Leaves
One day, Thomas was being cleaned whilst Gordon was receiving a thorough wash from yesterday’s mishap. Mud was all over Gordon’s frames and boiler, and Rainbow Dash was washing it off with a high-pressure hose.
“Hello Gordon!” called Thomas. “You look as if you’ve had a mudbath!”
“What happened Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, concerned.
Rainbow Dash looked back. “I’m totally cool with you calling me Dash, Twi,” she replied. “Gordon here fell in a ditch yesterday, and I still need to clean all the mess off from yesterday.”
“Good thing you’re having a shower at the moment!” Thomas called.
“I need to look presentable in order to be used on the railway-mind my eye!” Gordon shut his eyes as the hose washed his face and the water trickled down both his frames and bufferbeam, dribbling onto his bogies as it did so.
“I can’t clean you if you don’t keep your eyes shut!” Rainbow Dash said. Eventually, they got the worst of it off, but there was still some mud on the boiler, which they had no time to remove.
Later that day, Gordon was run to the yard where Sir Toppham Hatt was waiting.
“I,” he said, “do not trust you with a passenger train at the moment. Your behaviour yesterday was simply disgraceful, and although you have apologised, you shall remain here shunting trucks for a while, until I can trust you again.” He walked away, with a visible scowl on his face.
He wasn’t the only one. “Really?” said Gordon. “He has two tank engines, and he uses a Pacific to shunt the trucks? Me, the only A0 ever built, and the blueprint for all my cousins to follow, like Mallard and Tornado!”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Oh well. It may be like cracking walnuts with a sledgehammer, but it’s what we gotta do.” She eased off the brakes, and backed Gordon up into the yard.
Later, whilst Gordon was taking a break, James and Rarity came by. Rainbow Dash was trying to get some more mud off Gordon, with minimal success.
“Hello Gordon!” called Rarity. “Whatever happened? Did somebody throw mud at you?” she then addressed Rainbow Dash. “I say, that must be frightfully messy, Darling.”
“It may be messy,” Rainbow Dash replied, “but it’s part and parcel of routine maintenance, and as such it must be done. I just drew the short straw today.”
James began to laugh as Rainbow Dash walked around the other side. “Just imagine that!” he said. “You, Gordon, the big blue engine, getting his paint muddy! Or falling in a ditch! It doesn’t bare thinking, and would never happen to me!”
Rarity paled. She still remembered the big accident when James crashed into the tar wagons, and it had left her in hospital for a while. It was not a pleasant thing to think about.
Gordon, on the other hand, seemed to get enraged. “You crashed into those tankers!” he boomed. “And you are getting a cheap laugh out of my predicament!”
And just then, he let off steam. Mud flew through the air, and splattered all over James. It didn’t just land on James. It landed on Rarity too, making an absolute mess of her clothes.
“Oh, this is horrible!” Rarity said, horrified. “I made these myself! How in the world will I get them clean in time?”
“You could have a wash down,” Rainbow Dash suggested, with a playful smile.
James simply looked furious. “You will pay for this, Gordon!” he snapped, as he blasted away.
“Good riddance,” Gordon replied, when James was firmly out of earshot. “I was tiring of his endless prattle anyway.”
Soon, Gordon got back to work shunting the trucks around the yard, bumping them hard. “That’s for you!” he shouted, as the trucks slammed together and rolled through the yard. “And you! And you!”
Soon enough, James came by again, considerably cleaner. “Trucks will be trucks!” he laughed.
“You’d know all about that, wouldn't you?” Gordon asked him. “Besides, these trucks will behave themselves when the yard is mine. I’ll teach them.” A moment later, he slammed into them and resumed work.
Rarity sighed. “Oh well. We have a passenger train to pull, so we had better go and do that instead of watch Gordon and Rainbow Dash make fools of themselves.”
James rolled past with the express a few hours later, and stopped at the station next to the yard where Gordon was working.
“Hey,” Rainbow Dash called over to them, “you may wanna be careful. The hill is steep and covered in leaves.”
“That will make it very slippery, and you may get stuck,” Gordon added.
James smiled. “You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” And he rolled away before Gordon had a chance to answer.
The big engine fumed. “Why, that little piece of-”
“Language!” Rainbow Dash told him. “Besides, if they make fools of themselves, it’s hardly our problem. C’mon, back to work!”
Earlier that day, a storm had swept over Gordon’s hill, and the rails were covered in leaves. They were wet, and sticky, and as a result it would be very difficult for an engine to get grip on the rails.
The storm had cleared, but the hill was still dangerous. James knew this, and began to speed up as soon as he could. He hit the hill going quite fast, but as he struggled up his wheels began to slip.
“I’ll do it! I’ll do it!” he cried. But he couldn’t. “I must do it! I MUST do it!”
His wheels simply span faster and faster, and no matter how much Rarity adjusted the cutoff or regulator, his wheels simply span more and more until he ground to a screeching halt on the hill.
Then, he began to slide backwards. Smoke and steam shot into the air as his wheels revolved at speeds of well over 50 miles an hour.
“Help! Help!” he cried. Rarity shut off steam, moved the reverser backward, and then applied power, backing James gently down the track and to the signal at the bottom of the hill.
Gordon was waiting at the bottom, and had seen everything. “What was that about not getting stuck?” he asked.
Rarity looked out of the cab. “Rainbow Dash,” she said. “That climb is simply monstrous. It’s the steepest I’ve ever known!”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Please, you think that’s bad? I once got a train up Bincombe Tunnel with no wheelslip, and that is a steep grade!”
Gordon smiled once more. “Never mind, I’ll push you up the hill.”
It was a spectacular sight to see, these two engines battling it out with the gradient. Smoke and steam roared into the air as the train made its way up the hill.
“We can do it!” called James.
“We will do it,” Gordon replied.
At last, they reached the top, and James rolled over the top. “Thank you!” called Rarity.
“Goodbye, and no problem!” Rainbow Dash called back.
Gordon simply smiled, and then returned back down the hill to resume his shunting.
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I'd almost forgotten about this episode.
10060644
They didn't adapt it until Season 3, which didn't help.
10060644
10060678
I know. Why they adapted stuff out of order is a mystery, especially when it led to some episodes becoming nonsensical.
10062233
Heh. Man, his brother is so..... buffoonish though.
10062235
Heaven knows how he got his Knighthood...
10062257
Ah well ^^'
10062258
Their loss.
You know, I always wonder how they were able to get James cleaned that quickly.....
Yeah, I often prefer calling her Dash too.
Drew the short straw?
What you did was still wrong!
I'm surprised James never tried using some sand to help grip the rails underneath him.
While this wasn't the stop I expected to see come next, I liked your adaptation of it.