Mike's Whistle
Bert and Rex of the Arlesdale railway are normally employed on passenger workings on the line, taking holidaymakers and tourists up into the hills and back again through verdant forests. And then, there's Mike. He favours pulling trucks over passengers, and can sometimes be in a bit of a bad mood.
And he was one morning as Thomas rolled in with some ballast trucks to collect ballast that had been freshly brought down from the quarry. Thomas, however, was the image of merriment, chortling like a traction engine. It was a good thing that Trevor was nowhere to be seen, or else everybody would get extremely confused.
"What's so funny?" asked Rex, looking surprised and not getting the joke.
"It's Duck!" Thomas snorted through his laughter. "His whistle's gone all weird, and we don't know why!"
A strange rasping sound could be heard in the distance as Duck rolled to a stop in the platform with his coaches. "Hello," he said sadly.
"What happened to your whistle?" Pip asked, looking at the big green tank engine with concern.
"Apple Bloom overslept, so she tried cooking her breakfast on a shovel in my firebox," Duck explained. "The only problem is, she knocked the blower by mistake which sucked egg and bacon into the firebox and somehow it had clogged the release valves for the whistle."
"Now his whistle sounds like a stuck valve!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, and pulled the whistle to demonstrate.
"A whistle is a valve, if you think about it," Twilight pointed out.
"Well, at least Ah know not ta try that again," the girl sighed. "Ah wouldn't reccomend cookin' breakfast on a shovel." Duck pulled away with his train, bubbling and rasping as he rolled away.
"What was that horrible sound?" Mike asked grumpily, as he was turned on the turntable. "It's shocking, frankly, and makes us look slapdash and unprofessional!"
"Really?" asked Thomas. "Because I'm going to whistle like that to everybody I meet!" And he blew a big raspberry as he puffed off.
Twist rolled her eyes. "For a really utheful engine, he can be tho immature."
"If an engine can't whistle properly," Mike continued, "they shouldn't whistle at all."
"Then why do you?" asked Bert, as he rolled to a stop.
"I was talking about Duck," Mike said, rolling his eyes. "Unlike him, with that high pitched shrieking, I have a Stanier hooter!" He sounded it, to demonstrate his point, and puffed off into the yard.
Featherweight looked over in confusion. "How is he moving by himself with no driver?"
Then he saw Twist running after Mike.
"There's your answer," Pip shrugged. "The brake was left off."
Once they had got Mike back into the yard, Rex spoke to him. "If I were you, I'd lose your whistle and get a nice Gresley chime whistle instead, like the ones they use at Romney!"
Mike's face went red, so angry was he, and his safety valve blew off to release the excess steam.
"Is Mike overheating again?" asked Mr Duncan, who had heard the commotion. Mr Fergus Duncan was often nicknamed the Small Controller, as he oversaw the Arlesdale Railway. Despite his name, his was actually taller than Sir Toppham Hatt and Mr Percival. "I clearly need to reduce the amount of exertion you do. Passengers it is, then."
Mike rolled his eyes. "Really, sir? The safety valve was doing exactly what it was meant to do, and I prefer trucks to coaches."
"I won't take risks," Mr Duncan replied. "Bert shall take the goods train, and you shall haul passengers. Twist, ensure that Mike's safety valve stays in order."
"Yeth thir!" Twist replied enthusiastically. She and Mike set off as another member of railway staff smiled.
"Good to see railways taking disability employment quotas seriously," he said.
Mike was still fuming when he pulled into the platform at Arlesburgh West to a crowd of people. "Look mummy!" a boy called. "A toy train!"
"Oh, isn't he sweet!" said his mum. "Just like the ones you have on your trainset."
"I'm a lot bigger than that, you know!" Mike snapped. "I weight several tons, and am not a toy."
The boy was noticably subdued, and got into the carriage without saying another word.
Twist shook her head. "Behave Mike! Honethtly, he'th worth than ever today."
Mike shot out of the platform and round a bend, nearly crashing into Rex in the process, and flew down the line through the groves and under trees. Along the way, birds were singing and flowers were blooming. And Mike hated every second of it. "They mock my whistle!" he exclaimed, and blasted it loudly as he steamed along. Along the line are boards with the letter 'W', which is black on a white background. This is a sign telling engine crews to whistle as they run along the line. Unfortunately, Mike was so angry he was blowing his whistle at everything to relieve his frustration. At the other end, Twist checked him over to see if anything was wrong.
"What'th your problem?" she asked. "What ith wrong today?"
"There's nothing wrong apart from this passenger train!" Mike snapped. "And don't even think about cooking an egg in my firebox on a shovel!"
Twist laughed. "Were you getting worked up over that?" she said. "Don't you worry, I won't!"
On the return trip, there was a strange rattling sound coming from Mike. "I think thomething's loothe!" Twist said, looking around in alarm.
"I can't feel anything," Mike said, as they rolled along. "Whatever it is, we can fix it when we get back to the shed."
Unfortunately, there was a cow standing on the line, staring at Mike. It moo'ed noisily at him, and Mike rolled his eyes.
"Get out of the way, you stupid animal!" Mike shouted, and began whistling loudly at the animal.
"Give him time!" Twist shouted. "Be pathient!"
Mike was paying her absolutely no notice, and kept merrily blasting away on his whistle. "Get out of my way, or I'll ram you!"
Unfortunately, the whistling was too much. There was a loud bang as the valve went, and the cap flew high into the air and landed in a nearby field.
"Err, this prethents a problem," Twist said simply. "The whithle cap wath loothe!"
Mike was both upset and furious, and simply bellowed at the cow for several minutes whilst Twist went and looked for the whistle cap. But she couldn't find it, and the passengers were angry.
"Can we get a move on?" shouted the woman from earlier. "This railway is very bad, and I want to speak to the manager!"
"I will miss my connection at this rate!" another passenger bellowed. "What's so important about this whistle anyway?"
Mike rolled his eyes. "This is why I hate taking passengers," he said. "You can't bump them to make them shut up. And to answer your question sir, the whistle is very important. Without it, we cannot warn people we are coming!"
Twist had come back over, and upon hearing Mike's words, had a brainwave. "We can't find the whithtle cap," she said. "But I have an idea. Do any of you have thell thones?"
"I've never heard of a thell thone," said the boy. "You don't talk proper."
"Richard!" his mother scolded him. "Yes, we do have cell phones. Why do you ask?"
"At whithtle boards, you can play a recording of a thteam whithtle on YouTube!" Twist exclaimed. "That way, people will know we're coming!"
So, off they went down the line, and whenever they passed a whistle board, the passengers played a recording of a steam whistle, which annoyed Mike to no end as they produced more noise than he ever could.
Duck looked over, cross, as Mike rolled into the station very late indeed. "Traffic jam?" he asked.
"No," Mike sighed. "There was a cow on the line, and it wouldn't move."
"Then the whithtle valve went mithing, and we couldn't find it!" Twist added. "The pathengers did a good job, though."
The passengers were indeed very merry, and got off the train having had a good time. "First drinks on me, lads!" shouted one of the men as they raced down the platform.
"I know what whistle problems are like," Duck sighed. "At least Apple Bloom got mine working again!" And he whistled as he puffed away, as Thomas rolled in with some more trucks.
"What happened to Mike?" asked Thomas.
"Take no note of him," Rex replied. "He has no whistle."
"And as we know, that makes an engine improper," Bert added.
"And if an engine cannot whistle properly," Pip grinned.
"THEY SHOULDN'T DO IT AT ALL!" the two engines and boys chorused.
"All he had to say to it was 'mooooove' over!" Bert laughed.
Mike just rolled his eyes and laughed. "Oh well," he said. "Better no whistle than a farting whistle."
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I had objections to the Season 20 adaptation. With Duck's whistle being out of order he shouldn't have been allowed to work. I know I sound rather like Dai Station, but it's against regulations. At least in Faulty Whistles Peter Sam was kept in the shed until a new whistle could be fitted.
Is it just me or does Sodor appear to be the irony god's favourite hangout?
With all three of the stories in that script I showed you yesterday, I just cut Thomas altogether.
10151221
I know you as well. You were the guy who kept in insisting Chrysalis should be reformed but she can't.
10151367
Another piece of evidence in the case that Mattel has no idea what it's doing...
10151368
It sure seems to be.
10151369
Thomas is often snuck into a story by stealth, because he's a creator's pet.
10151373
Indeed Jimmy is. And yes, reforming Chrysalis would undermine the point of the character.
10151884
I know, but he doesn't need to be, so I just gave his role to other characters on the Little Western.
Agreed.
10151892
There's a pair of sequels in the works, so I'll play it down in future.
10151898
A pair of sequels?
10151912
Yes. There's more stories to tell, after all.
10151926
Of course. After tomorrow, it's Enterprising Engines and Oliver the Western Engine. And Oliver's backstory is epic! I absolutely love it.
10151936
As do I.
10151948
One thing I think is highly overlooked is that Oliver's escape brings Douglas' character full circle. He went from being saved by his twin, to saving someone else.
10151953
That it did.
10151982
I wish we saw interaction between Oliver and Douglas after that
10151990
Well...
10151994
I see... ;)
10152018
You do indeed.
Well, Richard does have a point sometimes: It can be hard to read lines for of characters that speak with a lisp..... ^^;
10151373
-sigh- It's just.... I don't like Chrysalis being the only Evil Changeling left. It just ain't right for her. ;-;
10152841
But it's rude to make fun of them. Twist is a positive portrayal of such a character; it isn't her sole defining aspect.
10152869
Gotcha..... ^^'
Anywho.... :P
10152875
About Chryssy? Technically, there are no evil Changelings anymore. A being in suspended animation can be neither good nor bad.
10152891
I meant the chapter. ^^;
10152893
Ah! Yes, this was a fun one indeed.
10152895
Yep =3
Interesting of how you had the passengers use their cell phones for of the steam whistles as opposed to the Season 20 episode adaption where the passengers made their own noise instead :3
And speaking of said Season 20 episode adaption, I still love that part how the old man passenger looses his teeth but then the passenger near him with a hat caught it in his hat. That part was pretty funny though! XD
10152901
Part of this process of adaptation was updating the stories to contemporary times, whereas the original book takes place in 1966 or thereabouts.
10152909
Gotcha ^^
10152916
See NWRAlicorn's comment back on James and the Express.
Huh, and I thought only Nevada Northern would do that.
Try telling that to Nevada Northern in the US.
Imo, cross bucks would be much better than a sign with a big w on it.
Apart of myself often wonders why we had this made if we got faulty whistles for season 6.
Because it's to warn anybody who gets near the tracks so they don't get hit and possibly get hurt or killed! Not to mention there's hundreds of people who don't wait at crossings and get hurt or killed. So yeah, that's why whistles are important!