Chapter 3
The next morning, drearier than the last morning, the two were out looking about and trying to get the poor Alicorn a cutie mark. The two were working hard when it was lunch time. Both took a seat on a nearby abandon platform and enjoyed apple tart, Woolton pie, Homity Pie and water.
“Thanks for lunch,” the Alicorn said.
“You’re welcome,” Alistair replied happily.
After the break, the two walked for a while until they reached a large structure.
“Where are we?” the Alicorn asked.
“Me engine collection,” Alistair said. “Sadly, I haven’t any running rights or rails to run them on. They’ve been rusting away in here. 117 locomotives-112 steam engines and five diesel engines. There’s also 64 wagons, 13 brake-vans and 80 coaches in the sheds next door. I wish I knew what to do with them.”
At that point, the Alicorn’s eyes lit up faster than a the Nightmare Night decorations.
“These are brilliant!” he squeaked. “Our engines and coaches are outdated and very dangerous indeed.”
Alistair looked at him and chuckled.
“You’d need to have knowledge of how to run a railway,” he said.
The Alicorn explained all he knew, including signals and their functions. Just then, there came a bright flash and Alistair walked to his left flank, then his right.
“Well, a railway semaphore signal, set at Danger appeared on your flanks,” he said.
“Nice!” The Alicorn said.
“Well, there you go, Dangersignal,” he said.
“Dangersignal?” the Alicorn quizzed.
“Your name,” he replied. “It matches your cutie mark.”
“Okay, cool,” Dangersignal said. “Now, I have a question, do you have paper and pen at your home?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Good,” Dangersignal said. “I’m going to write a letter to my princess and tell her your predicament.”
“Thank you,” Alistair said.
Instead of him walking back, Dagnersignal told him to get on and the Alicorn galloped all the way back to Alistair’s home. The two were inside and Alistair lead Dangersignal to the study, where paper and pens were. Once everything was in order, Alistair went off to get himself a pint of London’s finest in the local pub.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
It’s your blank flank guard with news. I finally got my cutie mark and have a name-Dangersignal, so you can use that instead of calling me “that guard” or “that Alicorn” or whatever else any of the other guards like to pull out.
Second, I met a nice human named Alistair, who has a bit of a problem-he’s got a railway fleet tucked away in sheds, rusting and gathering spiders. 117 locomotives, 64 wagons, 13 brake-vans and 80 coaches.
On this, I must tell you that the railway network in Equestria is in dire need of upgrading. His collection looks modern compared to our tiny little tank engines. The coaches could easily carry well over the thirty passengers we cram into ten coaches. The wagons could carry all of the baked goods from the Cake’s bakery in Ponyville, the Apples from Appleloosa, fabrics and clothing designs from Manehatten and whatever else is needed.
The engines are practically new and waiting to be run. Some look like they haven’t turned a wheel in a dog’s age. There are engines of all different builds, that could be put into practical service doing the jobs they were built for before they were retired by British Railways.
That brings me onto Alistair. These engines have been in his collection for I don’t know how long. He longs to see them run, with the coaches and the wagons being hauled behind. With many lines not being close or even around any more, he’s been going down to stare at them.
Please help and I should return soon
Dangersignal.”
He folded the letter in half and in a flash, the letter was sent off. He sat back and sighed, clear down to his stomach. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and standing before him was Alistair, who was looking rather annoyed. Dangersignal looked at him, with a concerned eye.
“You’d best relax before you blow a blood vessel,” he told his human companion.
“I’ll relax after I’ve gone and broken a few bones!” Alistair snorted.
“What’s crawled under your skin?” Dangersignal quizzed.
“Oh, a guy down at the bar was going on and on and on about how Beeching was right in closing branch lines and all places with branch lines are going to be unsuccessful and will close within five years of being run, allowing for cars and coaches to take over!” Alistair bellowed.
“Coaches?” Dangersignal asked. “Those need a railway engine to pull them. They’re too big for any ponies in Equestria to pull.”
“Not railway coaches,” Alistair said, calming down. “A ‘Coach’ here in England is a ‘Bus’. That’s what I meant.”
“Okay,” Dangersignal replied. “Let’s prove him wrong!’
Alistair smiled. Suddenly, Dangersignal felt something fall on his head. Alistair picked it up and looked at it.
“It’s for you,” he said to the Alicorn.
Dangersignal used his magic to open and levitate the letter. Given how quick the sigh of relief came, Alistair assumed that Dangersignal only read part of the letter.
“It’s from Princess Celestia, who’ve I worked for as a guard,” the Alicorn explained. “She says she’s coming to inspect the locomotives and rolling stock with a couple of railway inspectors to see the engines. If we can get at least four more humans together, then we have a railway team, and we can hire as need be.”
“Leave it to me,” Alistair said.
He left a very confused Dangersignal. Forty minutes later, he came back, smiling.
“I talked with some old friends and they’ve agreed to meet us at Blandford Forum, and then come with us to the sheds,” he told the Alicorn.
“Oh, Celestia said that she’d also meet us at the station. I forgot to mention it in all my excitement,” Dangersignal said to Alistair.
Alistair smiled and together, the two made their way to the closed station. Standing on the platform was several humans ,a white Alicorn Princess and two unicorns
The two unicorns wore a blue suit piece, tie and had glasses. Both had dark blue coats and manes, with dark blue eyes that could easily turn any lemon into a pessimist.
“These are Ganger and Survey,” Celestia said. “Our chief inspectors.”
“Ah,” Dangersignal and Alistair said, then turned to the group of humans.
The humans-four boys were all about Alistair’s age.
One had pale skin, tidy black hair, black eyes and wore a dark green shirt with black trousers and worn out running shoes.
The second had tidy red hair, blue eyes, dark tan skin, wore a red shirt, blue trousers and white shoes.
The third wore a dark blue shirt, khaki trousers and worn out shoes. He had bright red eyes (something that was rather unheard of, except in Ponyville, and it was even rare over there); long, trimmed platinum blond hair and he had cream colored skin.
The last had the same cream colored skin, red eyes, but had dark brown hair, wore a sea green shirt, white with dark streaked trousers and oil stained shoes.
“Friends of yours?” Dangersignal asked.
“Yes,” Alistair said. “Names are Franklyn, Jordon, Tobias, and Thompson.”
“Ah,” Dangersignal said.
Just then, there came a panting from behind some bushes. A moment later; a boy, older than the other boys by a couple of years, with light colored skin, green eyes, clean trimmed brunette hair. He wore a t-shirt with dragon printing on it, dark blue cargo trousers and oil stained shoes.
“Jaisson, you’re late!” Alistair hissed.
“Sorry,” came the reply. “I was held up by some dumb cluck who thought I had money for booze.”
“No need to hassle anyone,” Celestia said.
Soon, everyone was walking along the path, which Dangersignal explained to Celestia, Ganger and Survey as a closed branch line under the Beeching Axe. Celestia looked around at the weeds growing and the over reaching blackberry bushes. It was a surprise to see her look so down.
“What gets me,” Alistair sighed. “Is imagining this line before the closure. What a place it was! My great great granddad ran trains along this line with his cousin. Eventually, the line fell victim to Beeching’s cuts, as there was ‘no need for a useless market station’ and everyone had to change four times to get to market.”
“Change?” Survey asked.
“Aye, Change trains,” Jaisson said, interrupting the others’ thoughts. “Most branch lines serviced towns and once a week, there’d be a market in one town along that branch line. All passengers that lived along the branch line would go on the train to that market and come back with groceries for the week or two.”
“Ah,” Ganger said.
“Also, branch lines serviced harbours, quarries, mines, dairies, steel mills, factories, scrap yards, and on rare occasions, other branch lines,” Tobias put in.
“Really?” Celestia asked.
The five humans explained as they lead the group to the sheds, where the engines were stored. When they arrived, the humans opened the doors and showed them the locomotives, wagons, coaches and brake-vans. The two inspectors were very impressed indeed.
“I think that we can safely say that we’ll give you the contract to run trains, if you lot can handle the work of upgrading the network,” Survey said.
“Leave it to us,” Alistair said. “We know loads of people who’d like to help run a railway, but never have the chance.”
“That’s settled then!” Ganger said.
“I agree,” Celestia said.
“It’ll take time for us to arrange for our friends to help us,” Alistair
“It’ll also take time to get boats to carry the locomotives, coaches, wagons and brake-vans to Equestria,” Survey said.
“That’ll be no problem,” Celestia said. “I do want Dangersignal to stay behind and help with the loading of the boats. After all, he‘ll be needed to help explain how Equestria works. The reason for this is that you all don‘t know how things in Equestria work and I‘d like it if you were filled in.”
“Yes, your highness,” Dangersignal said, bowing.
Celestia and the two unicorn inspectors teleported away, leaving the five humans and dark red Alicorn behind.
“Let’s play ball,” Alistair said.