• Published 1st Jan 2020
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Thomas and Friends: The Retold Adventures - The Blue EM2



Picture a Land where the Sky is so Blue, a Storybook Land of Wonder...

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Useful Railway

On especially busy days, when there are more passengers going to Arlesburgh West then Duck and his coaches can cope with, Thomas is brought in to pull passengers to Arlesburgh West, who want to ride on the Arlesdale Railway. This way, Thomas can work the passenger trains whilst Duck and Apple Bloom move the Apple family produce back down the line to Tidmouth, from where it is sold at the market and boxed. Then, the empty vans are brought back (as whoever thought transporting apples in open wagons was a good idea was sacked) to repeat the process.

"Hello Bert!" Thomas called one morning, as he came to a stop in the platform. "Hello Mike!"

Mike and Bert whistled in response, as Featherweight and Twist waved to Twilight, who was waving from Thomas' cab.

"Hello Rex!" Thomas continued.

"Nice to see you Thomas!" the green mikado replied, shunting some trucks into position whilst Mike was going backwards down the ballast hopper.

"How are you, Twilight?" asked Pip, with a smile on his face.

"The sun is bright, the birds are singing, and I have so many new technical innovations to try out on the railway!" Twilight answered. "So the day is great!"

"I hope this works," Thomas grumbled as they pulled away towards Tidmouth. He liked the Arlesdale engines, as did Twilight, and the passengers liked the railway too. But they never took it very seriously, I'm sorry to say.

"Aren't they adorable!" exclaimed one woman.

"Look how small they are!" said another.

"Look dad!" a boy called over. "They are tiny!"

"Just like a toy railway!" his father replied with a smile, as he adjusted his hat.

Bert rolled his eyes. "Now I understand why you get so annoyed over this, Mike," he said.

"I know, right?" Mike replied. "We're not a toy railway, we're a useful railway. We may not be as big as some engines-"

"Bert especially," Featherweight interjected.

"HEY!"

"But," Mike continued, "we pull our weight and do lots of useful work. Never Overlook a Little Engine, that's what I say!"

"Ithn't that a thong?" Twist asked. There was a look of shock.

"She meant song," Rex quickly interjected. "Yes, I think it is. Recorded by the Rackstraw brothers, I think?"

"Keep it calm, Mike!" Pip exclaimed. "The passengers didn't mean it as an unsult. It was a mark of endearment!"

Mike wasn't convinced. He wasn't having a good day, and often lost his temper very quickly if he was in a rush. And today, he got caught when a group of sheep wandered onto the line.

"Out of the way!" he shouted at the sheep, who took no notice.

"Thould I play a whithtle recording?" Twist suggested. "That worked with the cow!"

"Oh, by Bassett-Lowke's boilerplates, this is ridiculous!" Mike cried, and blasted his whistle loudly. "What is it with you silly animals! Why won't you just move along and behave?"



Mike got home very late indeed as a result of the sheep, and spent the rest of the night grumbling to Rex and Bert. "Those sheep are nothing but a nuisance!" he said grumpily. "Why can't they just get out of the way? Some of us have work to do!"

"They may be a nuisance," Rex smiled. "But they're useful."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" Mike replied. "All they ever do is block the track!"

"Sheep are useful!" Rex exclaimed. "Farmers sheer them, which means they use a fancy razor to remove their wool. And then that wool is made into clothes, those funny things people wear instead of paint."

"Quite right, Rex!" said the voice of Mr Duncan. "The farmers have asked for help in moving the sheep wool down to market in Arlesburgh. If we do it well, we can shake off the image of being a toy railway, and become a useful railway."

"How will we get the sheep down?" Bert asked. "We can't drive sheep along the line! They won't go in a straight line! It'll be like what happened to Mike today!"

Mike growled at him but otherwise made no sound, as Rex interrupted. "Don't be silly Bert! We don't drive the sheep. As Mr Duncan just explained, we take the wool down in trucks to the market! It'll be easy!"

"I don't know how easy it will be," Mr Duncan replied, "but you seem to be enthusiastic and fairly knowledgable on the matter, and as such I am asking you to take the first train down from Arlesdale tomorrow. I'll ask Pip if he wants to help as well, though I imagine he will."

"I bet it won't be easy," Mike grumbled.



The next day, Rex was telling Pip all about the last night's conversation as he hooked him up to his trucks. "I think this work will be simple."

"I hope so too," Pip replied, as he sat down in Rex's cab. "But things can happen that are outside of our control. So let's do our best, keep our eyes on the line, and be useful."

At the other end of the line, the wool was loaded into the trucks in big bales, surrounded by padding to prevent it from sliding about (though how the wool would not itself act as a shock absorber was a question that needed answering, and fast). At each farm along the way, Rex stopped for more bales to be loaded into his trucks, and the loads were piled higher and higher, held down by bungee chords to prevent the bales from falling off the trucks and onto the lineside, which would have made a very big mess indeed.

"I must admit," Pip smiled, "that this run was a little simply than I'd thought it would be. Let's hope our luck holds up on the way down the hill."

"I told Mike and Bert it would be easy!" Rex smiled. "Let's go!"

Little did they know, they had one load left to get. This belonged to Farmer Willie, one of the locals. He was, shall we say, a not hugely observant fellow, and had a reputation for carelessness and slapdash approaches to solving problems. He was driving very slowly down the road on his tractor, not paying much attention, when he hit a road bump and sped up.

"Your load!" Mr Awdry called from a passing bycicle. "It's slipping!"

"I can't stop now!" Willie called. "I'll be late!" And off he sped down the road to the rendezvous point, when his trailer tipped over by the side of the line, scattering bales all across the road. "Oh crumbs. I must warn the train!"'

Willie ran to the neighbouring bridge and shouted. "REX! REX! STOP! THERE'S A LOAD ON THE TRACK!"

Pip looked forward and gasped. "Oh dear," he said, and slammed on the brakes.

"Jump!" Rex shouted. "I won't be able to stop in time!"

Pip bailed just at the right time. Rex slammed into the bales, and was thrown to one side as wool flew everywhere, the trucks behind him concertening and derailing rather dramatically.

Mr Duncan came up to visit as soon as he had heard of the accident.

"I'm sorry sir!" Rex said. "I couldn't stop in time! I couldn't see the obstruction until it was too late."

"This is my fault sir," Farmer Willie admitted. "I took a corner too fast and the load fell onto the tracks."

"Why are you apologising to me?" asked Mr Duncan. "It's Rex who you should be apologising to. And Pip as well!"



Bert was brought up to move the trucks, and lost no time in making fun of Rex's predicament.

"So, you said it would be easy, eh?" he laughed. "Not very easy, is it?"

"I can't account for freak accidents caused by incompetent farmers, can I?" Rex asked, rhetorically.

"That's enough, you two," said Featherweight. "Pip, there's room in the cab if you want to come down with me."

"No thank you," Pip replied. "I need to make sure Rex is OK."

As the day went by, Bert and Mike went on and on, teasing Rex about his predicament whilst he lay there, unable to move. Eventually, they got him back onto the track and hauled him home, warm and dry.

"I suppose that accident was karmic justice," Rex sighed.

"Accidentth happen!" Twist said. "You couldn't have foretheen that farmer being so careleth!"

"Indeed!" Bert said. "It wasn't your fault at all."

"It was that farmer indeed!" Mike added.

At the yard, Mr Duncan was waiting for them. "I am very proud of you three engines, and of course of their drivers," he said, with a smile. "Thanks to Rex slowing down, the accident had minimal impact, and Mike, Twist, Bert, and Featherweight, you have all worked like heroes this fine day."

"Never Overlook a Little Engine!" Mike smiled.

"They may have thought we were a toy railway," Mr Duncan went on, "but they have seen that we are a Useful Railway. And they've promised us plenty more work."

"That'll be good news for Rex," Bert laughed. "It'll be, 'easy peasy, lemon squeezy'!"

Rex, mercifully, had the good sense to see the funny side, and joined in with the laughter. And everybody agreed that they were a very good railway indeed.

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