Lee's Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

Stories

Summer Bus Extravaganza

Summertime on the Island of Sodor always sees an increase in tourists and with this comes an increase in the use of trains and buses. The Fat Controller over the years has brought in other engines to help him with the likes of Stepney, but for the buses they keep on struggling. The depot desperately needs extra help and the Fat Controller agreed. A new yellow bus, called Agnes was brought in to help out Bertie, but even she couldn't help.
"You're going to need more help…" muttered the Fat Controller to the depot manager.
"Definitely…" agreed the manager.

The following morning, Bertie woke up to find his driver talking with Agnes and her driver.
"What do you mean we need more help?" Agnes said indignantly in her Scottish tones. "Surely I'm good enough to help here?"
"I'm afraid not…" said Bertie's driver. "The manager and the Fat Controller are doing their utmost to bring in some more help." Bertie was partly relieved at this but was also wary of more new buses coming into the depot. Agnes had only been here for a couple of weeks and they were getting along, but it was still a lot to get used to. Soon, his driver came over and it wasn't long before they set off for the task of the day. Holidaymakers wanted to be taken wherever and whenever they could and for Bertie and Agnes, there was no let-up in the relentless tourist demands.
"The River Els, please…" demanded one passenger.
"Tidmouth Bay!" said another.
"Since when do you choose where we go?" Agnes said angrily. "We have set routes. We don't make exceptions!"
"Well you should!" retaliated one of the passengers furiously. Agnes just ignored them and went on in her duties. Bertie was also getting easily frustrated and when the pair of them returned to the depot, the manager was standing proudly with two new buses. They were both open-topped buses and both looked very happy to be there.
"Bertie….Agnes…" boomed the manager. "Please welcome Graham and Olga, the open-topped sibling buses." Bertie and Agnes looked on in admiration as the pair of them were double-decker buses just like Bulgy. He was still at the works for the time being converted back into a bus, so the siblings were brought in for great assistance. Graham was painted blue with yellow stripes on his side whilst Olga was painted dark green with yellow stripes on her side. The manager soon revealed though that Graham and Olga would only be temporary buses.
"We're here for the summer…" Graham smiled.
"Just to help you out in this time of increased business…" Olga added. Soon, both Graham and Olga were helping out Bertie and Agnes by providing tourists and holidaymakers with grand tours. But what no-one else knew was that a new permanent arrival for the depot was fast approaching…

Clunking along the Sodor roads some time later came the new arrival. She was being driven by the Fat Controller and she was a proud and posh coach.
"You'll do us wonders…" the Fat Controller said to himself as the coach smiled proudly. She arrived some time later at the depot with a fanfare of smoke and steam emanating from her engine. Olga was in the depot at the time and just looked on in amazement.
"Who are you?" she asked as she coughed with the smoke getting all around.
"This is Cordelia…" answered the Fat Controller. "She will be helping take holidaymakers to their holiday locations and when you and Graham are not here, she will cover the tours."
"I think everything is going to work out fine…" Cordelia smiled. Her silver paint and red stripe down her side made her stand out from everyone as it was, but her demeanour also showed a very different background to everyone indeed. She was posh – very posh indeed.
"Let's just hope we can cope with amount of passengers then!" Olga smiled as her driver started up her engine. It hummed loudly and Olga was ready to leave for work. "Whispering Waterfall is always busy for tourists…" she sighed. "I've got to collect them this time!" Cordelia just looked on indignantly and let Olga leave the depot. Cordelia then reversed into her space and had a much needed rest after such an exhausting trip to Sodor.
"It all begins tomorrow Cordelia…" The Fat Controller said before he walked off to fetch a lift from a passing taxi.
"I hope the passengers are respectable and not rude…" Cordelia thought to herself before she fell to sleep.

Early next morning, Cordelia woke to see it was only her and Graham in the depot and Graham just smiled politely but Cordelia still felt awful. Her sleep had been interrupted all through the night and she was not in a happy mood at all. She didn't say hello to Graham and she didn't say hello to her driver. She grumbled loudly as her engine whirred and soon she set off to begin her super summer duties.
"Where are we going?" Cordelia asked sleepily to her driver.
"The beach…" he replied. "Passengers need to be returned to their accommodations as some families are leaving today." Cordelia was still too sleepy to realise that the beach was a noisy place and the passengers would have sand all over them. When she did realise it was too late as sand was littered across her lovely red carpet and the seats began to smell of the sea. Children were being noisy aswell and Cordelia could not believe how anyone could cope like this.
"These are not the kind of passengers I should be taking…" she said to her driver loudly. Some of the passengers heard and felt insulted. One child even began to cry and a beach ball some of the children were playing with was thrown right at the driver. It bounced right off his head and he grumbled at the children. Cordelia grumbled at her driver and the parents of the children grumbled at Cordelia. Soon, no-one was paying attention to what was happening on the roads and then it happened. The roads by the beach had sand all round them and in the heat of summer, the sand was becoming slippy. Cordelia was going along the road fine and then she caught some of the slippy sand which sent her into a spin. The spin caused all the sand brought inside her by the passengers to flick up into the air and scatter all around.
"Help!" cried Cordelia.
"STOP!" cried the passengers.
"I'm trying…" replied the driver and soon he managed to stop the slipping coach from slipping any further. Sand was everywhere inside Cordelia and she felt ruined. Her engine hissed and smoke billowed and that was the end of the trip for now.
"These passengers are definitely not the kind I should be taking…" Cordelia said as she sulked to herself.

The depot soon heard the news about Cordelia's problem and knew something had to be done otherwise the passengers would miss their flights home. Graham was still the only one left in the depot at the time and was immediately sent to help her out.
"Yes sir!" Graham said proudly as he set out to the beach. When Graham arrived he found Agnes was already trying to pull Cordelia away.
"Come on, come on!" said Agnes impatiently. "Who knew coaches could be this heavy?" she then remarked. Cordelia wasn't impressed at all.
"Can I help?" Graham said kindly. Agnes just smiled. Cordelia just kept on sulking.
"Oh aye…" Agnes said. "Let's take Loch Ness back to the depot!"
"Loch Ness?" Cordelia said indignantly. "I'm not that heavy!"
"You are…" muttered Agnes as she and Graham began to work together to help Cordelia out. One by one, they got the families back to their accommodation and then later on Bertie and Olga worked together to take them to the airport. No-one missed their flight and Jeremy the Jet-plane was impressed. The depot manager however wasn't as impressed with Cordelia but he knew that once her engine was fixed, all would be fine.

Once cleaned out and fixed, Cordelia helped out as much as she could with the summer passengers. She was still very selective after the beach incident but she made sure she wasn't grumpy and grinned widely whenever passengers got aboard. Graham and Olga also upped their duties even more as they knew their time was coming to an end. When summer did finish, Bertie, Agnes, Cordelia, Graham and Olga all gathered at the depot for one last time. A photographer had come to take their photo with the depot manager.
"You must get my best side!" Cordelia joked to the photographer and everyone laughed. Soon, farewells were said from everyone for Graham and Olga.
"This isn't a proper goodbye!" Graham smiled.
"We're back next summer!" Olga cheered. "Just make sure you miss us every day so that we know how wanted we were here!"
"We'll do our best…" the depot manager said as he waved the sibling buses away. Bertie, Agnes and Cordelia smiled knowing being a Sodor bus is just as important as a Sodor train.