Sodor's Unusual Tales

The Half Engine

Originally made by NCO Pictures

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It was a cool autumn evening on the island of Sodor. The sun was just beginning to set, the engines were finishing their work and returning to their sheds, and a thick fog began to roll in. James had just finished his last train, and was heading down the mainline for home. He and his driver could hardly see a thing through the fog. As such, they didn't immediately notice the points were directed to an old, unused track.

"Oh, bother!" said James, frustrated once he realized where he was. "What silly things points are, I don't even recognize this line!"

"Calm down, James." said his driver. "We'll go back and set it right."

"Well, good," replied James. "Honestly, why doesn't management just get rid of these disused... disused... tracks?" His voiced faded away when he saw something on the side of the line, which sent a chill through his boiler.

"Everything okay, James?" Asked the fireman, but as James came to a stop, his crew saw what made him pause.

On the side of the line, sat an old scrap engine, rusted and forgotten. Normally, the scrapped remains of engines from long ago was a common site on the railway, but this one was different, and it nearly made James sick. It was cut midsagittal, clean straight through the middle without fault, and all of its parts still there within the dead engine. It's other half was nowhere to be seen.

"What sick weirdo would scrap an engine like that?" Asked the fireman.

"No idea." Replied the driver.

"I-I-I don't want to find out!" Shouted James as he jolted backwards. "Get me out of here!"

At Tidmouth Sheds, the engines all stared at James. He was unusually quiet and looked very pale. Vincent soon broke the silence, albeit rather rudely.

"If I didn't know any better, which is quite rare," he said out loud. "I'd say poor little James has seen a ghost!"

He began to laugh, as did the others, save for a tragic few, including Edward and the saddle tank siblings.

"Just ignore them, James," muttered Edward. "Why don't you tell us?"

James knew that they wouldn't dare to make fun of him. So, he decided to talk to them about it.

"Well, I did see something..." James said mournfully.

"Have you now?" asked Rebecca.

"What was it? Has Gator come back to scare you again?" laughed Henry.

"I... uh... saw another scrap engine." Muttered James.

The engines stopped laughing then, and immediately regretted.

"That's it? I understand it is rather distressing to see those poor souls, but you've seen them plenty of times James and have never looked this shocked about it." Put in Vincent, still being rude.

James finally looked up from his buffers.

"This one was different, Vincent." He said sternly. And he told the others all about what he saw. Everyone went silent now, having regretted teasing James.

Finally, Thomas broke the silence.

"You must've seen a victim of The Half Engine." He said quietly.

James went red in the face.

"I do not need your teasing tonight Thomas!" He yelled.

"Calm down, James!" Said Molly.