That's no Coaster!
“OK, bring it back,” Sunset radioed. 611 began to back up towards the waiting boxcars.
“How far, over?”
“5 cars, you’re good!”
611 rolled to a stop, neatly colliding with the knuckle-eye without so much as a judder. Sunset stepped forward to tie on the brakes and set the pin.
Who should show up, but the daemon, floating over her.
“Look at you, unable to do a job properly!” she laughed. “Honestly, I pity you, the charity case you are.”
“I am not a charity case!” Sunset replied.
“Oh, but you are,” it replied. “Think about it; why didn’t they hang out with you beforehand? They only did it because Princess Twilight told them to!”
“That’s not true!”
“It is. Remember the number of ‘no offense’ jokes they constantly made-at YOUR expense, may I point out?”
“But I defeated the Sirens!” Sunset exclaimed. “They couldn’t have stopped them alone!”
“You were only needed to sing 4 lines of verse. What a pity, you are worthy of so much more.”
A loud buzzing sounded through the air. “Oh, looks like I’ve got to go,” the daemon laughed. “Tic-toc, Sunset!”
Sunset answered her radio. “Yeah?”
“What is taking so long? Are the couplers engaged?”
“Yes, they are,” Sunset replied.
“Good. Now stop talking to thin air and get up here, we’ve got work to do. MOVE!”
Sunset climbed aboard the engine, worried. Now that Lightning had seen it, she would surely start questioning her sanity.
Once she was aboard, Lighting grabbed the in-cab radio. “Control, this is 611, we are ready to depart, over.”
“This is Cloudsdale Control, you are cleared to depart, over.”
The signal switched to green, and 611 pulled away down the hill.
Meanwhile, Discord was waiting at Castaic Junction loop, passing the time by playing an organ. How he had this organ on him was a mystery, as he couldn’t fit such a thing on a bike.
He waited. And waited. AND WAITED. And still the train hadn’t passed him.
“Where is that train?” he thought.
Just then, in the distance, the Class 77 roared into view. The 77 was similar to the 76, but it was a lot larger, and as a consequence, could run a lot faster. It rolled to a stop just in front of him, and Upper Crust and Gilda hopped out.
“Where's the train?” asked Upper Crust.
“I don’t know!” Discord replied.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Gilda answered.
“Do I look like I have a train in my back pocket?” Discord shot back.
“Well, where did you get that organ from?”
Crust sighed. “Gilda, that’s just Discord.”
The man shook his head. “Why am I not surprised it’s you two who are responsible for this mess?”
“I got jumped!” Gilda protested.
Discord dialled a number on his phone. “Wind Rider?”
“Yes, Discord?”
“I’m at Castaic Junction now, but there’s absolutely no sign of the train. The 77 has just arrived, and Gilda and Upper Crust haven’t seen it either.”
There was a pause. "That engine can’t be a coaster then.”
“No,” Discord replied. “At first I thought it might be going slower than I thought, but if they haven’t seen it that can’t be the case.”
“Then it has to be under power.”
“I fear that may well be the case.”
There was another pause. "Go onto speaker, I want to speak to Gilda.”
Discord hit another button, and held the phone forward. “He wants to speak to you, nincompoop.”
“Yeah?” Gilda said.
“What power setting was the loco set to when you were jumped?”
“Power was set to...R5.”
“That can't be right. Maybe your friends adjusted the switches.”
“Wait!” Gilda interrupted. “My face was slammed into the control panel, then as I fell out, I knocked the Combination Lever.”
“To what position was the Combination Lever set?” When Gilda initially didn’t answer, Wind Rider asked again. "What position? Answer me, damnit!”
“Parallel.” Gilda stopped and her mouth hung open in shock at the implication of this. “And the motors began to whine as the train moved out of the yard. Which means it’s set to W.F.4, maximum power...with 4 engines and 30 cars!”
“Get back in the 77 and get after it.”
The two girls climbed back in the engine, sounded the horn, and pulled away, the 77 racing off into the distance.
“Discord, you still there?”
“I hear you, boss.”
“I want you to trail the train from the Interstate. The two will run parallel until the railroad hits the Gauntlet.”
“I’m already on my way.” Discord remounted his bike, swung it around and set off onto the road once again.
Meanwhile, Wind Rider was trying to contact HQ. He had the company phone to his ear and was dialling Swift Order at the same time.
“Can you put me in contact with the Director?”
There was no response.
“Can you have him call me then?”
There was a mumble at the opposite end of the line.
“Good. I’ll hear from you then.”
He put the phone down. Just then, his mobile went.
“This is Wind Rider, yardmaster at San Fernando.”
“Good to hear from you, old friend.” Swift Order’s voice crackled at the opposite end of the line.
“Hey, we ned your help. Could you help us with locking off the railroad crossings?”
“How many? Is there a problem?”
“Yeah.” Wind Rider paused. “We have a runaway train.”
“Don’t these locos have some sort of automatic shutdown?”
“That’s true. Unfortunately, the Combination Lever was moved out of Series without being moved to Off beforehand, which means the system is disabled.”
“Do you have a plan to stop it?”
Wind Rider paused. “We’re working on it.”
Meanwhile, 611 pulled into the loop at the bottom of Cloudsdale ascent. Lightning Dust looked behind her, and frowned.
“How many cars?” she asked.
“20, why?” Sunset replied.
“Did you see the signal at the start of the loop?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Look out of the cab, and ahead. You should be able to see another signal which we’re just pulling past.”
Sunset poked her head out, and nodded. “I see it.”
“Distance between those two signals is exactly 20 cars. So, explain to me why there are still 10 cars yet to clear the rear switch?”
Sunset sighed. “I cut in too many cars.”
Lightning Dust shook her head. “Rookie mistake.”
“Well,” Sunset replied, “if you weren’t on my ass the whole time, I might be able to do my job.”
“If you weren’t talking to thin air, I wouldn’t have to be on your ass.” The girl’s biting remark hit hard.
“Well, can’t we just dump the excess 10 cars here?”
Dust laughed. “Dump them in a loop? This isn’t a trailer full of tires! Other trains need to use that loop. Just greensheet it and move on.”
Sunset was aghast. “I’d get into deep shit for that!”
“Well, it’s not as much as you’d be in for dumping boxcars in loops!” Dust was not pleased. “Besides, you’re a newbie!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“They go easy on them, whilst we older gals get canned!”
Sunset blew a fuse. “You may be the engineer, but it’s my GODDAMN TRAIN!”
She stopped as she felt a blast of pain in her chest. Dust stopped the engine, and helped her up.
“Hey, you OK?” she asked. “We’ll drop them off at the next siding and make up the lost time.”
Sunset simply nodded, and got back up, sitting in the stoker’s chair.
The radio in the cab went. "611, 611, this is Canterlot Dispatch. Do you read, over?”
Lightning unclipped the radio, and replied. “This is 611, go ahead over?”
“Where are you, over?”
“We’re currently held in a loop outside Cloudsdale, over.”
“You need to get moving, pronto. There’s an unmanned train on the line.”
Sunset gasped. “What?”
“Where is it? Is it under power?”
“It’s on the San Fernando side of the Gauntlet, and we don’t know if it is under power.”
“I need to know, over.”
“You will, but for now complete that run and get your engine into a siding. We’ve found one near Halfway.”
“Getting underway now.” The signal changed colour, and Lighting Dust sounded the whistle. 611 pulled away with a roar, and thundered into the distance.
Wind Rider addressed his team. “We need to get as much traffic off the main line as we can,” he said.
“We have a problem sir,” said one of his aides.
“Out with it!”
“76076 has just switched tracks, and is now running wrong line. Right into the path of that passenger train bound for this yard.”
Wind Rider froze. He had completely forgotten about that train. “Radio them and tell them to get the hell off the mainline.”
“On it, sir!” Spitfire replied, switching on her radio.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack were driving the passenger train down the line when suddenly the radio went.
“This is Rainbow Dash; how can I help?”
“5550, where are you, over?”
“We’re just outside Bakersville, over.”
“You have a runaway train running right into your path, get out of there, over.”
“Sorry, what?”
“You have a runaway train running wrong line into your path. We are switching you over to the northbound track. Get ready.”
“Understood, over.”
Meanwhile, inside the train, the Crusaders had all gathered together and were looking out of the window.
“Now ain’t this a pleasant way to travel!” Apple Bloom observed.
“The railroad is so handy here,” Sweetie Belle added. “It means Mom doesn’t need to drive us everywhere.”
“AND my big sister is driving,” Scootaloo added. “Such a shame Button Mash and the others couldn’t be here.”
Applejack poked her head out of the cab. Suddenly, she saw the other train approaching them, its yellow front ends clearly visible.
“Ah shit!” she yelled. “Dash, speed her up, now!”
Dash tore open the regulator, and the engine began to lumber forward, clattering over the points.
The oncoming train got closer and closer.
The locomotive and first carriage cleared the switches. The bogies rumbled and groaned as they rolled over at speeds far higher than intended.
The oncoming train got closer still, its motors now clearly audible.
The 4th and 5th carriages cleared the switches.
The oncoming train was now uncomfortably close.
“Dash, get a fucking move on! That last carriage is still blocking the points!”
At last, the last carriage cleared the switches. It slid back just in time, as the electric train roared past them.
Scootaloo looked out of the window. “I don’t think that was meant to happen.”
Apple Bloom had turned pale. “I hope that means nothin’ bad ain’t gonna happen.”
Just a few miles down the line, the Mash household were waiting at the crossing in their car. Suddenly, a news truck pulled up next to them and the reporters got out.
“Excuse me?” asked the first. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Elaina. “We’ve been held here, but there’s absolutely no sign of a train anywhere.”
Another car approached from the opposite direction, going far too fast. The driver slammed their brakes on, but it was too late. They crashed into a horsebox that skidded over the rails.
The driver jumped out, and asked if anybody was hurt.
Suddenly in the distance, a horn was heard...
...and the front end of 76076 came into view, racing towards them.
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Reminds me of a train I was on to Sheffield, and due to signaling they had to go in on the wrong platform, too short, so the traction unit had to go beyond platform end, and sit on top of the left most points, where the first carriage door wasnt near the platform and the second one was on the platform end but the signalling frame obscured the top quarter of the door opening. Just missed slicing my head as the frame edge went through my hair.
At least it hasnt hit any manual level crossings yet. Those things are intresting to the average person who cant be bothered to go to and fro 5 times to follow the procedure.
9274470
That sounds rather perilous!
It’s different from the moive, that’s for sure.
9274368
Heh I sure did =3
9274600
That it is. It would be pointless to simply type out the film!
9274615
Glad to hear it.
9274636
yep =3
Great...
It sadly isn't the case Apple Bloom.
Oh no!