A New Blue Engine
There are some quite dramatic changed taking place on the Island of Sodor. Many of these changes, in particular, are focused around the Peel Godred line. Workmen up and down the line are busy erecting strange metal masts that sit over the track, and little grey boxes with warning signs right next to them. Then, they run a network of wires through the masts that are connected to junction boxes and the power grid. In order to allow for engineering traffic to access the Harwick extension project, a new, third track has been built on the left of the old two, free of the modified lines. One day, Thomas was travelling down this line with some ballast for the Harwick branch. The sun shone and the birds sang, and it was a lovely day.
"What could be nicer than driving trains and working on the Island of Sodor?" Twilight asked, as they made good time towards Kirk Machan. The extra line was only single track, and in order to prevent track blockages, a passing loop had been installed at Kirk Machan in order to let trains pass. Thomas rumbled into the loop and stopped at the signal as Edward rattled past with the empties bound for the yard.
"Hello Thomas!" called a Welsh voice from an adjacent track. Thomas glanced over to see Culdee waiting there with a coach.
"Hello Culdee!" Thomas replied. "I know it hasn't been long since we last saw each other, but how are things going?"
"Ever since you helped recover the gold dust, things have been better than ever," the other Twilight said. "We get more tourists, the booking offices are packed, and Patrick has even stopped complaining!"
Suddenly, a loud horn sounded in the distance, a noisy, two tone sequence with a starting low tone and ending high tone. "Clear the way please!" called a female voice. "The future is here!"
Moments later, a loud whine could be heard in the distance, and seconds after that a large blue object shot past, hauling 10 coaches and soon vanishing into the tunnel beyond.
"What was that?" Thomas asked.
"That's one of the new electric thingies they've got to run this route," Culdee explained. "Something about Woodstock?"
"No, Woodhead!" Twilight (the other Twilight) replied. "They are all from the Woodhead route!"
Thomas was even more confused, but decided to find out more as the signal dropped. He arrived at Peel Godred and completed his delivery of trucks. He then backed onto a siding in order to take coal and water. Just up ahead was a turntable, and on it sat the engine from earlier.
They had a squat front end, and two big windows above their face which allowed the driver to see out. The body was painted a bright, eye catching blue, with handrails and roof painted white. Two great big arms sat atop the engine, and upon the sides sat a nameplate, alongside the number E27000 on the cabsides.
Electra.
"Hello!" the strange engine said. This confirmed them to be female. "You must be Thomas!"
"You know me?" Thomas asked, confused.
"Who doesn't know of the little blue engine and his exploits?" the engine asked. "My driver's just off to get a bite to eat, so we have time to chat. My name's Electra."
"Nice to meet you, Electra," Thomas replied. "What great big arms you've got."
"These aren't arms, silly!" she replied, laughing. "They're pantographs."
"Whatographs?" Thomas asked.
"Pantographs. I draw power from an overhead wire strung from the gantries you see along the line. This current is then fed into my traction motors, which allows my wheels to turn. I was originally built for use on the Woodhead route in the north of England, but they withdrew us after 12 years of service due to being non standard."
"Why were you non standard?" Twilight asked.
"Because of our electrification. The rest of Britain's electrified railways used 25 kilovolts AC, or alternating current, whereas Woodhead used 1500 volts DC, or direct current. As a result, we were isolated, and with the decline of passenger services they withdrew us and sold us to Holland, which used the correct voltage for us."
"What happened then?" asked Thomas.
"Eventually, two of us were repatriated. Myself, and E27001 Ariadne. Diana (nothing to do with the member of royalty) is still in Holland. I sat in a museum for years, but when Sir Toppham Hatt announced plans to electrify this route to 1500 volts DC, the remaining engines of that voltage were called out of retirement. So, here I am now. They used to call Woodhead 'the place of the future'! Now we're the only remaining remnant of a unique system."
"Electra!" called a voice. "It's time to go!" Sprinting across the yard towards her cab was a man with green skin and purple eyes, wearing the standard North Western uniform and holding a pasty in his hand. He clambered into the cab and took his seat at the controls.
"Right you are, sir!" Electra called. Her horn then sounded. "Hey, ho, away we go!" There was a brief whine as her traction motors engaged and began to draw power from the overhead wires. And then, slowly but effortlessly, she began to move away to the other end of her train.
"I don't know why," Twilight said, "but that electric reminds me of somebody. Or some engine."
The pair continued to ruminate on the issue as they ran back to the main line. Thomas, in particular, was thinking very hard. "Edward, Henry, no, neither of them."
"Neither of them what?" Twilight asked.
"Electra doesn't remind me of any of them. She's big, she's blue, and she pulls fast trains."
"I think I know who you're referring to, but I can't for the life of me think who," Twilight replied, putting a hand to her chin. "That driver of hers looked familiar, though."
Thomas collected the next load of trucks, this time loaded with electrical cables, and set off back for Peel Godred. At the junction, he met Electra again.
"Hello Thomas!" she called. "Is that another load of trucks for the electrification?"
"Yes!" he said. "More power cables, apparently."
"Excellent," Electra smiled. "Having to be towed by a diesel is most undignified." The signal dropped. "Well, catch you later!" With a blast of her horn, Electra pulled away on another train.
Thomas sighed. "Still reminds me of somebody." Twilight hopped out of the cab, uncoupled Thomas, and then ran him round to the other end of the train. Freight trains, especially partially fitted ones, cannot be run backwards at speed for safety reasons. This, however, meant that Thomas could not see where he was going, and as he reversed up the access line, the signalman at Kirk Machan stopped him.
"There's been a blockage on the access line," the signalman said. "We're going to route you onto the Down electrified track until we can get you onto the access line again."
"OK," Twilight replied. "Let's go, Thomas!" Behind them, the signal cleared, and Thomas puffed onto the electrified lines. The only problem was, the signalman had been careless and set the points incorrectly! Thomas soon realised this when he was not on the Down line. He was on the Up line, and right in the way of opposing traffic!
"I'm on the wrong line!" he cried. "HELP!"
The signalman, realising his mistake, immediately set all the signals in his section to red, and radioed ahead. "To all boxes in the net. We have a goods train rolling into opposing traffic. Halt all trains immediately. Repeat, we have a goods train rolling into opposing traffic. Halt all trains immediately."
Suddenly, a loud horn echoed in the distance. It was Electra! The signalman ran out and began shouting something to Thomas, but he couldn't understand what was being said.
"What?" he said. "An emu?"
Twilight threw Thomas' cutoff into forward and put his regulator to full.
Electra suddenly loomed out of the fog. She gasped when she saw what was in the way. "Brakes, driver!" she cried.
Her driver slammed the brakes on, but she wasn't slowing down fast enough. Thomas was barely moving out of the way.
"Come on, you silly things!" he shouted, as the trucks began to budge.
Electra still bore down on him. She was down to 40 miles an hour, but that was still too fast.
With seconds to spare, Thomas was clear of the main line, and Electra thundered past with mere inches between her and the blue tank engine.
After a somewhat hair raising experience, Thomas completed his delivery of trucks, when Electra pulled into the nearby platform. Thomas sighed. "Sorry for getting in your way, Electra," he said.
"Not to worry, Thomas," she said. "Your quick thinking prevented a nasty accident. My driver is thankful too."
The man stepped out of the cab and waved. "Hello Thomas!" he said. "My name's Thornton, but you can call me Thorax. You probably know my daughter, Ocellus. She works on the Skarloey Railway."
"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said. "But what was the signalman shouting about an emu?"
Thorax laughed. "He wasn't talking about an emu! Electra is a British Railways Class 77, but the LNER classified them as Electric Mixed Traffic Model 2, or EM2 for short. And Electra is... a Blue EM2."
On the other end of a computer screen, readers groaned at the pun.
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You had me worried then. Thought you were gonna bring Timber Spruce into the show. (shudders)
Will American locomotives appear on the island like Hank, Rosie, Sam, and a few others?
Heh, I'm thinking of using that as a Highball quote for future Trainz Sessions :3
Noice. XD
That was a funny pun in my opinion
10217098
The only American engines plausible are Rosie and an S160.
10217139
Wait who's S160?
You really went there, huh? Nice.
10217083
Thanks.
10217093
I'm not. Never fear!
10217098
Rosie maybe. Hank and Sam are out of gauge.
10217133
I wrote the entire chapter specifically to make that joke.
10217135
10217137
I regret nothing.
10217139
10217247
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/5197_at_Cheddleton.jpg
10217251
This episode had to be fixed, in my opinion.
10217276
That's the new one they've just got running at Grosmont.
10217692
Oh ok.
10217698
Wait. Isn't those 2-8-0s the US Army used in Europe during WW2?
10218370
British loading gauge is 13 feet precisely.
10218372
They got everywhere. That example worked in China after the war.
10218375
Are there examples here in my home contury of the USA that's where they were built.
10218373
Oh. I thought they had the same gauge in the US.
10218386
US loading gauge is bigger.
10218384
There's one at Great Smoky Mountains.
10218441
Oh ok.
10218551
That's in North Carolina.
Shecs Ok don't seriously be called Sci Twi or some nickname so we don't get her confused with the other twilight.
That was too close. 😓
I actually happen to know a disaster that involved a collision of a passenger train with 3 diesel locomotives that happened in January 1987 in chase, Maryland in the United States. It was amtrak's worse train wreck til 1993.