"Oh finally! You branchline engines are pulling your weight!" Ryan said as Rhys pulled in with a long hoods train. "Ah shut up Ryan!" Rhys replied. He had been working hard for the past few days, but could only do so much with the bad coal. "You work with this bad coal!" He said as he shunted his trucks into a siding. "Oh please, I've used worse coal before!" Ryan said as he pushed a truck into a siding. "Doesn't matter! We bring you the trucks for you to shunt, we make sure you have a job!" Rhys exclaimed as he was coupled up to Walter. Rhys then puffed away. "Honestly, Ryan should shut up and work instead of complaining." He said to his crew. "Don't get worked up over it." Emma said as they puffed back to Drenk. "I know, but who the hell just acts like that?" The tank engine asked. "Well, let's see, many people, especially our new teacher." Rhys said as he groaned. "I know, I get if you're a day or two late with work, but a few minutes is obscene!" Emma said as they shunted Walter into the carriage shed with the rest of the coaches. "What's it like?" Asked Rhys. "What, school? It's okay, it's not always bad, but it's not always good. You have to learn stuff and do homework and if you don't do it right you fail." Rhys explained as a dumbed down version of school to him. "Huh, sounds kinda stressful." "Oh trust us, you don't know the half of it." Emma said as she put his sleeping cap on. "Well, we got school tomorrow, so the subs will be in." Said Rhys, "Okay, bye guys!" Rhys said as they turned off the lights. The engines sat around, trying to go to sleep. "You know, my crew have school too. Mia really likes it, but DD doesn't. He says it's, 'Boring and Stressful.' Honestly, i know everyone has different views on things, but come on!" Dan said. "Yeah, it's crazy." Said Tatum, "It kinda sounds like us and diesels." "Oh yeah, never thought of it like that." Sally replied. "Imagine if we could all just agree on everything." Edward said, and then they all laughed together; knowing that would never work. "Good one Edward!" Sally laughed as suddenly Thunder clapped loudly. "Alright guys, let's just sleep, I don't know about you but I've been knackered because of the bad coal." Tatum said as one by one, they all said goodnight to each other and fell fast asleep.
The next morning, Rhys and Dan woke to an empty shed. "What time is it?" Dan yawned as he looked at the clock. "HOLY! Look at the time!" The clock read 9:02, and the engines were very late. "Oh dear! Where is our crews?" Rhys asked as they frantically looked around. Suddenly, the shed doors swung open and four people scrambled in. Two went to Dan and two went to Rhys. "Hurry hurry!" Yelled one as they gave Rhys a cold start. "I am, I am!" Yelled another, checking the dials and coal. "Where have you been? You lot are over three hours late!" Rhys said as he began moving to the turntable. "Odd jobs, we're shunters, rarely do we drive locos!" Yelled the relief driver. "You ought to be grateful we even are here!" The relief Fireman called. "I'll be grateful when you actually get some work done." Rhys muttered as he puffed out of the sheds. Tim and Rhys met at the station. "Don't worry about your passengers! I've taken your lovely coaches out and done all your morning jobs!" Said Tim as he pulled in coming from the branch. "Oh, thank you Tim." Rhys replied as he looked for Walter. "Though, I think you might wanna head to the yards at Levi, yards packed and this next train needs to head out." Tim said as the guards whistle blew. "Alright, I'll handle the yards today, see you at the end of the day Tim." "Catch ya later Rhys!" The tank engines blew a "Peep Peep!" As they set off.
When Rhys got to the yards, trucks were everywhere! "Goodness me!" He exclaimed as he looked at the yards. "No no no! This won't do!" He said as he began to shunt the trucks on his own. The relief crew had hopped out to check some things with the yard manager. Though while he as alone in the yard with nothing but the trucks, he could feel a pair of eyes staring at him from somewhere.
"Phew!" Rhys said as he shunted all the brake van's in line. "Well, I guess it's time to go back and see if anyone brought in any trains." As he began to puff away, he felt his boiler pressure drop to nothing, his fire grew colder and colder until he was stranded on the yard lines. "Hello? Anyone there?" Rhys asked, and awaited for someone around to answer, be it in his cab or nearby. The relief crew were nowhere to be found. Suddenly, Rhys and Emma came dashing into the yards. "We got to go, now!" He yelled as he threw the regulator open. "What's happening?!" Rhys asked. "Serena is after us!" Emma called as she started shoveling coal into the firebox. "WHAT?!" He yelled as they tried to open the reverser, but it was jammed shut! Not to mention the fire wasn't burning well, Rhys was essentially stuck! "Rhys! I'm here!" Yelled Serena as she jumped down the roofs to stand in front of the engine. "WHAT DO WE DO?!" The tank engine yelled as he shut his eyes! "*Puff chuff chuff chuff puff!*" came from the back of the yards. "PEEP PIP PIP PEEEEEEP!" Came a whistle charging down the line. "Get away from my friends!" Yelled a little tank engine. "Ryan!" Rhys called as the tank engine thundered down the line with some trucks. "Oh no!" Serena yelled as she slithered away. "Yeah, big off!" His crew yelled as Ryan braked. The trucks barreled past Rhys as the tank engine stopped in front of him. "Aye, thanks Ryan." Rhys said as he then began to pout steam through his funnel. "Oh... umm, it was nothing, she was trespassing anyways." Rhys said as he blushed, rarely did he receive thanks. "You done good Ryan, you done good." The tank engine said with a smile. "Look, Rhys, I'm sorry about yesterday. I-I know you're trying your best." He said. "Oh, umm, thank you Ryan." Rhys said as he puffed away.
Later that night, Rhys recounted the story to his friends at Drenk sheds. "These damn relief crews ought to be ashamed of themselves." Dan said, he had been ticked off the whole day, "They honestly don't know what they're doing!" The engines chatted about it before all agreeing. "No, that Serena is a crazy sort! She was going to do something to me, I know it!" Rhys said as he sniffed indignantly. "Ryan saved my life, I'm going to be honest though, I thought it would have been someone else." There were a few seconds of silence. "Well Rhys, he's a good sort of engine, he just... has a hard way of showing it." Dan explained. "I suppose." Rhys said as he yawned. "Alright guys, I'm going to bed. Let's just hope tomorrow is a better day." He said as he went to sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Tales from the rails
PertualanganThis is a story of engines that work together. They live on a railway called the D&D railway. They live happily here. There are branch lines that lead to stations and quarries, docks and yards.
