Runaway Engines

by The Blue EM2

Rumble's Great Adventure

Rumble is almost universally employed on the log trains. One morning, he was shunting the yard of trucks when Ocellus arrived to give him a message.

“We have our passenger engines out of action today. We need you to pull a passenger train whilst we get them back into action.”

“Will I be any good?” he asked.

“Sandbar will assist you.” Ocellus put her hand on his footplate. “I know you can do it, Rumble.”

Rumble backed into the platform, rolling onto the coaches with a bump. He wasn’t used to having coaches, or any railway vehiles for that matter, coupled to his rear coupling.

“I’d feel happier pushing these coaches,” he admitted.

“You ready?” called Sandbar, from the back of the train.

“Let’s do this!” Rumble exclaimed.

With a rattle and a roar, and with his cylinders flying round and round, Rumble pulled out of the station with Sandbar contributing a din at the rear.

Due to the fact he was built for power, not speed, Rumble rolled along at about 14mph. The passengers were annoyed at the slow progress, until the guard reminded them that the alternative was walking.

At the lakeside station, Rumble came to a stop. It was then Pip came into the platform with a load of logs.

“Enjoying yourself Rumble?” he asked.

“I prefer the old line,” he admitted. “Besides, last time I came down here was out of control in reverse!”

“I thought we agreed not to bring that up!” Pip said.

Just then, the logging line whistle went.

Due to being used to that being his whistle, Rumble immediately set off. But Pip began setting off as well. Sandbar pulled as hard as he could, but Rumble was more powerful, and so dragged the train up the hill.

Rather unfortunately, he left the passengers on the platform!

Sandbar shouted up the train as best he could. “You’ve left your passengers! You’ve left your passengers!” But Rumble, being so loud, couldn’t hear a word he was saying!

He pulled into the Top Station. Button Mash was there waiting for him. “Hello!” he said. “I don’t often see you up here Rumble.”

“I’m pulling a passenger train.”

Button looked confused. “Where are your passengers?” he asked.

“We left them behind!” Sandbar shouted.

Rumble looked very embarrassed. “We’d better go back and get them!” he cried.

Down at the lakeside station, the passengers were all complaining what a bad railway it was. Then they saw the train pull into the station. They saw how sorry Rumble looked, and immediately forgot to be angry. But this time, he did it properly, and the rest of the run went without any major difficulty.

But for weeks afterword, Rumble was referred to as ‘the engine who pulled a passenger train, but forgot about the passengers’!