Gordon and Ferdinand
It was a bustling summers day on Sodor. All the engines were busy. Trucks and coaches were scattered throughout the yards. Gordon had been relegated onto the goods workings with Hiro and Neville. The big blue express engine hated trucks, but the Fat Controller needed to press every available engine into service. Since Gordon had nothing to do, he was pressed into service.
"This is an indignity," groaned the express engine.
"Oh, give your whinging a rest," Neville muttered. The Q1 was never impressed with Gordon's whinging or his pompous attitude.
Now, every wise engine knows that you can't trust trucks. The only engines who can handle trucks without anything bad happening to the them are Edward, Donald, Douglas, Duck and Salty. Bear also can haul trucks, but he is often seen taking it in turns to help Gordon, Henry, James, Hiro and Molly on the express between Tidmouth and Barrow. The Fat Controller has a High Speed Train, with two HST Diesels called Pip and Emma, who supply a fast connection between Tidmouth and King's Cross.
Not only do passenger trains run between Tidmouth and Barrow, but goods trains run between Tidmouth and Barrow as well. Often times, a cargo ship of goods will dock at Tidmouth Harbour, quite by accident, and then a Sundrian engine has to take the goods to the Other Railway.
It was due to one of the cargo ships docking at Tidmouth port that put Gordon on to the goods. When Gordon grumbled in with a line of empty trucks, he saw Ferdinand, the Climax class C logging loco, shunting some trucks, loaded with goods from the ship , into a siding.
"Hullo, Gordon," called Ferdinand, as he reversed out of the siding, to collect more trucks to be loaded, "You here to help?"
Gordon grunted in disgust. He hated trucks. Goods work wasn't dignified enough for an express engine. He said nothing, but waited for the flat trucks in front of him to be loaded with pipes. Once the last load was placed on the flat truck and secured, he shunted them into a siding, next to some coal trucks. As he was reversing, Paxton, the little green with lime stripe class 08 diesel shunter pulled in with a train of empty cattle wagons. When Ferdinand backed down next to him, Paxton looked at the logging engine.
"The Fat Controller has requested that you and Gordon take workmen, the Lion of Sodor, timber and glass to make a shelter for it, tile for the roof, sacks of coal, food, drink, and some post to the Duke and Duchess of Boxford," the little diesel said.
"Right away," huffed Ferdinand.
"Wait a minute, the coupling on the rear two wagons is weak. Go slow and take the tracks crossing the fenland. The mainline route is closed, due to rails needing to be replace," Paxton warned.
"Thank you, little Pax, but I don't need any warnings," Gordon fumed and stormed off, tender first. Ferdinand just chuckled and puffed off after Gordon.
When Ferdinand arrived, he saw the works coach, the Lion of Sodor statue was loaded into a high sided wagon, a flatbed with timber, a flatbed with pipes, a postal van, two vans, one with a food symbol and the other with a drink label, four trucks, two with sacks of coal and two with tiles. Ferdinand backed down beside the train.
"My word, this is a long train," puffed Ferdinand.
'The Fat Controller has requested you to be the back engine," the stationmaster said.
"I think that's a bad idea," replied Ferdinand's driver, "Ferdinand can't go at Gordon's speed."
"Well, that train has to be taken. Your engine is the only engine fit for the braking job," the stationmaster said.
With that, Ferdinand and his driver had to be content. It was a few minutes later, that Gordon arrived, reversing into the station, after being held up in a siding, to allow Murdoch to pass with a drag goods. When Gordon arrived, he was shifted over to the track where the goods train waited.
"Ugh, goods trains, silly little goods engines, the injustice," he moaned.
"Stow it," Gordon's driver sighed.
The shunter coupled Gordon to the train and the station master told Gordon that he had to take it slow, and to use the track along the fenland.
"The injustice," Gordon muttered as the train rattled away.
The route ran through Wellsworth station, over Gordon's Hill, and through Maron station, which is a stop point for all trains coming or going over Gordon's Hill. At Maron, Henry was waiting with a goods train to proceed down the line, while Charlie waited with a passenger train to ascend Gordon's Hill.
When Gordon arrived, Charlie burst out laughing
"Well, Flash my firebox! Gordon's being helped by Ferdinand!" Charlie laughed.
"Really, I though Gordon was a strong and fast engine, who pulled the express, and was never seen around dirty trucks," Henry chuckled.
Gordon stayed silent. He was hating every minute of having to work with Ferdinand. To make matters worse, a group of children came over.
"Coo!" one said
"It's Gordon! And he's on goods!" another called.
Gordon's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Once the signal changed, he pulled away, hiding in a cloud of steam. Ferdinand whistled politely as he passed Charlie, the kids and Henry. Henry and Charlie returned the greeting.
Soon, the train reached the junction to the fenland track. Gordon waited until the signalman set the points to allow their train to proceed along the fenland track. Once on the wooden trestle structure that stretched junction to junction, Gordon began to pick up speed. Ferdinand began panting and trying to keep up with Gordon's speed.
"SLOW DOWN!" Ferdinand shouted over the rattle of the trucks and coach.
"I DON'T LISTEN TO SILLY LITTLE ENGINES!" Gordon shouted back and went even faster.
What happened next, no one knows. Gordon says that Ferdinand was slowing him down. Ferdinand says that Gordon was going to fast and the coupling between the second coal wagon and first slate wagon was being strained to unbearable lengths.
The first instance of anything wrong was when Ferdinand saw a link of chain from the coupling fly up and the lead slate truck wobble uncontrollably. Ferdinand's driver shut off steam and locked up brakes in a hurry.
But it was too late to stop the uncontrollable trucks.
The first slate truck hit a rather large snag in the rails and leapt off the track, hauling the second one and Ferdinand off the tracks, and the procession smashed through the wooden guard rail and into the mud of the fenland. Ferdinand unluckily ended up in a puddle of muddy water, which sloshed at his fire and managed to swamp it.
Gordon didn't know anything about what had happened until he arrived at the platform, which connected to the dirt road, which lead up to the summerhouse. The stationmaster looked at the rear of Gordon's train
"Where are the slate trucks? And Ferdinand?" he asked
"They're on the rear of our train," Gordon replied.
"They must be invisible then," the stationmaster said.
Gordon's driver looked back and saw no trucks or Ferdinand. He sighed and looked at Gordon.
"You foolish engine!" He snapped, "We went to fast and ended up snapping the coupling on the slate truck and they came off and landed into the marshy fen! Brilliant!"
Gordon felt absolutely stupid now. Not only had he disobeyed rules, he also lost two important trucks and a brake-engine.
Gordon shunted the rest of the train into a siding out of the way and reversed to the fenland tracks. Once on the fenland track, his crew began to look for Ferdinand. It was the driver who found the Climax Class C logging engine.
Ferdinand's crew flagged them down. Ferdinand was cold, wet, muddy and overall miserable. When he saw Gordon, he wasn't to thrilled to see him.
"Get help," said Ferdinand's Driver, "we'll let the signalmen know to close the line, except for the breakdown gang."
Gordon puffed away, while Ferdinand's crew ran to close the line. In no time, Gordon returned with Henry, who was pulling Rocky, the breakdown train, three flatbeds and a coach of workmen. It was hard work, but they managed to life a muddy and swamped Ferdinand, plus the two trucks. The men salvaged what slate they could. It was some time later that the men could get an empty wagon for the salvaged slate, seeing as all the other engines were busy. Henry and Gordon switched places and Henry pulled Ferdinand to the works. Stanley was soon trundling up the line with an empty wagon and two more loaded wagons of slate. Stanley stopped along side the two wagons and the men moved the salvaged slate into Stanley's empty wagon, between the second slate truck and the goods brake. Once the trucks were delivered, Stanley went back to help Henry repair the fenland tracks.
Later that night, the Fat Controller came to see the engines.
"Due to Ferdinand being stuck in the mud and mud logged and suffering brake damage, he will be away for two months to be completely overhauled," the Fat Controller said to the engines. With that, the Fat Controller walked away.
Once the Fat Controller was out of eye and earshot, Henry shot Gordon a suspicious look as the big blue engine smirked to himself.
"So, Gordon, mind telling us what happened between you, Ferdinand and the fenland track today," the Stainer built engine asked.
Gordon looked at Henry and chuckled.
"Nothing happened, my dear Henry."
"That's what you say. I will find the truth out."