Inferno
The newly built oil facility at Penmere stands looming over the terrain. Its massive stacks and tanks tower over all other buildings, and the vastly increased number of sidings have resulted in an increase of traffic.
Many locals had mixed feelings about the facility. Some appreciated the extra employment the plant had brought. Others regarded it as an eyesore and a blot on the landscape. None, however, denied the impact it was having on the local area. Owing to supply issues with oil, tankers were now docking at a port off the coast and the oil was pumped to the refinery. There it was processed to create many different grades of fuel, then pumped into tanker trucks. These tankers were then taken to other places far away.
One morning, Rebecca came to a stop at Penmere station and saw Nigel at work processing the oil tankers. "How's it going, Nigel?" she asked.
"Fine, thanks," Nigel said. "The tankers are heavy, but it's fairly simple work. Put some loaded tankers here, move empties there, it's simple."
"It's a rhythm more than anything else," Onyx said. "One feels the ground move, and the land shake, and the machines shake like mighty drums. We live and move to the beat of nature and industry, two great titans moving in unison."
Rebecca looked worried. "But all this oil isn't a good thing. It's dramatically increased traffic on the line, and isn't it bad for the environment?"
"You burn a fossil fuel," Hitch pointed out.
"I know, but the effect heritage locomotives have on the environment is ultimately negligable," Rebecca said. "But I guess it's not really for us to tell other people how to live their lives."
Just then, the signal changed, and Rebecca moved off with her train. Nigel was stabled in a nearby siding as work was temporarily done. He sighed. "Things aren't looking too good, I'll admit," he said.
"What makes you say that?" Onyx asked. "I can see nothing wrong."
"The company that manages this plant suggests otherwise," Nigel replied, looking over to a sign. "Sub Core Energy. They have a long history of cutting corners when it comes to safety."
"Then why hire them?"
"Because they're cheap. They get the pipelines and oil moving faster. But they do take risks. I recall they managed one of the former ICI facilities I was allocated to."
Just then, Brookes arrived. "Morning," he said.
Nigel smiled at his friend arriving. "Hello Brookes. Anything interesting from the main?"
"Only what looked to be a dismantled rocket engine," Brookes replied. "Good thing it was in bits. Imagine trying to run an engine with it fully assembled."
"You mean have the jet engine running when the train is in motion?" Nigel said. "Who'd be daft enough to try that?"
Argyle leaned out. "What's that about ICI? I heard you and Onyx discussing it."
Nigel looked over. "I was telling Onyx about the company that manages this place. Sub Core Energy took over a plant I was based at after ICI was dissolved in 2008."
"And what happened?" Brookes asked.
"Shoddy maintenance of a fuel pipe resulted in a fire that nearly destroyed the plant."
"That sounds quite hair raising," Argyle said. "I don't recall that."
"It wasn't reported nationally, but thankfully nobody was hurt." Nigel sighed. "But they're brave putting those kerosene tankers next to the blowdown stack. If a fire occurs it'll be a big bang."
Brookes looked over. "Then let's move them to another siding."
The two engines continued working and loading the tankers throughout the day, but there was still a strong sense of unease surrounding the situation. As they continued working, new orders flowed in and more tankers were filled. The work never seemed to end.
Later on, Charles came by to pick up an order of loaded kerosene. "Twenty kerosene tankers. That's the work order."
Nigel looked at him. "Be careful with these ones. No aggressive pulling. This load is potentially very dangerous."
Zipp looked back. "Kerosene has a low boiling point, but we should be OK with a short load." She buffered Charles up to the barrier wagon, which is a special vehicle to keep the engine away from any source of flames or fire. They then coupled to the tankers and waited for orders.
Charles was ready to go, and soon the brake van was added to the train as the sun descended below the horizon. Once the passenger train was through, Charles throttled up and was on his way. "OK. Nice and easy. Nice and easy."
"Charles is being unusually cautious," Onyx said.
"Hazardous materials are no joke!" Charles replied. "I've seen what fire can do to an engine." The tankers trundled by until they were out of sight, and well away from the refinery.
Argyle looked around, the artificial floodlights now being the only thing illuminating the area. "What now?" he asked.
"The work order says to wait for more work," Onyx replied.
"So it looks like we'll be waiting," Nigel added.
A few miles up the line, Charles' train was passing the Penrhyn signal box. The load was halting at Penrhyn to let another train pass through. As the thirteenth wagon passed the train, there was suddenly a loud bang.
In Charles' cab, Zipp suddenly saw the brake pressure gauge go bezerk. "What the?" She stuck her head out of the window and quickly glanced back. "What the?"
Just then, she saw some tankers were missing. The train was supposed to be twenty tankers long, but there were only 12- and no brake van. "Did we lose some wagons?"
She brought the train to a stop and sprinted to the signal box. "Transmit a warning to all signal boxes and stop all trains. We have runaway stock loaded with kerosene!"
The signalman nodded, and immediately rang the bells six times. This signal indicated danger and to lock down all signal blocks immediately.
Back at the refinery, Nigel saw something approaching. "It's the tankers!" he said. "They'll never hold the bend!"
And they didn't. The tankers came off at the curve and tipped over just beyond the station, skidding to a stop on their sides. The crash couldn't be seen in the awful light, but it could be heard.
Nigel looked to Brookes. "Look sharp! And anybody with ears, cover them!"
Seconds later, a second sun rose over the Cornish countryside.
Down in Falmouth, Salty was assembling an outbound fish train when he spotted all the signal snap to danger. "There's trouble on the line, Sunny," he said. "All the signals just went to danger."
"That is odd," Sunny admitted. "I wonder if something's happened?"
Seconds later, there was a bright flash further away, and a fiery mushroom cloud rose over the landscape. Then came the loudest sound either of them had ever heard, followed by a shockwave.
"What in Neptune's Briny Beard was that?" Salty asked.
Sunny, however, figured it out. "The oil terminal must have caught fire! And Nigel and Brookes are working there!" She grabbed her radio. "Prepare the firefighting train! And somebody call the fire brigade!"
Within minutes, a water tanker and the firefighting vehicle had been assembled, and Salty began to push it up the line. It wasn't long before they encountered the fire. Thick black smoke was rising into the air, and several tankers lay on their side, burning. Fire engines had already arrived, and firemen were dousing the tankers with water and foam, as well as putting water on the other buildings.
Brookes realised they were all in serious danger. "If the fire reaches the blowdown stack the tankers run the risk of catching fire!" he said. "We have to pull them out of the way!"
"On it," Nigel said. "If we don't survive this, I want you to know that you've been a great friend."
"The same to you," Brookes replied, and the two engines and their drivers got to work.
Argyle raised a hand in front of his face as the fire burned incredibly hot. The intense heat was threatening to drive him back, but he and Brookes kept on moving forward towards the tankers. It was then he had an idea. He saw a bandana in the toolkit, and quickly soaked it in water from a bucket before tying it over his nose and mouth. This gave him some relief from the heat.
He heard Brooke's buffers impact the tankers, and he jumped out to couple them up. The intense heat was starting to scorch Brooke's paintwork, but both refused to yield. The hook was put into place with a shunter's pole as the metal was becoming very hot to the touch, and when ready Argyle hopped back in the cab and began to open Brooke's regulator.
His wheels slipped on the rails. "If this gets any hotter my wheels will fuse with the track!" Brookes shouted, but finally the tankers began to start moving.
Nigel was having similar luck, and slowly drew the tankers away from the scene of disaster. "Keep going!" he shouted. "We're nearly out of this!"
The line out of the oil terminal is single track, so one engine had to wait for the other. As Nigel was further forward he went first. But as Brookes started to move-
"THE BLOWDOWN STACK HAS CAUGHT FIRE! EVERYBODY CLEAR THE AREA!"
Down below, Salty and Sunny were forced back alongside the fire engines as the fire grew too intense for anybody to handle. Salty's engine was spluttering as the fire sucked in the oxygen it needed to work, and he pulled back quickly as the tanker began to run out of water.
"Brace yourselves!" he shouted.
He got clear just in time. As the vapours in the blowdown stack ignited, the oil terminal was decimated. A series of massive explosions tore the structure apart and ignited the rest of the fuel in storage.
Sunny grabbed her radio. "Everybody sound off!" she called. "Is everybody OK?"
"Onyx here. I'm clear of the fire, over."
But there was no response from Argyle.
Sunny blinked in shock as her mind immediately jumped to the worst situation she could imagine. "Please no," she whispered. "Anything but that!"
The next morning, the fire brigade had finally gotten the fire under control. The damage was extensive. The buildings would need to be demolished and rebuilt, and the rails were badly melted and scorched by the heat. These would need replacing as well.
But there had still been no word from either Brookes or Argyle. Sunny made her way through the disaster zone to look for herself, but it seemed there was no hope.
She looked around in despair. "He can't be dead," she said quietly, before collapsing in a heap and sobbing.
Just then, a familiar whistle sounded in the distance. And under the bridge steamed a familiar sight. A small green saddle tank rolled into view and came to a halt on one of the sidings. "Nearly didn't make it there!" he said.
And then Argyle climbed down from the cab. "Well," he said. "I'm back."
Sunny couldn't keep it in, and sprinted over to her father, embracing him. "You're alive!"
"Almost wasn't," Argyle said. "That explosion got very close. Had it been any closer and I'd have had it. But I didn't."
The chief firefighter came over. "You and your engine deserve a medal for your bravery," he said. "I'll see to it that both of you are commended for one."
"Nigel and Onyx deserve one too," Argyle said. "Without them the fire would have been a lot worse."
Sub Core's contract was terminated, and British Petroleum brought in to run the facility. The accident taught the local community a vital and very important lesson- efficiency is all well and good, but efficiency should never be used as an excuse to cut back on proper procedure. Had proper procedure been followed, the accident would never have happened.
It is often said that safety regulations are written in blood. Never take risks with hazardous materials, especially when doing so puts lives on the line.
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great chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter Argyle Nigel and Onyx should get the pink heart of courage for their actions
Thomas did.
Apparently!!!
all the signals snap to danger.*
Huh.
Did they just see a bleve happen!?!?
Exactly.
I was thinking about Lac Megantic the moment I began reading this.
i wish more countries do this and award medals to children for bravery
In case anyone has never heard and/or seen an episode of Tugs, here is the episode this chapter was inspired by
11805930
Well said.
11805933
1. Indeed.
2. Yup.
3. Corrected.
4. This is standard practice when operating hot things in hot places.
5. Yes. This is what caused the fire this story is based on, incidentally.
6. Indeed.
7. An accident which demonstrates the ultimate consequence of deferring maintenance and safety in the name of saving a few bucks. East Palestine proved that US railroads have not learned the lessons of Lac-Megantic.
11805935
Agreed.
11805985
Thanks for the link.
11806031
yep
11806072
Or an aviation example; Alaska Airlines Flight 261. 88 people dead-all because management wanted to save a few bucks on lubricating oil.
11806093
damn...
11806103
Well said.
11805849
Well, I didn’t have access to a whiteboard so I had to use what I had. I know in PowerPuff Girls, Bubbles used a chalkboard in an episode where she lost her voice.
I don’t think they were vision correction glasses, maybe they’re magnifying lens glasses. Like what Rarity uses for her dressmaking.
Voice swapping? Man, imagine if they switched bodies.
This gal is a crazy terroristic psychopath! How can anything she does be good?
Comments on the chapter:
Wow! What a banger! (no pun intended)
I hardly ever see anyone in the Thomas fan story cover fuel tanker fires of this magnitude. I mean I’ve seen plenty of stuff based on TUGS Munitions. But, oil fires are a whole different thing. Especially from trains.
And I’m glad those morons got the boot, there are no cutting corners when dealing with dangerous goods like that. Some people don’t realize the dangers of dealing with oil-based fuels. Whether it’s with fire or even oil spills in the water.
11806033
You're very welcome.
11806146
Given the show had numerous fire episodes, it's surprising how little the fanbase looks at the topic. Unfortunately, one of those fire episodes spawned the infamous line 'Thomas' firebox was on fire'.
It's a mistake lots of companies have made. Having seen chip pan fires myself and done fire extinguisher training, I know from experience oil fires are no laughing matter.
11806178
It will certainly help some viewers out.
11806333
Yeah, that was just as idiotic as Steamers using brake fluid. But when it comes to me and fire episodes, Old Slow Coach is always the first one to come to mind. But it would've been nice to have more episodes dealing with more serious fires. Ones that you don't see in media these days on children's show. I mean Fireman Sam had more to show!
My cooking class covered how to deal with kitchen gease fires.
The fire on an aircraft carrier shows it to a "T".
11806342
Fireman Sam was partly produced to teach basic fire safety, even educating the viewer on what to use on different fires. This was even true of the CGI era, to my surprise; one episode had Norman (correctly) stating that the bonnet on a vehicle that is on fire should not be opened as that allows oxygen to feed the blaze.
Always a useful skill.
That wasn't the USS Forrestal fire, by any chance? That incident is a textbook case in how not to handle a fire.
11806359
I remember that episode well.
But if you're gonna have a character that's a railway firetruck, than you'd think they would use it as a way to showcase different fire scenarios and what to do. But no, instead we get fires that start for no reason and a fire engine being used for something other than fires!
Indeed. Cause most people always think water works on all fire!
Yes.
11806367
Belle being a firefighting engine also doesn't make much sense. Her water pumps draw from the same water source as her boiler, and her tanks only pack 2000 gallons, so she'd quickly run out of water to move (a typical fire engine pumps water at a rate of 1,500 gallons per minute).
Very true. I only recently learned halon gas is used to fight fires at airports.
11806334
Yes it certainly will.
11806374
Aye. I mean, it is an interesting idea, but it would make more sense for Belle to have a water tender for the fire nozzles. I mean, there are real fire trains.
Makes sense, the idea is to cut off the oxygen.
11806446
Yup.
11806458
That there are. Most famously in Switzerland, famous for its incredibly bad roads.
11806524
Aye. And I know we had a firetruck here that rides on train tracks.
11806526
Flynn himself is based on a Czech vehicle.
11806530
Interesting.
In lines of a railway firetruck we had here, there was a 1931 Ford AA firetruck made to drive on Train tracks, owned by the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway
11806551
That sounds very neat indeed.
I'll admit, I'm abit surprised that Goldie's reaction wasn't included in this. She likely would've been there with Sunny. But still, a good chapter overall. Sunny is very thankful indeed.
Though, not like BP is any better when it comes to safety. In fact, nearly all the major oil companies have abysmal safety records.
11808193
That's part of the reason I chose BP, as both the Texas City fire and the Deepwater Horizon explosion were caused by their negligance.