//------------------------------//
// Stage 2-Plymouth to Exeter 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: Race to the Edge 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

The time had almost come to go. The crew of the railtour busied around like bees, disconnecting water cables and closing pipes. Hitch climbed down from the ladder he was on and lowered down the bag of coal he had been holding. "That's another ton loaded in!" he said. "With efficient management of fuel, that should get us the rest of the way to London!"

"What concerns me more is the injectors!" Argyle countered. "I've heard that Light Pacifics can be very thirsty on water."

"They can be, but you've got 5,000 gallons in the tender there now, so that should at least get us to Bristol!"

Noise continued to echo as people dashed for the coaches and boarded. "Guys, we got a problem!" Misty radioed.

"What's going on, over?" Zipp asked.

"Some people have just boarded. They somehow didn't notice the train not in use signs on the coaches!"

"Brilliant." Zipp switched channels. "This is 1Z43 requesting assistance from Plymouth station staff in ejecting stragglers from the train, over?"

Clearing out all the people who had boarded, and getting the doors shut again, proved to be a bit of a job, and by the time they were done they had wasted 10 minutes. Argyle and Goldie clambered into the cab and set Rebecca up for departure.

"Right, we're running about 10 minutes lates," Argyle said. "We need to try and make up the lost time. Think you can do it, Rebecca?"

"I'll try," Rebecca said. "Based on the gradient profile we've got a long downhill bit coming up. Followed by a several mile climb at 1 in 48."

Goldie look concerned. "That sort of grade gives even the IETs problems. We'll have to drive well if we don't want to get stuck on that."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Argyle replied, and released the brakes before moving the cylinder cocks lever to fully open. He opened the regulator...

...and almost immediately triggered wheelslip. "Easy on the regulator!" Rebecca called. "I should be able to get up to line speed on the downhill bit!"

"Oops." Argyle reduced the regular by a considerable margin and added some sand to help with adhesion. The formation rolled out of the station, with crowds having assembled overhead to see what was going on. Eventually, the heavy train cleared the first climb out of Plymouth station and reached the downhill that sat between them and the next bank.

Once they were clear of the tunnel and descending past Laira depot, Goldie slid the firebox doors open to check how much coal was in there. "Misty did a good job," she said. "Fire's well built and burning hot. Steam pressure?"

"Still reading 240 PSI on the pressure gauge!" Argyle replied, as the long train was coming to the bottom of the bank. Argyle slid the reverser back a bit to try and maintain speed, but now the critical test was had they built up enough steam for the climb?

Just as they passed the speed board, the regular was opened to full. Rebecca's exhaust roared like an angry dragon, and steam shot into the air like a volcanic eruption as she began to climb. Pressure was held as high as possible, with only small increments added to the boiler in terms of water. This was because adding too much water in one go would drain the boiler of steam, which in turn would reduce their ability to climb hills.

And once they had reached the top, they were doing around 25 miles an hour, which is not too bad all things considered. Once on the flat, Argyle checked the line ahead. "We've got a few miles of flat track with the odd short grade," he noted. "I'm gonna try and use this to make up lost time." He soon saw that this was a wise move, as the relatively easy track lended itself well to very fast running over awkward terrain.

The South Devon Banks are less a series of gradients and more a cliff scramble, as the track rolls about like a rollercoaster. Not only that, the gradients are amongst the steepest you will encounter on a main line. This is because the route was originally engineered with atmospheric trains in mind; trains that used vacuum pressure to move along. When this system proved to be a failure, the response was to build incredibly powerful steam locomotives instead.

Admiteddly, Rebecca had not been built with this in mind, but she knew the route. "You seem to know the way!" Goldie commented.

"Back in the day Southern Region services were routed this way if the line via Okehampton was shut!" Rebecca replied. "I travelled over here in both directions several times, and I'm certain surviving engines of the Western Region can say the same about the old LSWR line!"

Down a grade they went, and they were shooting through Newton Abbot at line speed. Inside the carriage, Izzy looked out. "Hey!" she said. "This is where me and Porter took a wrong turn!"

"Possibly the most fortunate wrong turn in history," Pipp noted. "If that hadn't happened, we'd probably have never met!"

The final sprint to Exeter St. David's awaited, and the light pacific dug into the rails, clearly up to the challenge. She flew along the track, the coaches bouncing up and down as they roared along the Riviera.

Alas, such fast running must eventually end, and they pulled into Exeter St. David's only five minutes late. "Right, make this fuel stop quick," Lord haven instructed as the crews switched around. He looked at the gauges. "We did get through a lot of water. We've got 3500 gallons left. Will that get us to Bristol?" He then began to do calculations.

Seeing her husband was in analytical mode, Lady Haven looked back. "Pump some more water into the tender, please!" she called.

They had to hope they could refuel relatively quickly. The more time they spent, the further ahead those cars got. Speaking of which, where were they?