The Falmouth Branch is something of a poorly kept secret in Britain's railway community. Apart from the Island of Sodor, it is now the only place in Britain apart from preserved lines where vintage locomotives are still at work performing revenue earning tasks. As such, many enthusiasts turn out to see the trains go by, and even travel behind them as they go about their day. The fact that Falmouth positively oozes with steam era atmosphere, complete with historic dock cranes and wharf buildings, only adds to the atmosphere.
Indeed, the stations along the line have been returned to their historic appearances where possible, to help bring the magic of a lost age back to life. However, the increase in patronage has resulted in a dramatic surge in traffic, often meaning the engines and their drivers have lots to do.
One of these mornings saw Ray down in the quarry. A bumper stone haul had overwhelmed the existing locomotives, and as such more help was needed. Lady Haven tended to Ray's fire as more trucks were being loaded.
"I hope they don't expect us to take the trucks with us up the line!" Ray said. "We'd struggle to pull this lot!"
"Our orders state that we're only shunting," Lady Haven replied. "I imagine they'll send another engine down to take them away."
Sure enough, a loud horn echoed through the tunnel, and none other than Charles came to a stop. "Ray! There you are!" he said. "Keeping these trucks in order?"
"They keep themselves in order," Ray replied. "Work methodically with trucks and be sensible and they behave themselves. Be silly and they do all sorts of silly things."
"Good of you," Charles replied. "Wouldn't want you to get puffed out, would we?" He then laughed at his joke, despite the fact it wasn't funny.
Zipp opened the cab window. "Probably best we work quickly before he gets worse."
Sure enough, the two engines got to work. The process of constantly shuffling trucks back and forth between the loading bays and the sidings took a long time, as the sidings were short. This meant that only short formations of trucks could be moved at any one time.
After a few hours of work, Charles pulled up a fuel point. "Just wait a moment!" he said.
"Wait a moment?" Ray asked. "Never thought I'd hear you say that, Charles."
"I'll just have my tank refilled. Fuel's getting a bit low!"
A few minutes later, Charles' tank was topped off, and he was ready to go. Zipp hit the priming circuit and the diesel's engine thundered into life. "Such a great sound!" Zipp commented.
"Well, you can't cook bacon in a firebox on one of those!" Ray replied.
"Who needs that when you have steam heating?" Charles asked. His objective was to move forward to the next set of trucks, but as he began to move his engine coughed, and then began to stick. Within seconds, it cut out completely and came to a dead stop.
"I've completely lost all power!" Zipp shouted. As she glanced back down out of the cab, a vast cloud of black smoke billowed from Charles' exhaust.
"That's not gone well!" Charles commented.
Zipp hopped out and sprinted back to the pump. She tipped some into a vessel, slipped on her goggles, and scanned it. "That's not good," she said.
"What's the matter?" Lady Haven asked.
"The fuel is contaminated with water! I can only hope it's limited to here and nowhere else."
But Zipp was wrong. The fuel had been delivered to the Falmouth pumps as well, and both Salty and Sophie were belching smoke from their exhausts. When Ray returned from taking a look, he reported the grim news to Charles and Zipp.
"Well, I know who did it," Charles said. "It was Opaline!"
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Ray asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Charles said. "The diesel fuel is contaminated. Diesel is two letters longer than water. A none regular triangle has one side longer than the other. A triangle has three sides. Opaline has three syllables in her name. Opaline therefore contaminated the fuel."
Zipp shook her head. "That makes absolutely no sense, even by your standards." She glanced over to Ray. "Mom, I'm asking for help. Can you find some fresh diesel fuel for the engines?"
"Of course!" Lady Haven said. "I'll take Ray up to the house and collect the spare diesel we have there. Will you be coming with me?"
Zipp shook her head. "I need to bleed Charles' tank to ensure there's no further damage."
Ray rattled out of the quarry as quickly as he could before climbing to the station, coughing at the black clouds continuing to billow across the area. "Hey! Everybody! Bleed the tanks of your engines!"
As he reversed, he saw people running about to do just that. He ran up the hill as fast as his wheels would carry him, until at last he arrived at the siding which led into the yard at the house.
Lady Haven applied his brakes and headed into the house, stopping at the door. "Robert? Are you in?"
"I'm in the sitting room, dear."
"What are you doing there?"
"Sitting."
Lady Haven entered through the door, and Robert glanced up. "Out driving, I see. The boilersuit suggested as much."
"I need your help to load the spare oil drums into a van. There's a fuel crisis going on at the yard and several engines have received contanimated diesel."
"Let's waste no time then!" Robert replied, grabbing a coat on his way out.
The pair worked to load the drums into the van, and the door was closed with the cargo safely contained. Safe to say this stuff was more valuable than gold at the moment.
Ray was coupled up, and before long he was back on his way back down the line. His first stop was the engine shed, where Salty and Sophie were.
"Thanks for the fuel, matey!" Salty said. "I haven't had anything like that in my tanks for a long time!"
"I guess it's like indigestion, then?" Sunny said, as she hooked up the pipes to the drums.
"Or like going to a buffet," Pipp added, as she hooked up some other pipes. "I won't be doing that again, that's for sure."
After a few minutes, the fuel pumping procedure was completed, and both engines were fired up. "Arr! That's much better!" Salty said. "Time to go back to work!"
"Me too!" Sophie replied. "I've got a lot of work to catch up on in the next few hours! Hopefully the customers will understand!"
Charles looked very glum. Without any fuel he was unable to turn a wheel, and when he unable to turn a wheel he couldn't shunt the trucks. And when he couldn't shunt the trucks the orders couldn't be cleared. The place was a mess.
"I hope Ray gets here soon," he said. "I never thought I'd say this but I'll be glad to see him arrive."
Just then, a familiar whistle echoed through the tunnel, and Ray steamed in with the van. "I've got some fuel for you!" he said. "It's yours provided you say I'm not boring."
"Ray you're not boring. Now can I please have some fuel?"
"Of course," Ray smiled.
The pipes were linked up, and before long the process of pumping fuel into Charles' engine began. It took a few minutes to completely fill up, but after a certain amount of time the engine was ready to go. Zipp hit the starter switch and Charles' engine rumbled back into life. "He lives!" Zipp cheered. "Thanks for the help!"
"No problem, my dear," Lady Haven replied. "Now then, I believe we have quite the backlog to clear. This yard is in a frightful state!"
Once more, the quarry sang to the sound of engines hard at work. Within a few hours, the trucks were marshalled and ready to go, and with two brakevans attached Charles led them out of the quarry. "Thank you Ray!" he said. "With teamwork we can achieve a lot!"
"I think Charles may have learned something today," Ray smiled, as he puffed out of the yard after them and into the tunnel.
Later that day, the engines had all returned to the shed and were being put away for the night. "That was an interesting day," Sunny said. "I haven't quite gotten the smell of diesel fuel out of my clothes. They'll need a wash tonight."
"Did we ever find out what caused the fuel to be bad?" Porter asked.
"We did, actually," Zipp said. "The pipe to the pump had a hole in it and rainwater got in. They're patching the hole as I speak."
"So, not sabotage?" Charles asked.
"No. Why?" Izzy asked.
"Charles had a theory that Opaline contaminated it. It made no sense at all!"
"You are aware I can hear you, right?"
Pipp laughed. "Just goes to show the importance of not jumping to conclusions!"