Henry's adventure across the canal

Shacks on Wheels

Henry was woken up by the buzzing of the lights coming on. "Good morning Gord-", he stopped midway. Gordon was no longer there. "Oh" "Good Morning Henry", Mr. Drachenzorn greeted him, "have you slept well?" "Yes, I did", the engine replied "My wife will be a bit late. She forgot something in our house" A door slammed. "Nevermind", the man chuckled. Shortly after Mrs. Drachenzorn appeared besides her husband. "Good morning Henry.", her hair was a mess and her cap sat a bit tilted on her brown hair. "Almost forgot our lunch and tea bottles", she said to her significant other. "At least you have them now", he laughed. "Sorry, Henry I'm gonna make a fine fire in your fire box now. And soon you'll be filled to the brim with steam" "And I'm going to oil your valve gear proper", Mrs. Drachenzorn added. And in less than an hour Henry felt steam building up in his boiler. The driver and fireman then pushed open the shed gate. The light of the rising sun almost blinded the engine, but when his eyes had adjusted themselves, he looked into the deep greens of a softwood forest. The rails were surrounded by grass which was filled with tiny forest flowers. While Henry was taking in every bit of the nature outside, husband and wife had climbed into his cab and Mr. Drachenzorn looked into the green engine's fire box in which a bright flames were dancing. "Henry hate to interrupt, but we have to get the coaches and give you coal and water. So we can pull our first ever passenger train on this line", Mrs. Controller said kindly. "Oh alright", Henry sighed. He pulled out of the shed. The fireman manually changed the shunt behind the steam engine. The driver pulled reverse and they slowly rolled past the shed, until the fireman gave a hand sign and Henry felt the pressure of other buffers on his tender. Then he heard yawning. The green and beige coaches had woken up. The fireman meanwhile coupled them together with Henry. "Who woke me up", one coach groaned. "That thing. That green something", grumbled another. "Ey, fat ass who do you think you are waking us up" hissed the third. "Fat ass?! Excuse me?!", Henry hissed back. "Ey you three!", Mrs. Controller shouted, "Behave yourself! We got work to do." "Yes Miss", they replied in unison. "Why did she bring along that hunk of old metal?", the last one whispered. "Probably saved him from the scrap yard", giggled the middle one. Henry pretended he didn't hear them.

And as soon as they left the shed and clearing behind the anger that had build up inside the old engine was blown away. They rushed through the forest. The trees stood packed together and their tips reaching high up into the sky above. The early sunlight dipped the tracks into beautiful shades of orange. Henry closes his eyes to enjoy the warmth of the early sun rays and the gentle breeze. Soon they reached the first station. Maybe a dozen people were on the platform. Mostly school kids but also some adults. The kids were confused, but after one had build up the courage and asked the guard every last one of them was excited. They climbed into the coaches chatting and laughing. Most of the adults shrugged and also took their seats. One man tho came up to Henry's cab. "Excuse me Miss", he asked politely, "Is this the 7:12am train to Leipzig." "It is good sir", she replied. "Oh well I just was confused because I uhmmm expected another type of train you know", the middle aged man muttered. "Understandable sir. You don't get to see a fully functional steam engine in regular service that often nowadays", the controller replied. The man just nodded in agreement and then hopped into a coach. The guard raised his signaling disk, the signal turned green and Henry pulled but the coaches made themselves extra heavy, but the green engine had hauled worse and the train got rolling. "Stupid things", he thought fuming, "you think I can't pull you. I will drag you over the rails if I have to." They glided through another forest. This part was a mixed forest. The light green leaves contrasted the dark green needles quite nicely. After they left the forest behind they went over a small iron bridge. It looked equally as new as the tracks Henry puffed over. After the bridge came the next station. It didn't have a nice station house. It look barren. Just some steel and glass coverings for seats. Henry had seen plenty of these kind of stations while traveling the previous day. Even more passengers boarded the train. Bernt raised his disk and off they went. But the coaches still made themselves heavy. The engines face showed a light hint of red. "Oh my, oh my", the coach right behind Henry's tender chuckled, "Is the little Steamer getting exhausted." "Maybe Mrs. Controller should bring you to the next museum", chipped in another. "Or Mrs. Drachenzorn should get you turned into fire wood then you at least be of use", snorted Henry "You're a fat, green dragon with an ugly face", spat out the first coach. Suddenly the last one began to sing: "Once a fat green engine came to forest. It hissed and spat like a dragon. But that dragon had no teeth, because it was old and ugly" For the rest of the way all three coaches sang the little tune and with every repetition Henry grew more and more angry. "Those coaches are worse than the stupid freight cars at home", he fumed. Meanwhile in the engine cab Mr. and Mrs. Drachenzorn grew concerned. "He's struggling", frowned the tall man. "He shouldn't technically", replied the woman. "But he does", the bearded redhead shot back. "Henry is probably just exhausted from the trip yesterday", excused Mrs. Drachenzorn. "If you think so", and with that he threw a shovel of coal into the green engines firebox.