//------------------------------//
// Porter and the Dinosaur 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: Tales from the Mainland Volume 1 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

Exciting times were approaching on the Falmouth Branch. Owing to a surge in tourism thanks to the extensive collection of Non-Faceless Vehicles in the region, plenty of money now flowed into the towns and villages of the area. As such the local council was opening a new pleasure park near Penmere, the first station down the line from Falmouth.

Owing to the bad roads, the decision had been made to move most of the required materials by rail, and naturally the local engines had been volunteered for the task. Not that they minded, of course. It was nice to get good long runs in with unusual loads.

One morning, Porter was sat at the back of a long train, that had been brought there by Charles and Sophie owing to the weight. Things had run slow, and unloading was taking longer than expected.

"Hurry up!" Porter called. "We've got stuff to unload too, and you're blocking the points with your cargo!"

Up at the front of the train, Sophie rolled her eyes. "This impatience is rather annoying," she said. "These workmen can only work as fast as their legs can carry them, and rushing them could result in things being damaged."

"Though I don't understand why they need to stop for a health and safety lecture every five minutes," Charles admitted. "Do they really need one in order to pick up a plank of wood?"

"Beats me," Pipp said, checking her social media as she waited. "Ooh! Look at this! The song I recorded to advertise Mane Melody is blowing up on YouTube. And we've even got rave reviews on TripAdvisor!" She squealed in delight.

Zipp, who was standing on the platform whilst the workmen were unloading the trucks, glanced over. "Which one was that?"

"TripAdvisor. It's like Rotten Tomatoes, but for tourism and less prone to vote brigading."

"I know what TripAdvisor is, Pipp. I meant the song. You seem to pump new music out faster than most Hip Hop artists."

"Gotta keep up variety," Pipp smiled. "Oh, good! They've moved onto one of the last vans. Now we can reshuffle this lot and start again."





After about an hour of shuffling wagons and vans, the cargo was safely offloaded, and Porter was able to pull into the siding. "They could do with adding more sidings here. Look at how long we were held in the queue! That is seriously inneficient."

"It could have been worse," Izzy said. "Some lines are known for constant traffic jams."

"It feels as though I'm on one of them."

Suddenly, a workman walked over to them. "Hello you two! The central ornament for the park has just arrived. It's being moved in sections owing to the size and weight, and we'd like you to bring it down here. It's just arrived at Truro, so you should have a clear run to pick it up."

Once Charles and Sophie had finished reshuffling the empties and had started on back down to Falmouth, Porter and Izzy set off up the line. The birds sang as they made their passage, and the sun continued to gleam in the sky as they meandered up and down hills.

At last they reached Truro, and after waiting for the signals to change they moved into the yard. The train they were to collect consisted of several low loader wagons, with two brakevans at either end.

"When they said they'd split it up into pieces, I didn't realise they meant more than twenty," Porter said.

"That's a good point," Izzy said, looking closely. "How are we going to get all of this up the hill, and more importantly down again?"

Another workman walked over to them. "I was expecting a larger engine, but you'll have to do. We need you to take these to Penmere. Before you set off, remember to apply the brake blocks on all wagons. That should give you more control on the gradients."

"Understood!" Izzy smiled, and saluted him.

"I left the army years ago," the workman said, slightly confused.

Izzy walked along the train, applying the brakes on each and every wagon. As there were twenty, this took a while.

"We may struggle to get this lot going on the grade," she conceeded, as she got back into the cab. "We may have to go quite fast. But hey. How hard can it be?"

"Don't say that!" Porter exclaimed, as they began to back up.

The run, indeed, proved to be quite hard. The weight combined with the brake blocks meant that Porter had to be banked out of Falmouth by a diesel, whose roaring engine made it very hard to figure out what anybody else was saying. But at last, they reached the top. The top of the grade is immediately followed by a tunnel, which makes running the other way an absolute nightmare for heavy trains. Smoke buildup remained a problem, even with the ventilation systems installed in the tunnel.

Once the diesel had detached and headed away, Porter began the descent down into the tunnel. The gradient increased to 1 in 100 once he entered the tunnel, and speed began to climb almost immediately. Out of the tunnel it got even worse, as the gradient went up to a nauseating 1 in 60.

Porter's speed rose uncontrollably. "I can't hold the weight back, even with all the brake blocks on!" he called.

Izzy was concerned as well. "We seem to be going a bit fast," she conceeded. "But there's a steep hill coming up!"

"WHAT IF WE DERAIL BEFORE IT?"

Porter had a good point. They rocketed through Perranwell at over sixty miles an hour, astonished they managed to hold the bend. The track then became level for a short while before beginning to climb again, and Izzy had been banking on this to slow them down.

Their speed gradually got slower, and slower, and slower, until at last they stopped on the hill.

"See? Told you this would work!"

Unfortunately, they then began to roll back down the hill the other way.

"Looks like I spoke too soon."

They reached the bottom of the hill doing close to fifty miles an hour, just going the other way. Izzy decided to get the attention of the signalman at Perranwell by using Porter's whistle.

The signalman consulted the track diagram. He threw several switches, and routed the out of control train off the main line and into a freight siding.

Izzy had climbed out of the cab and walked along the running board as though she were a cowboy in a western. Eventually she reached the coupling and pulled it free, separating Porter from the trucks. She then dived back into the cab and applied the brakes.

The trucks and the two brakevans were not so lucky. They rolled into the siding and crashed through the buffers, falling down a steep hill and smashing into the valley velow. Large white fragments bounced all over the place and broke apart from the force of the impact.

Mercifully, nobody was hurt. But the cargo was ruined.





A few minutes later, help arrived to try and clean up the mess. Izzy sat on a bench on the platform, looking miserable.

"What's wrong, Izzy?" Pipp asked, putting her arm around her shoulder. "You're looking pretty blue."

"I know, I let you all down," Izzy replied. "Now the park can never be completed as the centrepiece is in bits down there."

"Oh Izz, the accident wasn't your fault," Pipp reassured. "The inspector said that the brake blocks were faulty, and those trucks should never have been allowed out on the rails. Your name is clean as far as they're concerned. Besides, they can get another statue... but we can never find another you."

Izzy smiled. "Aww, thanks."

"When's the wedding?" Porter asked, sarcastically.

One of the workers then came up from the crash site. "The statue isn't a complete loss," he said. "It's broken into pieces, rather like a fossil. So we've decided we'll exhibit it on the rockface at the back of the park as a recently unearthed fossil, and put something else where the statue was meant to go."





A few weeks later, the park opened, and it was very well received indeed. But what came as the biggest surprise of all was what was standing in the centre of the park.

"It's you and Porter!" Sunny pointed out to Izzy.

Izzy looked down and read the inscription. "The people of Penmere and the Maritime Line hereby thank Izzy Moonbow and Porter, whose quick thinking prevented a nasty accident."

She glanced to the wall, to see the remnants of the dinosaur statue embedded in the rocks. "You know, for an accident this all seems to have worked out remarkably well."