The Sudrians: The Archive Collection

Epilogue: Warning

The tracks flowed underneath his wheels. The carriages' own hummed behind him. Gordon didn't mind running at night, he liked the world stopping and rest until the crack of dawn. Now he was guided by the moonlight, his headlamps and lights, flickering from houses from the near distance, which would be his destination.

A BR Standard had broken down at Barrow, and Gordon was asked to take the train she bared. He was the only engine at the station and knew the way that the line took. The big engine didn't mind it, he liked travelling on the mainland, knowing that his rails were limitless and the darkness gave a sense of mystery to him, not knowing where he was and see the embodiment of tall hills roll past him.

Houses begin to slide quickly past him, the tracks reflected their lights. Gordon only focused on where he was heading.

He had been warned about Crewe by some engines on the mainland. They alway say that engines lives were being threatened by that place. Saying it would be a graveyard full of engines in the nearing the future.

Gordon was thought it was absolute nonsense when Henry told him.

He saw the station building. In the past, he didn't find it as big as some of stations he had been too, but now returning to the industrial town, it felt like it stood taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Making him feel littler than Percy, maybe a mouse!

Gordon rumbled into the mouth of the station, where he came to a gentle stop underneath the part of the station where it's roof loomed above. His brakes screeching his wheels to a stop.

Passengers swarmed out of the carriages, all knowing that it was their final stop and would need to get another train or get a bus for the rest of their journey home. Porters quickly collected the luggage from the van that was right behind Gordon. Taking suitcases and other objects Gordon would not even remember their names and place them on to baggage cars.

Gordon waited patiently as he watched his passengers move about under the yellow lights of the platform. A dirty little shunting engine appeared from the darkness. His face barely seen from all the soot he had.

"You can go now mate," he said roughly, "I'm shunting ya train ta'night so be off with ya."

Gordon was a little indignant, but before he could say anything his driver called to him. "Pay no attention to him," he said, "come on now, you can have a rest in the yards until our return trip."

The big engine sighed, and pulled away, leaving his coaches with the dirty shunter.

***

Gordon puffed around the yards, it had been a while since he had traveled to Crewe. He had stopped at the station a couple of times, when he was needed to take a train down here. But he had never turned around or stayed here ever since his overhaul. This meant he had a vague memory of the yards and couldn't remember which lines were to get to the sheds.

He puffed around, looking all over the place. It was dark, snow was still around, glistening under Gordon's lamps. The yard had never felt so dark before... and quiet.

A busy yard such as Crewe has never been so desolate in Gordon's eyes. Even Vicarstown, whose small town with small station, was louder than this. But it was the middle of the night.

The sounds of the wind and Gordon's puffing were the only things the big engine heard. Gordon continued forward, he then came to the end of the yard and was a little surprised of what he saw.