the tales of sodor's engine

the tale of the bad engine

It was the evening before Halloween, and all the engines were gathered around ready and eager to start their annual tradition of telling ghost stories. The firelighter came to “set the mood”, and soon the yard was showered in a warm, orange glow, creating an atmosphere ripe for spooky tales!

    The engines took turns telling ghost stories as the moon rose overhead, each trying to outdo the last! They were all enjoying themselves enormously. Even the big engines, who normally didn’t have much patience for silly stories, beamed and laughed as Thomas and Percy imitated a ghost haunting an old mansion. 

Finally, it was Henry’s turn to tell a story. He hesitated for a moment and curiously looked over to Gordon and Edward, who appeared cautious at first, but then beckoned Henry on.

“Tell it,” whispered Gordon. “Go on. It won’t hurt.”

“I don’t know if I should,” he whispered back.

“It’s up to you, Henry. It is scary,” Edward replied quietly.

“Are you going to tell the story or not?” James said.

The other engines laughed, except for Henry, who looked a little uneasy.

“Come on!” Thomas and Percy said together.

“Well…alright! Here goes.”

And so Henry began.

“Many years ago, there was an engine who worked on a far away railway. He was never given a name, or I should say, never lived long enough to be given a name.

Henry paused impressively.

“You see,” he continued, “all engines, when they are built, are friendly and hard-working, but once in a while, engines come out bad, and I’m sorry to say that this engine came out very bad indeed. No one knows how he came to be built or what led him to do the things he did, but he left a path of destruction that haunts his controller to this very day.”

Thomas and Percy looked wide eyed at each other.

“The engine thought himself to be a premier engine from a famous lineage, but he was actually an experimental engine, using only parts of other steam engines. The parts didn’t fit together very well and made him very mean-spirited and somewhat…unhinged.”

“He was painted blue but probably should have been painted black. It was not uncommon for the engine to insult the others and resort to light sabotage, such as bumping them without warning and misplacing trains, over small, petty squabbles. He was also easy to anger and had fits of rage, taking it out on the trucks and sometimes engines smaller than he was.”

“One day, he buffered up to one of these smaller engines and pushed him to the edge of the turntable well, threatening to knock him in if he didn’t cater to his every whim.”

Edward suddenly gulped, as if a bad memory had flashed across his mind.

“The big engines were furious and confronted him about his awful behavior. ‘Stop bullying engines smaller than you,’ they said, but he wouldn’t listen. He continued to play spiteful tricks and threatened that if the big engines ever told the controller about it, he’d make them pay.”

“The two big engines, thoroughly fed up, got up very early one morning and met the controller at the station. They told him all about what the engine had done, but the controller’s hands were tied since the engine was on loan.”

“’I can’t do anything but put in a report to the engine’s company’,” said Henry, mimicking the fictional controller.

“What happened then?” asked Toby.

“Well, one of the big engines left to take a train, and the other remained at the station trying desperately to plead their case. It is said that the bad engine was passing through the yard at the time and saw the big engine. Needless to say, he was immediately suspicious. He confronted the big engine in the yard and said ‘I told you not to tell anyone. You’ll get yours!’. The big engine just laughed, believing the engine only to be bluffing.”

Henry suddenly paused. Edward, Gordon, and Henry all looked at each other. Gordon gave a motion of the eyes encouraging Henry to keep going.

“B-but…,” Henry said, “he was most assuredly not bluffing.  The next day, the big engine was pulling an express train through the junction when suddenly and without warning, another engine careened into the back of his coaches. There was an awful noise as wood and metal and stone splintered everywhere, but what was worse was as the noise of the wreck subsided, the screams of the passengers inside those coaches became louder and louder and louder.”

The other engines’ eyes were glued to Henry. They didn’t dare make a sound.

“The bad engine, knowing the big engine was just up the line, had intentionally missed a signal and plowed into the back of the express train…to get even! The sight of it was awful! The three rear coaches were smashed to smithereens, and everyone inside those coaches…”

Henry gulped.

“Everyone inside those three coaches perished.”

The other engines gasped!

“The big engine screamed ‘You’ve killed my passengers, you’ve killed my passengers!’, but the bad engine didn’t care, he just laughed.”

“The controller came, and seeing the mess, sent the engine for scrap. If the controller had only listened to the big engines, the lives of those in the coaches might have been saved. So that is the moral of this story – stand up to evil and fight until the very end, or the evil might just turn you into ghosts!”

Henry gave a loud whistle, making everyone jump! 

“Wow, Henry!” James laughed. “That was a twisted story!”

“I might have to keep the light on tonight,” said Percy, and everyone laughed.

Soon, the engines began to leave the yard to get a good night’s rest. Gordon, Henry, and Edward, however, stayed behind.

As soon as the others were out of earshot, Henry sighed looked very ill. Gordon smiled sympathetically.

“A fine performance, Henry, though I know that’s not an easy story for you to tell.”

“Do you think they knew who we were talking about?” said Edward.

“The only one who might have known was Thomas, but he was too young at that time to remember,” added Gordon.

“You think 98462 was actually scrapped?” asked Henry, but Gordon and Edward didn’t answer right away. The three looked up at the moon, feeling uncertain but hopeful that the bad engine wouldn’t come back to haunt them again.