//------------------------------//
// Haunted Hitch 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: Halloween Havoc 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

The Dorset countryside is criss crossed with old china clay lines. These served the many clay pits that once stood in the county, taking the produce of the pits from the quarries themselves to either the mainline or the harbours that would load them onto ships to take the cargo to places far away. This became especially important after many of the old ports silted up, and the cargo needed to be transported longer and longer distances.

There were now only a limited number of china clay pits, owing to a limited number of people buying china clay, but a new rubber factory had opened in Bournemouth. As china clay is a critical ingredient in the manufacturing of rubber, this led to a surge in demand. As such, a local businessman had decided to reopen one of the old clay pits near Wareham, and this meant rebuilding the old line to take the weight of modern trains.

One night, Rebecca was being readied to take some building supplies to the new clay pit. Most of the trackwork had been relayed, and all that needed to be done now was to add some support buildings and adjust some other minor points of trackwork.

Rebecca had been attached to the supplies at Swanage, and the others had gathered to see her off. "Good luck making the delivery at this time of night!" Charles called. "It can get very dark at this time of year!"

"And keep an eye out for trouble," Zipp added. "Strange things are known to happen around Halloween."

"Is it troggles?" Izzy asked. "Because if it is, make as little noise as you can."

"Troggles are a northern phenomenon," Zipp replied. "I was actually referring to Doctor Syn."

There was a moment's silence. "Who is Doctor Syn?" Sunny ventured.

Zipp began to tell the story. "A long time ago, there was a man called Doctor Syn. During the day, he pretended to be a vicar, but this was merely a disguise. For the truth was he was a pirate and smuggler who terrorised much of Kent and Dorset during his reign of terror."

"Grammatically speaking, people tend to terrorise things during reigns of terror," Ray commented.

"Alright, Mister Pedantic," Sophie said.

"Anyway," Zipp continued, "it is believed his spirit continues to haunt these parts. It is written that when an owl hoots, a mist rolls in, and then Doctor Syn will appear."

Hitch shrugged. "Sounds implausible. We'd best be on our way." He sounded Rebecca's whistle, and the train was soon on its way.

Pipp glanced over to Izzy. "We've met talking engines and rolling stock, seen magic with our own eyes, and being across the globe on crazy adventures- and he chooses to dismiss a ghost as nonsense?"

"Arbritrary skepticism," Izzy replied. "It's a common storytelling device."

"Did you just break the fourth wall?" Porter asked.





Rebecca soon reached the junction for the china clay branch, and stopped at the signal whilst awaiting line clearance. "I'm not too sure about Zipp's story," she said to Hitch. "It sounds a little far fetched if you ask me."

"She has a reputation for making spooky stuff up," Hitch said. "Like that story that got Sunny in such a tizzy. Besides, there's no mist, and I haven't heard an owl-"

Just then, an owl hooted.

"OK, that's one owl, but they're common enough around here."

Just then, the signal changed. "These signals are handy!" Rebecca said. "They stay at red just long enough for everybody to have plot relevant conversations."

Hitch chose not to answer that as they set off down the branch. This was all getting too weird for his tastes.





Sure enough the mists rolled into the valley as the train proceeded down it. It was becoming hard to see, and Hitch slowed the train down as a result. Hitch soon saw an amber lamp. "Amber light up ahead," he said. "Proceed with caution."

The train slowed down as a result, and the fog continued to build. "It's a right pea souper, this!" Rebecca commented.

Hitch looked out of the cab. "Who's there?" he called. But nobody answered. He picked up his radio, and then stopped. "No point in contacting control. This branch is operated under a token system and has no track circuits, so won't be on the existing system."

The train proceeded onwards for a short distance, but Rebecca soon halted when she saw a red signal glowing in the darkness. Before it was a sign, which had only one word written on it.

DON'T

"Don't what?" Rebecca asked.

Hitch sighed. "Decoding these clues is like texting with my parents." He glanced about and saw some more clues with the help of his torch. "And look! The gates are closed, and the signal is red."

"And there's somebody's coat!" Rebecca added. "There is something strange going on!"

Hitch's eye was suddenly drawn to the roadway before them, the one which the level crossing protected. A familiar beat, almost like that of a galloping horse, began to build, and a mysterious black shape sped past, lit only by a lantern that glowed a sickly yellow in the gloom.

"Is that what I think it is?" he asked.

"It's Doctor Syn!" Rebecca exclaimed. "Zipp was right!"

"I suggest we head back and investigate later," Hitch said, as he set Rebecca's cutoff to the reverse position.

"I'm not arguing with you on that one!" Rebecca replied, and the duo beat a hasty retreat.





The next day, Hitch told Zipp what he had seen. However, she had an explanation for all of the strange things they had seen.

"The sign with one word on it? It's quite likely that the rest of the sign has fallen off and hasn't been replaced. The signal being red is also easy to explain. The Southern Railway used upper quadrant signals." She indicated to the one protecting the platform. "When the cable snaps on one of those it drops to danger automatically. The distant signal switched to amber automatically as part of that. The coat is a bit harder to explain, as is the horse rider, but there are many qualified horse riders out here- my grandfather was a champion horse racer when he was still with us."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Hitch replied.

"It's OK. He died before I was born." Zipp's face changed. "But we need to figure out what's going on with this mystery. Who sent the message, and why?"

"Why not join us on our next run?" Hitch suggested. "Network Rail did an inspection and didn't find anything that should inconvenience a pacific."

"I think I will," Zipp smiled, and dropped her goggles into position. "Detective Zipp is on the case!"

"We have passengers before that!" Charles called from the opposite platform.

This left Rebecca worried. What if history repeated itself?





That night, the train had arrived at Wareham and was awaiting clearance to access the line. All seemed normal, but then suddenly an owl hooted. Seconds later, an express heading for Waterloo thundered through the station, causing the ground to shake.

This startled Rebecca, who after years on slower lines and heritage railways wasn't used to the faster speeds of modern trains. The trucks noticed this and began jeering.

"Oh, will you look at that! Rebecca's spooked!" said the trucks.

"Be quiet!" Rebecca snapped. "Nobody is scared!"

Hitch consulted a sheet. "OK, we've had the owl. I've just got mist and a ghost on horseback to cross off and we can say bingo."

Zipp glanced out of the cab. "Signal's green," she said. With that, the train set off into the unknown.

As they proceeded down the line, they saw the same light again, glowing in the darkness. "No turning back now," Hitch said. "We need to keep going."

Sure enough, they passed the sign with one word on it, and saw the red light. Hitch began to slow the train down to a stop, so he could get out and open the level crossing gates.

Just then, Zipp yelled out. "Hitch! Don't stop!"

"Why?" Hitch asked.

"It's Doctor Syn! He's coming this way!"

Sure enough, Hitch saw the ghostly figure on horseback once again, charging towards them. He pulled open the regulator and the train charged into the level crossing gates, blowing them to smithereens.

The trucks had seen everything and were spooked. "On! On! Faster! Faster! There's a ghost about!"

"Don't slow down!" Zipp called. "If we go fast enough we can outrun him! There's no chance a flesh and blood horse can keep up with an iron one!"

"That's what they said about the Tom Thumb!" Hitch replied, focusing on maintaining control over the rickety branch at high speed.

Suddenly, something shifted underneath Rebecca. "The track's collapsing!" she shouted.

And she was right. No sooner had she cleared the something, there was a jerk on the coupling. The trucks broke off and began to crash into each other, piling up on the ground and leaving a scene of chaos behind them.

Rebecca finally come to a stop at the china clay pit, looking around nervously. "Did we lose him?" she asked.

"Yes," Hitch said. "We should wait here until-"

Just then, the sound of hooves started up again, and a figure on horseback rode up to the cab. He removed his hat.

"Relax guys," Zipp said. "It's just Mr. Bailey."

Mr. Bailey looked annoyed. "What are you three playing at?" he asked. "I was trying to warn you that the bridge couldn't take your engine's weight, and now look at the mess you've made."

He indicated back to the derailment site, which was now revealed to be where a bridge had once been.

Hitch stepped over. "In fairness, you did leave some incredibly cryptic clues. We had no idea what 'don't' referred to."

Mr. Bailey sighed. "Perhaps I should use metal signs in future. But there's still a huge mess to clean up."

"We'll help you," Zipp said. "Anything else we can do as compensation for the damage?"

"Getting this branch back up to mainline specification would be a good start."





Everybody joined in helping Mr. Bailey repair the line, and when it reopened they all took turns running it. They know now that for every ghost that you encounter, there is usually a rational explanation to everything you see.