One quiet morning, Misty was signing on for her morning shift, as one is often want to do in the morning. However, her attention was soon drawn by a figure stepping into the shed. "Excuse me, are you Misty?" he asked.
"Yes sir!" Misty replied, turning to him and smiling awkwardly.
"I have some very bad news," the figure said. "I represent the harbour authority. As you know, the foreman and the harbourmaster are responsible for the ships and trains moving into and out of the harbour area. Unfortunately, the foreman cannot be here today as he is ill with the dreaded lurgi."
"Not lurgi!" Misty said. "I hope he gets well soon!"
"So do I," the figure replied. "Luckily, he produced paper copies of all of the days orders. Could you put them into the correct pigeonholes?"
"Sure thing!" Misty replied, as he handed them over. There was just one slight problem. "The names of the assignments aren't on the list. Which order goes with which engine?"
"I don't know much about railways, so I can't really help you there," the figure said. "Best of luck."
Misty was about to start sorting when Salty arrived. "That was a good morning's work!" he said.
Sunny looked out of the cab. "It's only 8 in the morning." She then noticed Misty. "Hey Misty! What you got there?"
"The foreman's ill, so he wants me to distribute the day's work orders," Misty answered. "Here's yours... I think." She handed the piece of paper to Sunny.
Sunny looked at it, slightly confused. "Not the work I was expecting, but it fits in a way." She shut Salty's engine down and headed off. "I'm going to get some breakfast. See you later!"
"Bye!" Misty replied. Something about Sunny's reply had surprised her somewhat, and this left her concerned.
Later on, after Misty had finished putting the orders into the pigeonholes, and she and Bellerophon got to work in the harbour. But something very strange was happening.
"Misty, isn't it a bit odd we haven't seen Porter this morning?" Bellerophon asked.
"Yeah, I was wondering where he was," Misty said.
Suddenly, there was the blast of a horn, and Charles rolled into the yard. "Honestly, the nerve of the foreman. This work is below me."
"No work is below any engine," Zipp reminded him. "Hey Misty. For some reason we're working here today."
Misty was even more confused. "Don't you normally work on the branch line?"
"Yes, but no doubt some fool has mixed up the work orders," Charls grumbled. "A Class 33, a shunter! Whatever next!
The duo soon got to work, and Charles provied to be surprisingly good at shunting trucks... when he was cooperating, that is. They soon had the place cleaned up, and Misty checked the next part of her work order. "Short goods working to Falmouth. Ok!"
"It'll give me a nice chance to stretch my wheels that's for sure," Bellerophon smiled. Soon, they had found their trucks, a short formation of vans and open trucks with a brake van to top it off. They began to make their way up the valley, but as they passed Penmere they saw something very strange.
Rebecca was sat at the oil terminal, shunting! "Aren't you normally pulling passengers?" Misty asked.
"Work order says I am to shunt oil tankers at the oil terminal," Rebecca replied. "I'm not sure why. Seems a bit excessive to use a pacific for shunting!"
"Orders are orders, and we must follow them no matter how absurd," Hitch replied.
She had no chance to reply before Salty suddenly rumbled through on the platform line with a goods train. He and the trucks were singing in call and response. "I thought I heard the Old Man say!"
"Leave her, Johnny, leave her!"
"Tomorrow ye will get your pay!"
"And it's time for us to leave her!"
"Leave her, Johnny, leave her!"
Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her!"
For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow/
And it's time for us to leave her!"
"Good to hear he's keeping the trucks in order!" Rebecca smiled.
"But why is he pulling goods?" Bellerophon wondered. "I thought his axleboxes weren't meant to go at high speed!"
Misty was only getting more and more confused. The signal changed, and they continued on their way.
When they got to Truro they found Sophie. But she hadn't done anything at all!
"Whose idea was this?" she asked, as she sat there, fuming.
"What's going on?" Bellerophon called over.
Pipp opened the cab window and leaned out. "Sophie and I were told to clear this yard. But Sophie is too long to fit in the headshunt! This was totes such a bad idea."
There was another whistle seconds later, and Porter dragged some coaches in. He was red in the face and looked exhausted. "Whose idea was it to have me pulling a commuter train? I'm a shunter designed for short trip freight, not a cement mixer!"
"Orders say so!" Izzy added. "But even somebody as silly as me knows this is silly!"
It was then, and only then, that Misty realised what was going on. Nobody was where they were supposed to be, and this only meant that...
"I've mixed all the work orders up!"
After Misty had explained her blunder to the others, they set about trying to fix the mess. They started with assigning Porter to the yard at Truro, as he was short enough to fit in the headshunt.
Next, they headed down the line to Penmere, where Rebecca was still shunting oil tankers. Once this was done, Sophie was swapped into her place, and Rebecca headed up the line to pull passengers.
When they got to Falmouth, Salty was moved onto the yards, and Charles took the goods. He certainly looked a lot happier after that.
That evening, the engines were all back at the shed, and the drivers were looking out to sea as the sun set in the sky. "That was an interesting day," Hitch said to the others.
"It sure was," Izzy sighed. "Porter is NOT designed for that sort of work!"
Just then, the foreman arrived, looking in much better health. "I head about the mixup," he said. "But I have to say you girls did a superb job in getting it cleaned up and getting the railway back on track."
"I'm a boy," Hitch pointed out.
"Still, keep up the good work."
The Falmouth team knew that, even when things do go wrong, putting your heads together and applying some common sense is the fastest way to fix them.