One morning, Ray was woken at Grosmont shed by the arrival of Lord and Lady Haven. "Good morning, sir and ma'am," he said. "What brings you two down to the shed today?"
"We're going to the seaside," Lady Haven explained. "Just me and Robert, you see. Pipp is awfully busy here, and I left Cloudpuff in Misty's care. I haven't had time to practice my laugh!"
"Why would you need to practice it?" Lord Haven asked, looking very confused. "Laughter is a natural reaction to funny things."
"Still, tell me where you wish to go and I shall convey you there," Ray answered. "There are many interesting things, such as the value of electric carriage lighting over oil lighting on darkened routes. In fact, the advantages are so profound that-"
"Ray's being boring again!" Charles shouted.
Ray paid Charles no heed, and there was little time to spend in the shed as the firelighter had already brought him up to temperature. He set off from the shed with the two members of crew onboard, and they were soon on their way towards the coast.
Along the way, they had to stop in a loop to let a train pass. Whilst there, they overheard a surprising conversation.
"What this line needs," said a workman, "is a crane. A nice big one too."
"What do we need a crane for?" asked another workman. "We've already got one."
"Only a little dinky thing," the first workman replied. "Good for lifting rails and ballast and other things like that, but not so good if you need to lift engines or coaches or trucks. For that we really need a much bigger crane that can pull such large things up without tipping over."
"If only it were that simple," said the second workman. "It's not like you can drive down to Tesco, stop at the front desk, and ask 'can we have a heavy duty rail crane, please'? We'd have to either find or build one."
"And even that's a tall order."
Ray overheard this conversation with interest as the line cleared. He puffed away, still thinking to himself about the question.
A little while later, they arrived at Whitby, and Lord and Lady Haven disembarked after parking Ray safely in place. As they spent time at the beach, one of the rare opportunities they had away from their work, Ray continued to think about what the workmen had said. It was true that big cranes were hard to come by, but having one around was quite useful. Two would be an extravagence which was hard to justify for many lines. I mean, how many times do things tip over around here? Well, maybe once or twice but that's hardly accident prone operations.
Eventually, a while had passed, and it was mid day. The crew had reboarded the footplate and were preparing for departure, when Lord Haven had an idea. "Remember how we used to do some exploring back in the old days?" he said to Lady Haven.
"Why, of course I do! We must have covered a considerable amount of the Dorset countryside. Are you suggesting we do so again?"
"But around here, and if we're in luck we'll find something remarkable."
Ray was facing the wrong way round, and therefore had no idea where he was going as he was reversed towards a tunnel. The line that North Yorkshire Moors trains use to reach Whitby is one of only two routes into the region. There is another, much tougher route, which hugs the coastline and weaves past the sea, climbing towards other towns and settlements. This line had recently been reopened, and was light on traffic, so Ray set off up this route.
Before long, the sea and coast gave way to rolling fields and some trees, with many exciting and new objects at the lineside. A junction soon came up, and the formation stopped at a signal box.
The signalman was most surprised. "I wasn't expecting a railtour coming this way!" he said. "It's mainly ballast trains in these parts."
Lady Haven spoke next. "We're looking for something interesting in the region. Is there something interesting down these lines?"
"Why, yes!" the signalman replied. "Down that branch is an old quarry and maintenance yard, which has recently reopened. There won't be another quarry train for a while, so you can head down there now."
The line changed, and they set off down the line into the quarry. The quarry was clearly still being tidied up, as chaotically arranged machinery lined the place.
And Ray was particularly interested in one of them. "Look there!" he said. "It's a crane!"
And it was. It was an enormous crane, with an arm the length of a bus, several large trucks to support his weight, a massive network of cables, and some scattered equipment nearby. "Hello," the crane said. "What brings a steam engine down here?"
"An old crane!" Lord Haven said. "And a large one too! Quite the handy find, this."
"I take it you plan on restoring me?" the crane said. "I'm Rocky, by the way."
"I will admit I know relatively little about cranes," Lady Haven admitted. "But I know somebody who restored a crane tank all by herself." She produced a phone and began to dial a number. "Hello? Ah, Goldie, nice to hear from you. I have something that will probably interest you..."
After Rocky was taken off the branch and towards Cornwall to be mended, Ray and his crew returned to the shed, where he glanced about at the other engines who were resting. "Quite an exciting day, that was," he said.
"Did they have a new stamp out?" Charles asked.
"No need to mock him!" Sophie added.
"We found a crane," Ray replied. "And he's being taken all the way down to Falmouth so Goldie can fix him. What do you think of that, eh?"
"Rubbish!" Charles replied. "You'd never get that lot back to Cornwall!"
Ray simmered happily in the evening light as the last services of the day departed. There's truly had been a jolly holiday.