//------------------------------//
// Strike the Bell! 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: Tales from the Mainland Volume 1 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

The Fisherman's Arms rang to the sound of chatter and song, as it did every Friday night. The house musicians were playing their songs as people shared stories and drinks.

Sunny and her friends were all sat at the back, each with a (strictly non-alcoholic) drink, whilst the adults were seated elsewhere having their own conversation.

"Well, what a week it's been," Sunny said, taking a sip of apple juice.

"So much fish to move, and all before the closure too!" Pipp added.

"Closure?" Misty asked. "This is news to me."

"They're doing track renewal works between Penrhyn and Perranwell," Zipp explained. "The work is estimated to take several weeks. But would you believe it! They'll have a speed limit of ten miles an hour through there whilst they're off having health and safety briefings. No wonder it all takes so long. And it causes so much disruption too."

Izzy nodded. "No wonder the trains always run late if engineering works take so long. Don't they normally do them around Christmas?"

"Yes, unfortunately," Sunny said. "They put every conceivable piece of engineering works on when the system experiences its heaviest traffic volumes."

Zipp then had an idea. "How about we do it ourselves?"

"You cannot be serious!" Pipp said.

"I am!" Zipp replied. "If we get the help of some responsible adults and use all of our equipment, I reckon we can have the work done in 24 hours."

"The work you allude to does include lifting track and replacing ballast," Argyle said, having overheard the conversation.

"I reckon we can get it shifted," Zipp replied, and shrugged. "How hard can it be?"





The next morning, vast amounts of equipment had been assembled for the work. The line was closed between Truro and Falmouth, and a replacement bus service was put into effect. The first major delivery was a track lifting machine, which had been positioned at Perranwell ready to be pushed down the track to the section that needed lifting.

Zipp almost immediately spotted an inneficiency. The workmen were on one side having a health and safety lecture. "How long is this going to go on for?" she asked. "We have 23 hours and 50 minutes left in which to complete the track renewal."

"Safety first," the man replied.

Zipp groaned. "No wonder track maintenance takes so long."

Sunny rolled out a plan on the bench. "So," she said. "We need to remove 1 mile of railway line, remove all the associated ballast by hand, lay new ballast which is yet to be delivered, and then install new rails. Sounds simple enough."

"And for that we'll be using a rail removal and laying machine," Hitch noted, pointing to a large yellow object sitting on a siding. "I can get it pushed into position and track removal can commence."

"Doesn't it have a diesel engine to propel it along?" Zipp asked.

"Well, yes, but-"

"Somebody can drive it into position, stop it, and then remove the rails. That way you and Rebecca can be doing something else."

"This doesn't sound safe," Rebecca chimed in.

"Safety is my middle name," Zipp replied.

Pipp looked surprised. "You never told me you changed your middle name! I thought it was Tanya!"

Zipp soon realised that her plan didn't quite work. The machine rumbled into position and lifted out the relevant section of rail, but two problems quickly became apparent.

The first was that the machine was incorrectly positioned, resulting in the removed rails having odd cuts in them. The second was pointed to her by Charles.

"How are we supposed to remove the old rails if the machine is going towards Penrhyn?" he asked. "It can't come back this way now."

Zipp facepalmed. "It'll just have to drop the rails off at the work camp there, and then we can ship them out when the track is rebuilt."

Rebecca whistled as she pushed some trucks into position on a siding. "Ballast hoppers, ready for loading!" she said. "Fresh ballast is on the way too!"

Sunny ran back down the platform. "We've got a problem!" she called.

"What now?"

"The track machine removed the wrong bits of track!" she said. "We'll need to add them as well as the bit we're supposed to be removing."

"Great. What else is going to go wrong?"





After removing the sections of rail they were supposed to remove, the ballast lifting machines got to work. Harvey had been modified with a bucket, and he lifted loads of ballast into the waiting hoppers to head away.

But this soon led to more problems. "Goldie, we're going to have to stop!" Harvey said.

"What's the problem?" Goldie asked.

"That hopper is full to overflowing. If we keep putting more ballast in there it'll be too heavy for many of the bridges in Cornwall."

"This is a lot harder than I thought."

Charles was having to shuffle the hoppers around to ensure they could be loaded. Zipp, however, was determined to speed things up. So, her solution was to put the loaded hoppers on one siding and shunt the others into postition one by one. This didn't go down well with some of the others.

"Zipp," Pipp pointed out, "do you know what that siding is?"

"Track?" Zipp suggested.

"It's a private siding. That means you can't just shove trucks in there without permission."

"Well there was nothing in there when we started."

"Zipp, that's not the point!"

Sophie was soon put to work removing the loaded hoppers to a siding in Truro which they had permission to use.

Down at Penrhyn, Sunny was sorting out the track removal machine and helping to load the rails into waiting trucks. These would need to be moved later on, as there was now a gap of about a mile and a half preventing the track from being moved.

"I don't understand why we're in such a rush," Salty complained, as he shuffled backwards with the trucks. "A bad job done quickly is worse than a good job done at a sensible speed. If done badly, it needs replacing more often."

"I tried explaining that to Zipp, but she didn't get the memo," Sunny wheezed. "That track was heavy! Good thing we only need to wait for some ballast and push it up the line."





Misty had been allocated to shunt at Truro, processing empties and loaded hoppers as and when they arrived. As Sophie spluttered in with loaded hoppers, she and Bellerophon were having a discussion.

"Zipp really wants us to speed things up." Misty said. "There's not much I can do without the new ballast."

"I know," Bellerophon said. "But I will admit we could use men more efficiently. Why do we need three people walking alongside the hoppers as we shunt them?"

"Safety, apparently."

"Back in British Railways days they had one man to deal with things like hot boxes, and wagon brakes, not three. I don't think modern freight trains are three times the length of old ones."

"Those hoppers are pretty heavy, though," Misty replied. She checked her watch. "Time for lunch!"

"No lunch for you, I'm afraid," said a workman. "These loaded hoppers need shunting so the engine bringing fresh ballast can take them away. Hop to it!"

"Looks like I'm eating on the go," Misty sighed.





By 2 in the afternoon, the ground had been readied for the laying of ballast. The only problem was keeping the ballast flow moving, and for this job Izzy and Porter had been dispatched to Meldon Quarry near Okehampton in Devon to ensure a steady flow.

"Is that for us?" Porter asked, as he rolled alongside several loaded hoppers. "The train looks very short."

Izzy consulted her diagram. "It seems as though most of the rail network is being ballasted today. There's a big load going to Clapham Junction, for instance. We're booked three trains of six hoppers."

"Why don't we move it as one train and make things more efficient?"

"Not enough engines," Izzy explained. "The engine needs to bring empties back which then need filling. If we move it as an 18 car train the locos will end up in the wrong places and miss their booked slots."

"That would be inconvenient."

A Class 66 rattled into the yard with a heavy load. "Who brought the museum piece along?" he joked.

"I've shifted more heavy trucks than you've had your fuel tank refilled, youngster," Porter replied. "So show some respect."

"I see engines of your day lacked a sense of humour as well."





Evidently, the delivery approach paid off, as the first trains of heavy ballast began to arrive not long after. A routine of shunting loaded and empty wagons around soon developed, with Charles and Sophie largely handling the honours.

"This is how you get things done!" Charles said. "Speed and power!"

"Some things never change," Sophie sighed.

Unfortunately, they soon hit a problem. Ray came rolling down the line with some news. "We've run out!" he said.

"Run out of what?" Charles asked.

"Space and wagons," Ray replied. "The sidings are now completely jammed up with hoppers waiting to go, which is causing chaos as trains can't get in or out. Put simply, it's arriving faster than Bellerophon and Misty can process it."

Zipp hopped off the footplate and got on the line to Izzy. "Izzy, you there?"

"Hi Zipp!"

"Can you get us any more engines to move the ballast hoppers back to Meldon?"

"A pair of diesels have just arrived from a spoil working near Exeter, so they should be able to get to your location. We'll have another set of hoppers ready to go shortly."

"We need engines, not hoppers. We're full to overflowing with hoppers."

"Why not use Rebecca to move some of the hoppers back to Meldon?"

Zipp nodded. "I like your thinking." She lowered the handset. "Hitch? Can you head up to Truro and take some hoppers away?"

"We'll try, but I can't promise anything," Hitch replied.

"I hope I can get them over the Devon Banks," Rebecca said. "They are a lot heavier than the ones we used in steam days."

Suddenly, there was a loud crash over the phone. "Izzy, what was that?"

"Well, that's torn it," said the voice of Porter.

"A truck derailed on the access line into the quarry. They'll need to remove it before we can start moving ballast again."

Zipp put her head in her hands. "And we were going so smoothly too. Get that line reopen again, no matter what."

"Oki doki Loki!"

Zipp's attention was distracted by a train of rail arriving. 

"Got some fresh track for you!" Bellerophon called. "This arrived a while back."

"Stick it on Platform 2 and leave it there. We're not done with the ballast train yet." Zipp looked out over the line. "It's five already, and we still have half a mile of ballast to lay."





It was several hours before more ballast began to arrive, and Lady Haven was looking worried. "Do you see that in the distance?" she asked Zipp.

"Is that a storm front?"

"Yes, it is," Lady Haven sighed. "If that hits us, it won't be safe to keep working. We'd have to stop work."

"If we have any more delays we'll be behind schedule and the line won't reopen in time!" Zipp protested. "We promised the area we'd get it done in 24 hours, and if we don't we'll look like-"

"Complete muppets?" Ray chimed in.

The rain hit just as the trains of ballast began to arrive once again. Minutes after that, Argyle and Brookes, who had been working the sidings near Newham the entire day, arrived with vans loaded with fish and chips. "Fish and chips, 75 times!" Brookes called.

Argyle shook his head. "I hope Network Rail are going to cover the cost. Getting this lot wasn't cheap."

After having dinner on the go, the ballasting work was finally complete at 4 the next morning. The final job was getting the rails laid, and for this the rail laying machine went into action.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," Pipp said. "The rail laying machine is over there as we sent it going the wrong way, and the rails are over here. We're going to have to carry them over!"

"Not all of them, matey!" said Salty, who had just arrived. "Half the rail is over on this side. We can load our half into the machine, and you can fit the rest by hand."

"Come on, everybody!" Zipp called. "Muck in!"

The last rail was slotted into position and bolted into place mere minutes before the deadline expired, and with a cheer the crew celebrated the line being reopen to traffic.

Pipp puffed and panted as she looked at her hands. "Look at all that grease!" she said. "I need a shower after that."

"I think we all need a rest," Sunny agreed. "So, what have we learned from that?"

Hitch offered the final nugget of wisdom. "It is possible to replace an entire section of railway in 24 hours. However, I would strongly advise against it."