Canterlot & Everfree: The Early Years

by Smokey_Cinders

Chapter 5: Fire Up

After procuring a car of coal and another tanker of water, Smokey and Crosby headed back to Everfree under the cover of darkness, always taking great care to be quiet as they passed the Apple farm, the last thing they needed was being questioned why coal and water was being transported.

The Moon was still high as Smokey and Crosby pulled 13 out of the shed, over the turntable and to the yard. Filling the boiler and the tender tank with water before using the wood from the broken boxcar to fill the firebox, filling the tender with coal just before they started.

“Right...let's do this,” Smokey said as he struck a match and lit an oil soaked rag on the shovel Crosby held. Once it was burning well, he reached it into the firebox and placed it onto the wood before throwing more in.

---

As time passed, they began to slowly build the fire, slowly weaning it to coal and building pressure slowly, being extra careful as Steam couldn’t join them, having been called on another job at the last moment. By eight that morning, they had reached 175 PSI and the safety valves, readjusted for 175 PSI by Steam Cylinder, popped with a loud hissing of steam.

Smokey grinned, and when the valve closed, he reached up and grabbed the whistle cord, slowly pulling it… The whistle hissed and gurgled through the pipes which made up the whistle. It was far from an average steam whistle, a custom built wonder with five long tubes. Once the whistle was warmed up and ready, Smokey tugged the cord and came to a long low note that was pure music to Smokey’s ears. He continued to test the whistle, grinning widely as he blasted the Boiler Tube 5 chime long and loud, Crosby having to cover his ears due to the roar, which seemed to shake the forest around them.

---

Applejack, inside her home, looked over to the Everfree Forest as she heard the distant echoing whistle. “That’s strange... never heard that before...” she said as she walked to the window.

“I ain’t heard that since I was a little filly,” Granny Smith said as she stood up from her rocking chair and walked to the window, listening to the baritone note. “Sounds like Walschaerts’ old engine...but that thang went missin’ years ago,” 'the old mare explained as she glanced at her granddaughter.

“Missin’?” Applejack asked as she cocked her head to the side.

Granny Smith nodded. “Back when I was around Apple Bloom’s age, the line that cuts through the west field was the mainline to the town of Everfree. At the time, there was a loggin’ camp in them woods, a mine, a royal guard outpost along the small town. And the line was run by a few steam trains. The one I remember having a deep whistle was the Jinx, locomotive 13,” she explained.

“Oh?” Applejack asked as Granny Smith sorted her thoughts.

“The only engineer who wasn’t scared of running 13 was Walschaerts, he loved that engine and practically pampered it. No engine was cleaner and no engine was as well kept. At least until the railroad decided to switch to all diesel and scrap 13 and the other steam engines… well 13 never made it to the scrappers, and every now and then ponies would claim to see it coupled behind trains heading in and out of the forest… the bosses never figured it out since they could never find a steam engine… it went on like that during every inspection until they abandoned the Everfree section, and well... Walschaerts always denied hidin’ it, but I knew otherwise, he loved it too much to let them tear it down. Sounds like someponies found it,” Granny Smith finished as she glanced to Applejack, who had been listening intently.

Applejack thought… It was quite the coincidence that Smokey and Crosby bought the old railway through the forest, and now there were the sounds of a long unaccounted for steam engine deep in the woods. “I wonder…” she thought to herself.

---

Smokey laughed as he looked at Crosby, who had been shoveling coal into the firebox. “I’ve always wanted to do that!” He said before giving two more sharp blasts.

“Alright, Smokey! Let’s not wake up Equestria!” Crosby exclaimed with a chuckle.

Smokey thought for a moment and grinned. “Imma do it, let’s run’er up and down the sidings,'' he said as he opened the cylinder cocks and opened the throttle, rust tinted steam blasted from the pipes under the cylinders as they were cleaned out and warmed up.

“Let’s roll!” Crosby said as Smokey closed the throttle, pushed the Johnson Bar forward and cracked the throttle back open. 13 shuttered and began to inch forward, a hissing cough was accompanied by a jet of oxide dust and steam from the stack, blowing the smoke further up.

13 swayed gently as it began to slowly chuff forward, rocking and jolting with every rail joint it crossed over. Once they got near the end of the siding, Smokey brought the ancient engine to a gentle stop and Crosby hopped down to realign the switch to take them on the loop which went over to the yard. Smokey pulled the Johnson bar to full reverse before taking it back up the track in reverse.

“She’s runnin’ better than I thought! This is grea-“ Smokey started, being cut off by a frightened Crosby.

“SMOKEY! THE SWITCH!” Crosby shouted, seeing that the switch to the out of use track was damaged and stuck halfway between either direction.

Smokey bucked the Johnson bar to the forward position and 13 groaned before its wheels spun forward. Crosby was jolted off his hooves and hit his head on the coal boards of the tender as 13 ground to a halt, the rear bogey on the tender leaving the track and bouncing along the wooden ties.

The safety valves popped as Smokey set the brakes and closed the throttle. “Crosby! You ok?!” He said as he rushed to his friend, who sat up.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Crosby said as he stood up, dusting coal dust off his coat. The two climbed down to inspect the damage, both relieved when they saw the tender and wheels weren’t damaged. “So now what?” Crosby asked as Smokey thought.

“I’ll go see if there’s anything we can use in the shop, surely they had something for derailments,” Smokey hoped as he trotted his way across the ballast covered ground and into the repair shop. Crosby stayed behind to keep 13’s boiler in check.

Smokey returned around ten minutes later with two large and heavy steel ramps. “I found some rerailers!” He said as he walked back, Crosby hopped down.

“We should keep these things on the engine in case we pull a featherbrained move like that again,” Crosby said as he took a rerailer and placed it beside the rail, with the ramp aimed to bring the wheels upward.

Once they were set, Smokey climbed into the cab and Crosby went around to watch the ramps. “Right Smokey! Inch it forward,” he instructed as Smokey tugged the throttle open slightly.

“13’s a she,” Smokey replied as 13 chuffed forward. The first set of wheels on the bogey began to ride up the ramps.

“What?” Crosby asked as he looked to Smokey, not seeing the outside wheel beginning to move towards the edge.

“Steam engines are shes,” Smokey replied as he looked back.

“Oh come on, Smokey, don’t be such a silly fil-“ Crosby was cut off as the bogey slipped off the ramp and hit the ground with a bang. “STOP STOP STOP!” Crosby cried out.

“HORSEFEATHERS!” Smokey shouted in frustration as he stopped 13 and climbed down. “Just perfect!”.

After another hour of failed attempts, foul language and begging to Celestia, they managed to get tender back onto the rails. Once they made it to the switch into the shed, Smokey realigned it before locking it, not wanting to go back down into that set of sidings until the track was prepared for use.

By then, Celestia’s sun was high in the sky and the two colts were getting hungry. The two had an idea to cook in 13’s firebox. They poured apple pancake mix onto a clean shovel and stuck it into the roaring fire, occasionally pulling it out to stoke the fire and flip the pancakes.

Smokey looked at them “Huh, I think they came out pretty good!” The ash gray pony said as he put two pancakes onto his plate, topping it with some syrup.

“They’re burnt,” Crosby bluntly stated as he picked one of the stiff pancakes and tapped it against his plate.

“Crosby, I’ve seen you eat a hoof-full of chili peppers on a three bit bet, I think you’ll be ok.” Smokey laughed before taking a bite, it was crunchy and had a smoky taste.

“So Smokey, when ya wanna try to run a train with 13 at the head?” Crosby asked after eating a pancake.

“That..that’s a good question... I don’t know about that old trestle...but...ah Tartarus with it, maybe next week,” Smokey concluded with a shrug. “We’ll take her up to outside Ponyville and back around midnight, of course we’ll have to invite Steam!” He said as he took his place at the engineers seat and continued running his locomotive back and forth, filling the sky with smoke and steam.

Comments

[Golden-Gale]

I need me another chapter! I like this story...