One morning, Salty was having engine trouble. No matter what Sunny tried, she couldn't get his engine to start. "Sorry about this matey!" he said. "I'm aware this rather throws a spanner in the works for today's plans."
Sunny, however, wasn't particularly bothered. "Things don't always go to plan," she said. "Like that bout of chickenpox I had last year. But this is something I can probably fix fairly easily."
Unfortunately, it wasn't. The repair proved to be more serious than anything she or the maintenance shop in the town could handle. And this meant Salty had to be taken to specialist facility called The Flower Mill to be repaired.
Porter was the engine assigned to tow him as far as the main line, where a lorry would pick Salty up and convey him by road to the works.
"Funny how we're towing you!" Porter said. "It's rather like our first adventure all those years ago!"
"Sure is," Salty replied. "I'd much rather be running under my own power, though. The sea is calling, after all."
"You live next to it, so no surprises there," Porter added. "But wasn't there an issue with the axleboxes on the Class 07s?"
"Only if you go too quickly," Sunny explained. "So maintaining this sort of speed should be fine."
Luckily, they arrived at the mainline without any mishaps, and Salty was loaded onto the lorry and taken off to the Flour Mill. Sunny remained on the platform, watching until the diesel had vanished out of sight.
She seemed to be so focused that she jumped when Izzy spoke again. "Would you like to work with us today?"
Sunny nodded. "It beats hanging around here having nothing to do. Sure, I'll gladly help out."
The pair returned to Falmouth with a short van train, which was left in the siding to be unloaded and filled with other goods. Upon arrival, the foreman came to see them.
"You," he said, "are to go to Lighthouse Qurry immediately. There is a load from the quarry that needs bringing up to the main yard for processing. I am certain an engine of your size will be suitable for the job, seeing as Ray and his driver are elsewhere."
"Oh, Jazz?" Sunny said. "I was wondering why nobody had mentioned her in a while."
But anyway, an order was an order, and Porter set off for the quarry. The trucks inside the quarry were not happy to see Porter. "Where's Ray?" they asked. "We were looking for a proper engine, not a toy engine!"
"I've got plenty of power to get you lot moved, you muppets," Porter replied.
"So you'd be wise to show some respect," Sunny added.
What Sunny didn't know, though, was that these trucks had grown very accustomed to Ray, seeing him as a critical part of the quarry operation and its scenery. So when another engine had intruded on what they considered to be his turf, they didn't take it well.
Unfortunately, the weather changed for the worse when they were in the quarry. The sun was soon gone, and replaced with clouds that produced nothing but rain. The rain thundered down, and before long the ground was waterlogged and surface water floated on the, well, surface. The rain had another, rather more concerning factor.
Izzy looked about, concerned. "We might need some help getting going with this train," she said. "Sunny, could you put some sand down on the rails?"
"Sure!" Sunny said, pulling her hood up. "So glad I chose to wear a hoodie today."
Sunny hopped out of the cab, and applied a liberal coating of sand to the track. This, she hoped, would help them get going again.
"Sand's down!" she called.
Izzy nodded. "Then let's go!"
With that, she released the brakes, and the regulator was opened. Porter gave off a mighty blast of steam, and soon they were on their way out of the quarry. With a series of puffs they were soon in the tunnel, the load moving slowly but at a steady pace.
Any engineman will tell you that a gradient immediately after a tunnel is always a problem. This is because tunnels are often poorly ventilated, and stopping in them can result in the buildup of noxious fumes. This means restarting on a climb can be difficult as you cannot back up to the bottom of the slope to start again.
And this climb was proving to be rather difficult. A storm culvert had given way higher up the landscape, and some mud had become stuck on the track just before the climb.
Just as Izzy was increasing power to get over the climb, Porter's wheels began slipping violently. The wheels came into contact with the mud and began throwing it all over the place!
"Shut off steam!" Sunny called. "We can't get over the hill with this mud here!"
"Not to mention the wet rails," Izzy added. "I think we're calling for help."
Ray was dispatched to help them out of the quarry, and despite a few initial jokes about mud pie the pair were able to get the train into the sidings.
"Thanks for the help!" Porter said.
"No problem," Ray replied. "Always glad to help out a mate."
"Besides," Jazz added, "a friend in need is a friend indeed."
Soon, they were all back to work on their usual patterns, with engines rolling about, pulling coaches and trucks, and generally being really useful.
But things were soon made easier when Salty came home that night. Safe to say Sunny was happy to be working with him again, and the next morning his engine was running better and smoother and happier than ever.
The mud, however, was washed away by the rain, but the incident had exposed a much overlooked flaw in the design of the track. As a result, it was rebuilt with a storm drain running underneath it to allow any collected dirt to not collect on the track.
However, nobody would be forgetting the mudbath in a hurry!