The Abandoned Island

The Little Western

As Salty and Zeph left from Tidmouth sheds, there was a nervous excitement between them. For Salty, it was being able to see his friends again while also going up a line he had never gone before since he primarily worked at Brendam. For Zeph, it was similar, as she was going to explore an entire part of an island she had never been on and meet new engines she had only heard about. She was so excited that she never noticed the old boat sitting beached on the sand as she marveled at the stone arches that crossed over the double lane of track. Salty didn't notice either as he was watching the track, which was very rusted, but wasn't full of holes due to it having been coated for being on the coast. Regardless, they traveled slowly up the tracks and reached Tidmouth Halt station in under an hour. "Salty, please stop here. I saw that shed had doors, and that means there are definitely some non-faceless engines or rolling stock in there." "Of course, ma'am," the dockside diesel responded before smoothly gliding to a stop at the platform. The young girl chuckled as she climbed out of his cab, "Maybe we'll have you run passenger trains, Salty. That was a very smooth stop." The old diesel chuckled, "Working with trucks full of all sorts of materials will do that to ya." That sounded quite reasonable to her. Looking around, she saw that all the buildings were quite weathered, but that was common with all the buildings she had seen so far, the difference being that the constant sun and salty breeze had wash more of the color away, cracked the concrete, and corroded the metal. Despite this, this station, like every small station so far, had a quaint and cozy nature to it. She admired it as she walked across the gravel, sand, and tracks towards the shed.

It was a strange looking building with four triangle peaks. From the looks of it, it had been an open air shed prior to the railway closing, and as she walked around to the other side, she counted three lines of track leading inside. From her walk around the building, she guessed James, Boco, and similarly sized engines were the biggest that could fit inside with the doors closed. Coming around the front, she was greeted with a lock in the middle of two segmented doors. So, taking out her trusty hammer, she smashed the old lock till it clattered to the ground before grabbing the handle of one of these large doors and pulling it to the side of the shed. It squealed in old, rusted wheels as she yanks and pulls it all the way to the right side of the shed. She was immediately greeted with a large, single chocolate and cream Great Western coach in the far right track. The old coach smiled warmly at the young girl like a grandmother would as her grandchildren, "Well bless my buffers, there is a sweet, young girl opening our shed." The voice was older and was definitely kind sounding. Zeph smiled and nodded before opening the other door, letting it fold in on itself as she slid it to the left. On the center track, starting at the back was a British Railways twenty ton brake van, then a seven plank wagon with S.C.Ruffey in faded letters along its side, and at the front was a grey Great Western Railway twenty-five ton brake van. Finally, on the left most track was a GWR 14xx engine with the number eleven printed on their cab. Zeph stepped back and smiled at them all, and they smiled back, "Hello, Ma'am. Welcome to the Little Western. Apologies, you have to see it and us in such a sorry state," the engine said with a smile, "My name is Oliver, by the way. The brake van at the front is Toad, behind him is Scruffey, behind him is Dominick, and the beautiful coach is Maggie." Zeph nodded with every name and made sure to keep a mental note of each one. "My name is Zephyra. It is nice to meet you all!" She then had a puzzled look in her face, which Toad noticed immediately, "is something wrong, Miss Zephyra?" She looked at the concerned brake van, "I think so, Toad, but Boco told me there was someone named Duck on this branchline and... well, none of you are named Duck." The concerned look on Toad's face quickly vanished, "That is because Mr. Duck is up at Arlesburgh West at that engine shed." "I see. I'm glad that was the case. I was worried something may have happened, is all." Zeph relaxed and looked around in thought. If Duck was up at a different station, he must be lonely since Oliver is here. Then again, he could be with lots of trucks.