Later that day, the convoy pulled into Bury, stopping just beyond the station. "What's going on?" Porter asked.
"There appears to be some sort of traffic jam!" called Sophie. "We'll probably be sat here for a bit!"
As they waited there, they noticed something else odd going on. More engines seemed to be arriving from the other side of the yard and rolling into the shed. But this wasn't what was bizarre. The sheer number of engines was what was concerning the others.
"Have any of you counted the number of engines arriving?" Zipp asked. "I'm not sure the line was intended to handle this many locos."
After a wait of a few more minutes, the signal to their line finally changed, and the formation pulled forward into the station to be detached from their towing engine and placed onto the shed. This was proving to be a complex move, owing to the number of engines moving about the shed.
A separate loco was towing the engines into the shed, and Porter was the first to be hooked up. The shunter began its pull into the shed, when suddenly a loud whistle blast caused them to stop.
A goods train suddenly rattled over a diamond crossing, and a big black tender locomotive rumbled past, the tender leading a long formation of trucks. "Read the signals and watch where you're going!"
Porter rolled his eyes. "At least I'm not the one going backwards."
"Technically," Izzy said, "the engine isn't going backwards. If the destination is in that direction they're going forwards. They're just running tender first!"
After a short pause, the process of moving the engines into the shed continued, being parked on different roads in front of and behind each other. Bellerophon was the last to be positioned, and as he looked over he saw a large red locomotive with four leading wheels, six driving wheels, and no trailing wheels. His tender was tall with curved railings at the top, and the tender was marked with the text L M S.
"Hello!" he said. "I take it you're visiting." His voice was firm yet friendly at the same time.
"Just for the gala," Bellerophon replied. "And you?"
"Likewise," the engine replied. "My name's Kolhapur. I'm named after a city in India, in case you're wondering about the name."
"I wasn't particularly," Bellerophon admitted. "But how many engines are there on shed?"
"At least 25, if I was to hazard a guess," Kolhapur replied. "There's a lot to do, I reckon. Shunting, freight, passenger- they must have an intense timetable if they're using this many locomotives."
A familiar voice suddenly spoke from the footplate. "I'll be away for a moment! Don't go anywhere!"
"I don't have much of a choice in the matter!" Kolhapur replied jokingly.
Misty was doing some other checks on Bellerophon's footplate, and looked over to her surprise to see who was descending the cab steps of Kolhapur. "Ruby Jubilee?"
The pop star looked over in surprise. "Misty?" she asked. "Fancy seeing you here!"
"I didn't know you owned an engine!" Misty said.
"Well, I've seen musicians own stranger things. Pete Waterman funded his steam empire from the royalties from songs he wrote."
More engines began to arrive on the shed and parked up, and another man arrived. He looked very important. "I can't recall asking for this many engines," he said. "We asked for 13 engines for the gala!"
Pipp, who had been doing work on Sophie, got out some paperwork and looked at it. "It says 30 engines here," she said.
The man sighed and facepalmed. "Seems like somebody misheard me," he said.
Sunny had completed work on Salty, and walked over as well. "Something about this didn't seem to make sense," she said. "It's a five train timetable, and I can count at least 30 engines. How are we going to use them all over a three day period?"
Sophie then spoke up. "Top and tail every train. That way you eliminate the need to run round the train at the termini and can hold the timetable much more easily."
"Good idea!" said the man who looked important. "I shall tell the General Manager immediately."
Izzy walked over. "More engines than expected, and nighttime running. Let's hope this isn't Jinxy."
The next morning, the gala was into full swing. The first ten locomotives were fired up, plus another pair to do demonstration shunting around the yards near Bury station, as that at least gave the visitors something to watch. One of them was a shunting engine local to the line, who reminded Izzy somewhat of Percy. The other shunting engine was Bellerophon, who was allocated to the sidings outside Bury Transport Museum. He and Misty spent the day rearranging the trucks in the siding whilst passenger trains rattled past on the main, heading to and from Rawtenstall.
Overall, things were going fairly well during the day, apart from some unfortunate problems. One of the steam engines failed at Ramsbottom with leaking tubes and had to be shunted into a siding, away from the main as other trains needed to use the line. There was also another problem with a diesel conking out with a faulty brake ejector, forcing Bellerophon to draw the train into the platforms at Bury.
This resulted in the remaining eight engines having to be stretched thin. At Rawtenstall, Charles was cut from one carriage rake as the train prepared to depart. "What's going on?" Charles demanded.
"Engines are being reallocated," Zipp explained. "You're needed for another service."
Charles looked aghast. "Me? Dumped here?"
"Pipp, can't we just dump Charles in a siding?" Sophie asked.
"You can't dump me!" Charles protested.
"Why not?" Sophie asked.
Charles snorted, as if the answer was obvious. "Because I have a steam heating boiler and you don't!"
It wasn't too good with the musicians as well. Tempers were flaring amongst the Dreamlands, who had not performed together in decades.
"I'm telling you Minty," Bluebell said. "If we don't update our sound the audience is going to turn off. We don't have the benefit of youth on our side anymore."
"Since when was age a factor?" Minty countered. "Look at The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger's eighty and he's still going strong!"
"The key difference is he's a man," Snuzzle said. "You're fully aware the music industy has a double standard when it comes to men and women. They see us as washed out old farts. You've seen the kids at the event. We're old enough to be their grandmothers!"
"That does rather come with having been born in the 1960s," Minty admitted. "But you saw some of our old fans out there. They'll want to hear the sound they remember!"
The conversation was interrupted with a shout from the main stand. "I HAVE BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!"
Pipp stood in the concert area, fretting, waiting for her friends to arrive. Suddenly, she saw them. Walking over were the members of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and a hippy. "Groovy, huh!" Misty called. "All you need is love!"
Pipp, however, had no time for that. "We've got a problem!" she said. "All three of the major acts think they're headlining!"
"I wonder how that happened," Hitch said.
"Ah," Zipp said.
"Is something going on?" Pipp asked.
"I told Fretlock he and the gang would be headlining to entice them to come," Zipp said.
"Really, Zipp?" Pipp snapped. "You didn't think to check this with me first?"
"In her defence, you didn't say she couldn't use that as an enticement," Hitch pointed.
Pipp put her head in her hands, a massive headache coming on. "So, you all told the performers they were headlining? Great. But we can fix this! We just need to pursuade them to play in a different order and we should be good to go."
"Right then," Sunny said. "Let's get to work. I'll talk to the Dreamlands, you can handle Ruby, and Zipp can try and pursuade Electric Blue."
After several minutes of fraught negotiation, they finally hashed out a running order. Ruby agreed to go on first, followed by Electric Blue (who were already in firm psychadelic mode with the Sgt. Pepper outfits), and finally the Dreamlands would round off the night.
As the final sound checks were being performed, the team stopped for some food, the local hot dog stand being very popular for that purpose. Izzy was still looking around for anything that might harm them. "I'm worried the Troggles will come," she said.
"Wouldn't the train noise have attracted them?" Pipp asked.
"They only go after human voices," Izzy replied. "At least, according to the legend. We'll have to be extra careful from now on to avoid drawing them out."
As they conversed, a figure looked over the area with a pair of binoculars. She grabbed a radio. "My lord, we are almost ready to begin."
"Hold the plan until the perfect chance," said a voice on the other end.
The woman nodded. "Yes sir."