Halloween was one of the crunch times for the Swanage Railway, and the visitor demand was so great that more trains had to be put on. This, in turn, resulted in a dramatically increased workload, with everybody (and every engine for that matter) being required to muck in and do their part.
One morning, Ray was surprised to see Lady Haven approaching from the station complex. "Is there a problem?" he asked, somewhat drowsily.
"Of a sort," Lady Haven replied, as she climbed into his cab. "There has been a dreadful mixup at Wareham, and somehow the supplies needed for a local Halloween event got delivered to the wrong location. Quite why they thought a Halloween event needed a train of mattresses I have no idea." She checked in his firebox to see his fire was coming up to temperature nicely. "Of course, squeezing this working in might be a bit of a challenge given the intensive passenger timetable, but needs must when deliveries go wrong. After all, it was the keep calm and carry on spirit that got my father's generation through the Blitz."
Later, Ray was ready to go, and he was backed up to the shunt signal to await the arrival of an oncoming train. Sure enough, that train arrived, pulled by Charles. "You're looking cheerful!" he said.
"That," said Ray, "is because I have been given an important job. I need to go and pick up a missing train and bring it back to Swanage."
"You won't be heading towards Southampton, will you?" Charles asked.
"We will be going that way, yes," Lady Haven nodded. "I could use the opportunity to see how things are in Bournemouth right now with the station remodelling. Why do you ask?"
"There's a bit of a fog warning on the news," Charles replied. "It may make seeing where you're going a bit difficult. Zipp told me."
Ray glanced over. "Hopefully we'll be back before the worst of it sets in," he said. Now that the line was clear, he set off on his way. "It must be serious if Charles wasn't dismissing it as rubbish."
Once on the mainline towards Bournemouth, Ray could finally get up some speed. The miles flew by underneath his wheels as he rattled along, sharing the line with other, more modern trains. Even so, people who were out came to see him pass by, with one passenger commenting that the ghosts were clearly out for Halloween.
Charles' words did have Ray a bit concerned, though. Whilst not normally a supersticious engine, Ray did know that spooky things often happened around this time of year. Last year had proceeded without incident, but this year was one with magic, which was a marked contrast to previous years. What if some sort of magic caused more chaos? The incident with the strange engines bouncing about the market a few days ago had everybody on edge somewhat.
At last, they arrived at Bournemouth Central, a station which still oozed with steam era charm despite it being over 50 years since steam on the Southern Region came to an official end. Not surprisingly, the pair were soon mobbed by people on the station.
"Where are these trucks?" Lady Haven asked the station master.
"We put them in the sidings over there so you could easily pick them up," the station master replied. "You'll have to wait a bit, though. We've got an incoming express train heading for Weymouth to clear through first, so hang tight for now."
Eventually, the express passed through the station at speed, and the points changed to let Ray access the sidings. He rolled into the trucks, and Lady Haven coupled him up.
"You're being oddly quiet," she said. "Normally you'd be telling me trivia about how lever reversers are better than screw link ones, or that the ideal ratio of water to milk in tea is around 1 to 2!"
"Charles' story has me concerned, ma'am," Ray replied. "With this sort of weather it may be tough going to get back to Swanage. And with everything going on around the area with the magic having returned... well, it's a bit of a weight on my mind."
"I'm certain nothing will go wrong," Lady Haven replied. "If fog does arrive, we'll use the high intensity lamps to see through it. We'll be fine, I am certain of that."
What if we aren't? Ray thought to himself, as he heard the signal change and a works train passed by.
The return run began, and as Ray worked into the tunnel at the other end of the station-
BANG!
"What was that?" Ray asked.
"A detonator!" Lady Haven replied, and applied the brakes to bring the train to a stop. She looked back inside the tunnel, and picked up the radio. "Bournemouth Signal Box, we've been stopped inside the tunnel by a detonator. Requesting permission to back train out of the tunnel and investigate, over?"
"Bournemouth Box here, you have permission to reverse to station limits and investigate. Out."
Sure enough, Ray was backed out of the tunnel to prevent a deadly build up of carbon monoxide inside. Once the train was stopped, Lady Haven got off, picked up a lantern, and walked into the tunnel, grim faced and determined to find out what had caused the detonator to be placed.
The tunnel was very dark, and it was also hard to see. Lady Haven's eyes squinted in the gloom, but as she walked forward she finally saw what had caused them to stop.
Ray was very glad to see her when she walked out again. "What was it?" he asked.
"A works train has stalled ahead of us and is blocking the line," she explained. "We'll have to wait for the mess to be cleared up."
So they waited, and they waited, and they waited. They waited and waited for what seemed like hours, probably because it actually did take them hours to clean up the mess.
By the time they got going again, fog had descended over the landscape, and it was making travel very difficult. Engines on the Swanage Railway are turned to face Wareham, and this meant Ray was running bunker first for the trip back to Swanage shed. The wagons rattled in front of him, and the rails sang.
The high intensity lights had been set up, but they weren't doing a lot of good. In fact, comparisons to chocolate teapots were already being made in Ray's mind. At least the signals were clearly visible, so there was that. The light grew dim, and being required to stop at Brockenhurst didn't help in Ray's mind.
At last, he was cleared once again to go, and he battled onwards through the bad weather. It wasn't just fog now. The wind had picked up, and it was buffeting him from side to side. "Buffeting! Buffeting!"
"Good heavens, this is bumpy," Lady Haven said. "But we must be brave, as those partygoers are counting on us."
They were soon safely over the worst part of the run, and to Ray's relief the worst of the fog soon lifted as he rattled towards Wareham. He came to a stop in the platform, feeling very relieved. "Well, that wasn't too bad."
That night, Ray and Charles spent some time conversing. "So, how'd it go?"
"Not as badly as I'd thought it would, actually," Ray admitted. "The weather conditions could easily have been worse."
"And the fog?"
"Not too bad once you get used to it. Sometimes, there are times to be brave and times to be strong, and others when common sense must prevail."
"Which you achieve by going slowly," Charles joked.
"I'm careful, not slow. If you rush things you usually find yourself having to do it again, meaning it takes more time than it should have done the first time."
"There is some logic to that. Wait a second, what's Porter doing?"
Porter was moving some trucks to the other siding, but didn't seem to be watching what he was doing. He ran the trucks into the buffers with a bang. "Sorry!"
Ray rolled his eyes. "What a moron."
Luckily, nothing was damaged, and the party proceeded on schedule as planned. As Ray's experience shows us, sometimes all we have to be is brave, and believe in ourselves to overcome the obstacles we face in our lives.