The Sudrians: The Archive Collection

Good Riddance

- 1955 -

When moving to the North Western Region, I was hesitant. But now I was enjoying it immensely! It was a lot different from being in the capital of Britain and was less busy, meaning I was all alone working at the station, but I didn't mind, it allowed me to stay just as busy as I was in Paddington. And the yards behind the station were less crowded, with trains all neatly arranged for the other engines to take out.

Speaking of which, other engines would come from their own regions after taking trains from far away. Most were from the London Midland Region, however, there was sometimes an engine that came from the Southern Region! One day, this exactly happened when an old Southern Railway N15 pulled into the platform with a heavy passenger train. He seemed exhausted from the long run he most likely had to take and was thankful for the rest at the sheds for the rest of day.

He stayed the night in the sheds though, unsurprisingly to any of us, he did seem quite worn out from the trip he had to do. But seemed less worn when we all came to the sheds and began talking about his own region. He stated that he came from St. Pancras without stopping due to another engine from the London Midland Region having failed and he was in their yards at the time.

"Most Southern engines don't usually come up here," he stated jovial, "it was lovely coming up here, but exhausting! I tell you, I am glad for the rest, and the others at my shed will be interested in my faraway travels!"

His name was Waylon after asking him, his voice gruff-sounding, but seemed like a very pleasant engine overall and later told us the news from the capital. "A few new diesel hunters have been coming to the yards for some odd trial thing," said Waylon, "the older tank engines have been put off for the time being."

"Really?" said James, "do you know what's going to happen to them?"

"Not so sure to be honest with ya," replied Waylon, "but there are some reports that the board are trying to get the older engines either into retirement or into smaller services around their regions such as key sides or spare shunting engines."

"Sounds reasonable," said Henry, "I mean, these diesels are new, and they might be more useful than the older engines. And the railway board sound like they're going to change their ways with having steam engines either be put into museums or be spare engines, with their old age, they would be able to sleep through the day!"

"So you were just practising in that tunnel I guess Henry?" teased James, and the others chuckled. Henry only glared at the red engine.

"And there was another thing when I came here!" Waylon said, "a met this odd fellow at one of the Eastern Region's stations. He was a guaranteed connection, a design I had not seen. He asked me where I was heading and when I replied, he stated that he had been here before himself."

All the engines looked at the Southern engine in curious expressions.

"An engine came here?" said Gordon.

"Oh certainly!" smiled Waylon, "says he had been for quite some time that you all would have remembered him in some way or another."

"What was his name?" Henry quizzed.

"His name is... is... erm..." Waylon pondered for a little while, "rats, I can't seem to get it from my head."

"What class is he then?" James asked.

"Ahh! He was an old design," said Waylon, "not rebuilt like his siblings, which was good for me, I haven't seen them in their new looks. I gathered that he was LNER B12."