. "Jock! That's my name. I only just recalled it."
"Perfect!" said Mr Duncan. "You shall have that name. It's a far better name than National Westminster, after all."
"And the colour too, if you don't mind."
"Of course." Mr Duncan smiled. "Soon, we shall bring you into service, and show the world what a useful railway we are!"