Tales from the rails

The Engine Who Pulls The Flying Kipper

On a crisp winter night like this, go down to Levi Harbour. Most of the time, you can hear boats blowing their horns as they pull into the piers, but quietly puffing, you can hear the steam engines roar under all the boats and the night sky, filling the sky with steam. Dom tends to be in his shed before eleven, but even so, engines are working around the clock to make sure things are going smoothly. "Ay, ain't The Kipper headin out tonight?" Asked one of the workers. "The Flying Kipper." Said a voice from the shadows of a warehouse. An engine puffed out, it had six small wheels, a tall thin funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome. "Right. Let's get to work men." Said the Forman.

Soon the train was ready. The engine rolled in front of the train as the shunter was preparing to fasten the coupling. It backed down carefully as it weashed steam from its steam ejectors. The shunter fastened the coupling as the driver, whom was wearing a blue hood over his head so it was hard to tell who it was, put on a lamp on the right side of the buffer beam and another one on the smokebox. The guard hopped into the brake van as he waved a green flag with a radio in the other. "TWEEEET TWE TWEET!" Said the Guard with his whistle, "Peeeep Pip Peep!" Answered the engine. The train began to strain from coupling to coupling as they slowly moved forwards. The train set off. "Fooled em again." Said the driver as he took off his hood and put it back into its spot. "You almost had me fooled," said Mia. "Good show guys, but we must focus on passing the station. We don't want another engine to see me." Said the engine. The tarp on its tanks were beginning to blow by the steam rising, revealing the letters D-A-N.

"30 miles an hour, we're getting a lot of speed this night." Said DD. "Yes, I bet it's the new tires on my wheels. Said Dan. Mia stoked the fire as they charged along with Levi Station is sight. "I think I see Rhys!" Said Dan. "Shut the curtains." Said Mia and DD did so. "Ah, a nice night to pull the mail, don't you agree driver?" "Why yes, I do." Said Rhys to Rhys. Suddenly, an engine thundered past as the guard blew his whistle. "Who was that?!" Yelled Rhys as he whistled. Dan chuckled. "Signal the Signalman to switch the points onto the Express line guys." Said the Guard. The guard's name is Isabel. She is an older guard on the railway, in her 40's. She always hands the crew a radio to tell them things and not need to stop the train. "Will do!" Said Dan as he blew his whistle loudly. The signalman woke up and pulled the lever that switched them onto the express track. "Wooohooo! Oh how I missed doing this!" Dan laughed as he raced along the line. He picked up more speed. "We're going over sixty miles an hour, be careful old boy!" Dan looked behind him. "Thirty-six trucks total. Twenty vans, six flatbeds, ten trucks." He thought. "It feels almost like nothing!" Mia opened her curtain and looked behind. A tank engine was catching up! "DD, let more steam into the pistons!" So he opened the regulator more before the engine caught up.

The two engines began to reach the incline. "Come on, come on." Rhys panted as he began to pick up more speed. "Hey! Who are you?!" He yelled as they entered the station. They thundered though the station, beginning they're ascend. Rhys began to slow. "Woah! Are those trucks... floating?!" He said as the stared at the train. The train seemed to be very light to the small engine as he slowed. The engines crested the hill one after another, and that's when Dan went even faster. "How is this possible?!" Yelled Rhys as the train thundered past. "He's got to be going over eighty miles an hour!" Dan passed Rhys and laughed, "better luck next time buddy." He thundered over the bridge and passed a two stations with easy. "Now we've got it!" Cheered Mia. "We'll be early now!"

Indeed they were. They were thirty minutes early, the workers ran out to start unpacking the train. "We made it!" The crew and Dan cheered, ready for a rest. The men unloaded the trucks and they were shunted into a siding and the engine alongside his crew left before Rhys and his crew entered the station.