Thomas and Friends: The Retold Adventures

by The Blue EM2

Break Van

Sir Toppham Hatt spoke severely to Donald, Douglas, Lyra, and Bon-Bon. "I do not appreciate being tricked!" he snapped. "You appear to think me stupid, whereas that is not the case. If this sort of behaviour continues here, I shall sent all four of you back to Scotland."

"Ye wouldn't now, would ye?" Donald asked, shocked. "If ye sent us back now, they'll scrap us!"

Sir Toppham Hatt sighed. "I expect the very best of behaviour from the lot of you. If you do behave, I might keep all of you. So behave, or else!" And he walked away, still fuming.

Lyra looked over to Bon-Bon. "Yikes. Do you think he meant it?"

Bon-Bon looked back, looking equally worried. "I don't think he realises how bad things are on the mainland. But we'd better behave our best, or we'll be back there before you can say smile!"

"SMILE!" Pinkie shouted, appearing from nowhere.

"Who are you?" Douglas asked, surprised. But just as suddenly, there was no sign of Pinkie at all. But Pinkie's ability to defy the basic laws of physics would rapidly prove to be the least of their worries for the next few days.

There was a brakevan in the yard who thoroughly disliked the Scottish twins, and their drivers. Whether this was to do with pre-grouping rivalries was unclear, as he had been built by the North Eastern Railway, whereas Donald and Douglas were Caledonian Railway engines. Things constantly went wrong when either of the pair had to take that brakevan out. The trains ran late, the trucks constantly ran hot boxes, and the engines (and their drivers) were always blamed for it. Eventually, Donald had enough of the brakevan, and steamed right over to him one day.

"Yer a muckle nuisance!" he thundered, his eyes locked in an angry glare and his mouth in a frown. "It's ta leave you behind I'd be wantin'!"

The brakevan rolled his eyes. "Oh, you Scottish engines are such fools. You can't leave me behind; most of those trucks in the yard aren't even fitted with brakes. Without me, you wouldn't have enough braking power to stop. I'm essential."

Donald laughed. "Och, are ya?" he said rhetorically. "Yer nothin' but a screechin' and a noisy when all's said and done!" He backed up. "Ye'd spite Douggie, would ya? Take that!" Suddenly, he charged forward, and sent the brakevan flying down the track. "There's more comin' should ya misbehave!"

"Ow!" the brakevan shouted. "Not only are you foolish, you are violent as well? What sort of a world is this?"

Lyra looked at him with a frown. "Let that be a lesson to you," she said sternly. "Or else you'll have to deal with me."

Safe to say, the van behaved himself after that. But one day, things went terribly wrong. It had been raining earlier that morning, and the rails were slippery. Donald was backing up into a siding that sat next to a signal box, but Lyra misjudged the braking distance. Donald slid helplessly along the rails.

"Jump, Lyra!" he shouted. "Jump!" The girl leapt from the footplate as Donald's tender crashed into the signal box, taking out most of the wall in the process, not to mention trashing the buffers and damaging the track.

The signalman looked out. "First engines come flying off of curves near the yard, and now they demolish my signal box? This is ridiculous!"

Sir Toppham Hatt was also cross. "I am very dissapointed in the two of you," he said, shaking his head in that way a cross parent does, "and did not expect such clumsiness from the pair of you. I had been planning to send Douglas and Sweetie Drops-"

"BON-BON!" Lyra shouted. "HER NAME IS BON-BON! WHY CAN NOBODY ON THIS ISLAND GET IT RIGHT?"

"I had been planning to send Douglas and Bon-Bon back," Sir Toppham Hatt continued, "and keep you. But as you have crashed, that has changed. You have upset my arrangements, and now James will have to do the goods work instead of you. He won't like that one bit."

"Sorry, sir," Donald sighed.

"So you should be," Sir Toppham Hatt said. "Not only that, I have a signal box to fix."

Sir Toppham Hatt was right. James grumbled dreadfully the whole way, steam and smoke snorting into the air as he ran along the line. "Why do we always end up getting the dirty trucks?" he complained to Rarity as he backed up into the siding.

"Anyone would think," Douglas joked, "that Donald had his accident on purpose, to spite ye! I heard tell about some tar wagons and a red engine once!"

James looked furious. "Shut up!" he snapped. "It's not funny!"

"Indeed!" said Rarity. "I had to spend several weeks in hospital as a result of that crash."

Douglas completely failed to take the hint. "Wheel, wheel, wheel, surely then it widnae you. Ye didnae say!"

"What?" said James, as he puffed away. "I hope that wasn't crucial information, as I didn't understand a word!"

Bon-Bon sighed. "Real smooth Douglas, real smooth," she said.

To say James was cross was an understatement, and the brakevan (who was the evil one we met earlier) noticed this. "He's in a foul mood!" he laughed. "Let's make him crosser still! Hold back, lads!"

The trucks made James' work very difficult, and he was exhausted when he reached Wellsworth. Luckily, Douglas was there, acting as a temporary banker as Edward was busy on his branchline. "Help... me... up... the... hill... please!" James gasped. "These trucks are playing tricks!"

"It is getting most annoying," Rarity sighed. "So, if you would help us Bon-Bon-"

"Yes!" Bon-Bon cried. "Somebody finally got my name right!"

"So, if you would help us Bon-Bon," Rarity continued, "I'll make you a new outfit free of charge. How does that sound?"

"Right away!" Bon-Bon called. "Let's go, Douglas!"

"Ay!" Douglas called. "We'll show them!" Momentarily, he was coupled to the back of the train, and the formation set off up Gordon's hill. They climbed slowly, but James was already having problems. His cylinder cocks were leaking, and he was losing steam on the ascent.

"I can't do it! I can't do it! !" James called.

"Lay it tae me!" Douglas shouted back. Douglas' wheels continued to spin, and then began to freewheel out of control.

"CUT THE REGULATOR!" the guard shouted. "THE VAN'S BREAKING APART!"

"I CAN'T!" Bon-Bon shouted. "THE BOILER HAS PRIMED, AND THE REGULATOR'S JAMMED!"

The guard jumped free just in time, as the brakevan's frames buckled, and wood blew everywhere as metal and wheels bounced down the hillside. Douglas looked around in surprise. "What just happened?" he asked. Luckily, nobody was hurt, but Edward, having finished his duties on the branchline, brought a crane to help clean the mess.

"What is it with these two and braking things?" he asked. "You could say Douglas was pushing a... break van?" Everybody groaned at the awful pun.

"If I may sir," Edward said, "Douglas was doing a fine job. But as a pre-grouping engine, he has a parallel boiler, and this causes water to slosh about his boiler. This means his regulator got stuck at the worst possible time. But he did enough work for three engines. I heard him down on the branchline."

"Ah don't know Eddie," Applejack added. "This is an almighty mess here."

"Agreed," Sir Toppham Hatt said. "I want to be fair to the two of you, but... I don't know. I really don't know."

Author's Note:

This story was chosen as the one with which to introduce Donald and Douglas to the TV viewers, being combined with elements of 'Hullo Twins!' in the process. This chapter has been created by combining aspects of both the book and TV versions of the story.

Comments

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

Well, regardless of how they introduced Donald and Douglas, I prefer the way they're introduced in the book by far.

And I have to say, that I'm still annoyed neither Sir Topham Hatt and the Signalman took no accord about the rails being slippery. So, it's not entirely Donald's fault.

But, your adaptation of this story does give some better understanding of why Douglas didn't cut off the power before destroying Spiteful there.

[The Blue EM2]

10108643
Precisely. Because he physically couldn't.

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

10108644
But if anything, I'm still confused about what became of the Spiteful Brakevan after being crushed.

And I admit, I understand Sir Topham Hatt is trying to keep things in order here and there, but sometimes I think he's being a bit unreasonable.

[The Blue EM2]

10108646
How would you feel after two of your own engines tried to trick you?

The brakevan was probably reassembled. Scruffey was rebuilt after being torn to shreds, after all.

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

10108650
I'd be annoyed with it too.

But didn't they both die (or more appropriately, scrapped) in the book versions? Or were we just made to believe that?

[The Blue EM2]

10108653
Sent for breaking up. They could have been privately preserved or reassembled. On the Nene Valley Railway, somebody rebuilt a brake van body in their garden, leading to it being nicknamed 'the flatpack'.

1.bp.blogspot.com/-EalIWHIn3wA/Tlyvp7sLvYI/AAAAAAAABDU/5rjdh1BevUk/s1600/NVR%2B110826%2B026.jpg

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

10108657
Wow! And in their garden? I could never do anything like that I may have taken a carpentry class in high school but I never worked with metals or welding gear before.

[The Blue EM2]

10108662
Just the wooden body. Though it helped he was a carpenter for his day job.

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

10108663
Once again, I am very impressed!

[The Blue EM2]

10108789
At my local preserved line, a team built a working diesel brake tender.

[Wessexbrony]

10108653
We're told that Scruffey was already in decrepit condition.

[The Blue EM2]

10108906
Like a lot of Private Owner's wagons.

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

10108802
Wow!

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

10108906
I know that.

[The Blue EM2]

10109166
Works like a dream, too.

[kristonalprime23]

to quote George Carlin "sir toppham hat was still making up his mind on which engine he was going to send back but thats another story."

[The Blue EM2]

10109202
Yes.

[JimmyHook19]

Lyra looked at him with a frown. "Let that be a lesson to you," she said sternly. "Or else you'll have to deal with me."

Oh Ho-Ho-Ho!!! Lyra being a Badass!

[The Blue EM2]

10109476
Crash.

[MLPThomasfan]

"Anyone would think," Douglas joked, "that Donald had his accident on purpose..."

I like to think Donald did have his accident on purpose, if this other quote is anything to go by:

"I had been planning to send Douglas back and keep you. You have upset my arrangements."

He wouldn't want Douglas to be scrapped, and he got him smuggled to Sodor in the first place. So, it's entirely possible.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Sir Toppham Hatt was also cross. "I am very dissapointed in the two of you," he said, shaking his head in that way a cross parent does, "and did not expect such clumsiness from the pair of you. I had been planning to send Douglas and Sweetie Drops-"

I still those two innocent, slippery rails were the cause of this, not them.

"What is it with these two and braking things?" he asked. "You could say Douglas was pushing a... break van?" Everybody groaned at the awful pun.

Not good timing sir.