Twenty Years Earlier...
Revelstoke, British Columbia. A reasonably large settlement largely underpinned by the skiing and snowboarding industry, in summer the area constantly rang to the sound of freight. Revelstoke was a key martialling yard on the Canadian Pacific, as it was where freights from numerous locations were usually combined in preparation for their long journeys towards either the east or west coasts (most freight going to either one or the other).
One October morning, the weather was fairly cold, as was normal in British Columbia at that time of year. There was a small amount of fog left on the ground from the previous night, but still enough to produce an odd murky effect on the landscape for those who were travelling about the city.
Further away from the noise and hubbub of the yard sat a small facility that didn't fit in very well with the local railway architecture. It was an oddly bland building, made of brick and stone and with a tiled roof that stuck up into the air like a sticky uppy thing. Most people didn't even think too much about it, assuming that it was either an offshoot of the nearby Revelstoke Railway Museum or that it was just some industrial leftovers that nobody had bothered to clean up from before the place became a resort town.
They would be wrong, however, as inside this building was something very special. As Moondust unlocked the door, he was greeted to the familiar smell of steam and oil from the solo occupant of this building.
"Morning," he said to the occupant.
"Morning," came the reply from the engine. The engine in particular was an enormous express passenger machine. It had large, slab sided frames seemingly cut from an entire mountain each, and a high running board with red and cream lining. The locomotive boasted four leading wheels, six driving wheels, and four trailing wheels. The boiler was similarly enormous, and was festooned with a jumble of machinery that ran from the chimney to the equally slab sided cab. The tender was similarly large, being once more flat sided and very big as it sat upon two large trucks, painted mostly black apart from a large red section on each side with cream lining. On each side of the cab was the emblem of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the tender reinforced this notion with the letters CANADIAN PACIFIC emblazoned in block capitals on either side. "Nice to see you again."
"Ready for another run, eh?" Moondust joked. "Sounds as though the crew have you ready to go, John."
"Firelighter arrived at three in the morning," the engine replied. "So, where is it today?"
Moondust climbed into the cab and checked the paperwork handed to him by the stoker before signing off on it. "Seems some top levels of management are out on an excursion to Lake Louise today," he replied. "We're taking them fom here in the excursion set complete with the rear observation car."
"They'll enjoy that very much, no doubt," John answered. The doors were already open, so all that remained was to move him out of the shed and onto the line. With a hiss of steam and ringing of the bell, the massive engine was shortly underway and on his way to the yards.
After shuffling onto the mainline and avoiding the line that would take him to the gravel loader, John arrived at his destination. The coaches were stored in a special siding, and had been cleaned and polished so comprehensively that you could see your face in them.
John was coupled to the back of the coaches so he could haul them back to the station for running round. Just then, an incredibly ugly steam engine roared past. He had less the look of an engine than a set of wheels attached to a brick, as if somebody had been streamlining an engine and had just given up. An unobservant person would probably have mixed John and this engine up, but the personalities were very different. The black and green paintjob especially reinforced this notion of ugliness.
"Getting a sympathy run, old timer?" he laughed, as he flew by. "Clearly they haven't stuck you in a museum yet!"
John rolled his eyes. "In British Columbia, we say good morning."
After running round his stock, John was ready to go, and with the high raking officials officially onboard the train they could. Moondust sounded John's whistle three times to warn those concerned that the train was now ready to go. And then they went, producing a most marvellous sight as the train rolled through the outer edges of Revelstoke and off towards the coast.
Once clear of the town limits they could really get some speed up, and the line began to twist and turn as it began to climb through the Canadian Rockies. Trees and mountains populated the windows for a considerable amount of time as did many beavers, who were very used to trains by now (they had, after all, 120 years to get used to them).
After a few minutes, they halted outside the Mount MacDonald tunnel as the signal was red. In a nearby siding sat a large red diesel, typical of the types of locomotives fielded in the region. "Moving important people again?" he asked. "Bet they're enjoying the hail."
"Pardon?" John asked.
"25% of the year here is rainy," the diesel replied. "It's foggy the other 75%."
"Glad to see you still have your sense of humour, Harrison," John replied. "I shouldn't need a push today- it's a light load, and they'll be having lunch at Lake Louise so I don't have to worry about the gross weight increasing mid journey."
Both engines laughed at that. "But what out for the ghost," Harrison said suddenly. "Other engines have reported spooky things going on, and I think that-"
Just then a massive coal train roared out of the tunnel, making it impossible for anybody's words to be understood. Whatever this ghost was, it would have to wait
After an otherwise uneventful journey, John pulled into Golden to be serviced and turned in preparation for the climb through Field and up to Lake Louise. The coaches were left in a clean place, as otherwise they would have been made messy by the nearby freight.
Golden was largely known for large numbers of coal hoppers. It was where the Windermere line joined the mainline, and as a result the sidings were usually full of either coal hoppers or potash hoppers waiting to head for the ports.
Just as John was parking next to the water pipe, a chime whistle echoed across the terrain, and a familiar face rattled into the yard, towing a diesel and some coal hoppers. "Hey John!" she called. "What's up?"
The engine was a 2-8-0, characterised by the same sort of chunky construction which was standard on Canadian steam locomotives. Her boiler was similarly covered in machinery and pipework, above which lay black paint. A huge piece of rolled metal sat atop the front of her smokebox, and the pilot bar gleamed in the sun. A similar tender to John's was coupled to the back, and also bore red and cream paint with CANADIAN PACIFIC painted on it.
"Hey Miranda," John replied. "Diesel's giving you trouble?"
"Just the usual, breaking down. Good thing they have me to pull them in, huh? Good this was only a short train. I may be awesome, but even I have my limits."
John sighed. "Sure thing. Listen, have you heard anything about a ghost recently?"
"No," Miranda replied, as she was detached from the train. "Why?"
"Harrison mentioned something about a ghost train haunting the Mount MacDonald Tunnel at night," John replied. "It all sounded very strange, as we haven't seen ghosts in these parts in a very long time. I think we should be on our guard."
Miranda started laughing. "Ghosts? Seriously? I think you're going soft in the boiler! There's no such thing as ghosts! And even if they were, I'd soon put them in their place!"
John, fully aware that not taking things especially seriously was Miranda's MO, internally sighed. "Oh well. I'll be heading up the line later to Lake Louise- important people in the company out on a sightseeing trip, you see- and I'll see if I can get any more information up there. Is Marie working in the region?"
"You bet!" Miranda replied. "Says the air reminds her of home."
"No surprises there then," John smiled. "It'll be interesting to see what perspective a Quebec pair of eyes can bring to this situation."
"Thanks for the info!" Moondust said, as he checked the water gauges. "That's the water topped off. We'll just get some more sand and we should be good to go."
John was later reattached to the train, and railfans were in for a treat as he and Miranda departed towards different directions on the lines running out of Golden. Hopefully Marie could shed some more light on this mystery.