The Sudrians: Great Western Collection

The Glasses

The day soon arrived. It had been two weeks since Duck had been taken out of service, but finally, he was returning to service. Oliver, Donald and Douglas all waited patiently at the sheds one evening. Stephen Hatt also waiting for the Great Western engine. At last, there came a whistle, and Duck came around the corner and went underneath the bridge and straight into the yards.

Immediately, the engines spotted the difference with Duck. A big pair of square glasses sat between his nose. And both sides of the glasses were bolted to the sides of his pannier tanks. The engines all smiled and greeted him warmly.

"Your glasses look great Duck!" smiled Oliver, "very fetching."

"Aye, a good fashion choice ah dae say sae myself," Donald added, looking cheerful at the Great Western engine.

Duck smiled lightly. "Thank you," he said and moved his nose about to sort out the glasses on top of them.

After a few minutes of talking, Stephen walked up to Duck. "Your trains will begin as per usual tomorrow," he said, "if there's anything wrong with your glasses, just tells instantly."

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir," replied Duck, another small smile of appreciation coming to his face. Stephen nodded and began to walk off, once he had gone. Duck's smile faded away. "Excuse me," he said to the others, "I'll just be in my shed."

He then puffed into the shed faced the other way still and remained like that for the rest of the night. Donald and Douglas looked at each other with concerned looks.

***

The next morning, the engines were getting up and steamed for the day. Douglas was wide awake, he was to take a ballast train before all the other trains. Just then, he noticed Duck backing out and saw something off.

"Hey Duck," he called, which made the Great Western engine freeze, "where's yae glasses?"

"Oh... erm..." said Duck, "they were taken off."

"How come?"

"They can come off when I'm resting at night," explained Duck, "they just need to be fitted on."

"Aye," said Douglas, giving a look of suspicion, "now, it's best to get those glasses on dae yae think?"

"I've got a passenger train to take," said Duck sternly.

"Nae for a while laddie," Douglas said sternly, "my train is oot first so get yae wee glasses on."

Duck rolled his eyes but hesitantly rolled back into the sheds, where the crew were just coming in. The Scottish engine then puffed off, a little worried, he knew what Duck was trying to do, it was obvious. But Douglas just didn't know what to tell Duck, his eyes had been damaged and the effects were showing and they won't be going back anytime soon. So he will have to get used to wearing them.

***

Tidmouth yards was busy that day, trains were rushing in and out and wagons were being shunted into place by Porter. I was also there, I was ordered to take a goods train to help the other engines. This would be my first goods train and I was excited, Porter was just shunting it into place. When I noticed Duck come into the yards with his own goods.

"Ahh," I smiled cheerfully, "good afternoon Duck! I see you've gotten those new glasses! They suit you very well!"

"Thank you, Manor," replied Duck plainly, but he didn't smile at all, he just looked fed up.

"I'm guessing it's going to take some getting use to," I said sympathetically, "Duck... understand this, you still going to be reliable and Great Western, no matter if you have those glasses or not. No one is going to see you differently."