The North Yorkshire Moors Railway continued to be incredibly busy. Platforms were jammed with people wanting to board trains to travel to seaside towns and picturesque hillside villages. The timetable was similarly hectic as well, with trains blazing up and down the line to convey people to their desired locations. And once they were done with their fun, the trains had to convey the passengers back to where they had started.
The frequency of departures had become so intense that locomotives rarely had time to run round their train. Instead, another engine would attach to the back of the train and take it to the other end of the line, which gave the crew time to service the first engine in preparation for the next train.
One afternoon, Bellerophon had been assigned to help sort out coaches at Whitby. The sun gleamed in the sky as the coaches were assembled into their places, ready for the long journey to places far away. It was also hot work.
Misty leaned out of the cab. "Do you have any more water?" she asked. "I'm pretty thirsty!"
"So am I!" Bellerophon joked. "You could drink some out of my tank!"
"If I did that I'd probably suffer severe burns," Misty replied. "Besides, drinking hot water on its own is not good for your health."
The action was briefly interrupted by the sound of Sophie hauling another train of passengers into the station, who were quick to hop off the train and make their way down to the beach or up to the Abbey.
"Hello!" Sophie said. "You do look busy."
"You can say that again," Misty replied.
"You do lo-"
"No overused jokes here!" Bellerophon said.
"OK," Sophie said.
"So, more holidaymakers, eh?" Misty said. "Where are they all coming from?"
"Well," Pipp said, "we're technically holidaymakers too. But with things being what they are right now a lot of people are going on holiday in the UK rather than travelling abroad. It's good for the local towns but not so good for traffic control." She sighed before having a drink. "It's very hot, though, so make sure you stay hydrated."
"We could do with some rain," Bellerophon said, as he looked out to sea. "At this rate the rails may melt."
"Don't tempt fate!" Sophie said, as another engine hauled the coaches away so she should move out of the platform.
Just then, a piece of paper was handed to Misty, who studied it closely. "Bad weather approaching?" she said. She secured Bellerophon in place and ran down the platform. "Excuse me? Am I reading this correctly?"
"I'm afraid so," said the station master. "The Met Office says that bad weather is approaching. They estimate it will be with us within two hours, so you'd best make preparations to move."
Misty nodded, and then headed back to her engine.
The storm hit sooner than expected. The rain thundered down from bottomless buckets and thunder began to boom all around. Misty was attaching Bellerophon to the coaches in the platform in preparation for an empty stock move back to Grosmont when she was caught in the rain. She ran for cover inside the cab, and looked out. "This is the worst possible weather to be driving an engine with an open sided cab!" she said.
"My not use the rain covers?" Bellerophon suggested.
"Of course!" Misty replied, and opened two pouches. These pouches contained waterproof covers designed to cover both sides of the cab, and were supposed to prevent rain from getting in.
The rain continued to pour as passengers dashed onto the platform and tried the carriage doors, only to discover they were locked. "We can't stay out here in all this rain!" one woman said. "We'll get very wet!"
Luckily, a guard was nearby, and he began unlocking the doors to let the passengers onboard. He then called up the train. "We're going to have to turn this empty stock formation into a passenger working," he explained. "We can't leave these people out in the rain and thunder."
Misty acknowledged on the radio. "We will get them back."
"That's a promise!" Bellerophon added.
"How can you hear what we're saying over the radio?" Misty asked, surprised.
"I have very good hearing."
After the train had departed, going proved to be very difficult indeed. The storm had led to a lot of rain, most of which was bouncing off the soil and waterlogging the ground. The thunder continued to boom and roar, and Misty was having difficulty seeing where she was going as the cab windows were absolutely covered in water. They had also fogged up for some reason.
"I'll need to lift the cover to see what I'm doing!" she said, donning a thick raincoat as she did so. She leaned out- and rain blasted into her face as they rolled along. "It's made no difference!"
As they continued to steam along, they soon ran into a serious problem. Just beyond one of the stations the track had flooded badly. "Look out!" shouted the guard. "That's badly flooded!"
Misty looked back, and then forward. "A promise is a promise," she said.
"And we must keep it," Bellerophon added.
Misty made some precautions. She started by closing Bellerophon's firebox, and then adjusted her own coat. "This footplate is probably gonna flood, but that's the risk we take." She opened the regulator as far as it would go. "CHARGE!"
The formation slammed into the water, briefly slowing down from the friction, but soon regaining speed as they rattled along. The coaches were nearly on the waterline, but the water didn't flood into them too badly, and most of the passengers remained high and dry.
On the other end, they climbed to relative safety despite the storm raging around them. At last, they approached the next stop, and with a roar of triumph they rolled into Grosmont, cold but very much safe.
As the passengers got off, Pipp and Zipp were there too. "Well done!" Pipp said. "That took serious guts, battling through a storm like that!"
"We could hear you all the way over here," Zipp added.
"Well," Bellerophon said, "we couldn't leave these passengers looking like drowned rats, could we?"
Bellerophon was released from the train, and the coaches were coupled into a service waiting to head to Pickering. As the old engine was moved back to the shed, he heard (and saw) Charles and Sophie fire up to take the heavy load onwards.
"Well," he said. "It does show something, doesn't it?"
"Namely?" Misty asked.
"It shows the importance of being in the right place at the right time."