"Oh the indignity!"
The sleepy atmosphere of Tidmouth Sheds was disturbed by the grumble of the big blue engine. All the other engines grumbled exhaustedly. It has been a very long day, and all the engines just wanted was a good nights sleep for a long day again tomorrow – but Gordon was refusing to settle down.
"Oh Gordon! Just be quiet!" James huffed angrily!
"We're all trying to sleep!" Percy whined!
"How am I suppose to be quiet and sleep when my brother is coming to Sodor tomorrow? It's disgraceful!" Gordon huffed, indignantly.
"I thought you and your brother got along." Emily grumbled tiredly.
"We do, but when he's coming over, stealing my Express and taking over my Express line, he's crossing a line that he's not suppose to!" Gordon fumed, face red with anger.
"Can't you complain about this tomorrow Gordon." Henry yawned, "Some of us need to get some sleep..."
"Hah! Not at all, not until Flying Scotsman leaves." Gordon huffed, glaring away angrily.
"Oh Gordon..." Edward yawned tiredly, "It can't be that bad."
"Uh, yes Edward, it is! I am the Express engine here on Sodor, not that big...show-off!" Gordon grumbled.
"But...shouldn't you want to spend time with your brother?" Thomas questioned.
"Of course not." Gordon responded, "I am a very important engine, and so is Scotsman. We need to stick to it."
"Well...back in Brighton, every job I did was important, but I always had time to see my other brothers and sisters!" Thomas responded eagerly.
"Hah, you? Mere little tank engines?" Gordon scoffed, although no one paid attention as they focused on their tank engine friend.
"Your brothers and sisters?" Percy wondered.
"Hm, oh yes!" Thomas giggled, "I was the last one made, so I am the youngest. I had six other brothers, and four other sisters!"
"Wow! Did they all look like you?" Henry wondered.
"Exactly like me! Well, they were painted in the traditional LBSC Railway paintwork at the time, a nice brown colour. I was the only one painted teal."
"Haha, I bet they were all cheeky and fussy like you." James teased.
Thomas didn't find this funny, "No they were not! Well, maybe one or two, but not all of them!"
"Did you enjoy spending time with them?" Emily wondered.
"Of course! Well, I wasn't with all of them at the same time. I worked in Brighton, and the others worked mostly elsewhere, like Worthing, Littlehampton, Newhaven, and Shoreham-by-Sea to name a few...so ti was hard to find time to all be together – but I remember one day when we all came together at Southampton for a big delivery to go to Brighton!"
Edward smiled at the young tank engine, "Why not tell us about it Thomas?" He suggested, "It might help us all get some sleep."
Thomas beamed excitedly, "Really, you all want to hear it?"
"Yes!" All the engines agreed, and listened to Thomas' tale.
"Well, this one day was hot in the summer." Thomas giggled, "I was just busy in Brighton, doing some shunting."
It was a hot day in Brighton, the sun shone brightly and there was barely a cloud in the sky. At the yard, Thomas, the little teal tank engine was busy shunting some trucks into their sidings. Still new to shunting, Thomas made many mistakes – accidentally bumping into a lot of them and knocking their contents out of them.
Thomas slowly puffed off to the water tower for a break and to have a nice, long drink. Even though he was still learning, and having a lot of difficulties with the trucks, Thomas was happy – especially when his friends were around.
Just then, Thomas heard a familiar whistle, and looked ahead. He saw Heather, the tank engine who was slightly bigger than him, steam over with a train of trucks. Thomas liked Heather, she was almost like a big sister to him.
"Hey Heather!" Thomas cheered excitedly.
Heather couldn't help but smile at the innocent, young tank engine, "Good morning Thomas. You're very cheerful."
"I've been shunting all day!" Thomas beamed, "Regis and Jonathan have been helping me! Oh! And Wanda even gave me a lesson!"
"That's wonderful!" Heather laughed, "Well, if you go to the station, I believe Manager has a job for you."
"F-For me?" Thomas stuttered, "W-Why me?"
Heather just winked, "You'll see."
Thomas was confused, but didn't ask any more questions, and hurried towards the station platform, leaving Heather in a cloud of steam. Heather just giggled as she watched the eager little tank engine puff away.
Thomas quickly approached the platform at the station, and came to a quick halt. The Manager was waiting for him, and almost fell over in surprise of the eager, young engine.
"Hello sir!" Thomas peeped.
"Good morning Thomas." The Manager boomed, "I have an important job for you, I need you to head outside of the Railway to Southampton, in the London and South West Railway."
"Oh..." Thomas muttered nervously, "Y-Yes sir..." Thomas was very nervous, he has never been outside of his Railway before.
"That's a good engine, of you go then." The Manager chuckled, as he watched Thomas slowly leave the platform.
Thomas slowly made his way along the tracks, but he was scared. He wasn't sure where to go, or who to ask for directions.
Heather steamed over, in a bubbly mood, "Hiya Thomas! Did you get your new job? Did you?!"
"Yeah Heather, but..." Thomas looked down nervously, "I...don't know how to get to South...Southampton."
"Ohh!" Heather giggled, "Don't worry, do you want me to go with you?"
"If it's okay..." Thomas smiled a bit.
Heather giggled joyfully and steamed ahead, "Well come on slowcoach!"
Thomas couldn't help but laugh as he raced after the female tank engine.
After a very long journey, Thomas and Heather began to approach Southampton. Thomas was expected to work at Southampton Port, so that was where he and Heather headed. Thomas was still very nervous – he wasn't sure what his important job was, or where he was.
"Aha, here we are! We're approaching Southampton Port!" Heather called out to Thomas on the other line.
Thomas was now very nervous, but he began to take in his surroundings. It was a very busy port, and he could clearly see the big ships and cranes around the yard.
As the two tank engines began to explore, Thomas looked ahead and gasped in eagerness!
Ahead, he could see a tank engine, a tank engine who looked exactly like him!
"Hey!" Thomas called out excitedly, as he buzzed down the line! Heather just watched in amusement and smiled as she saw the tank engine Thomas was going towards.
The tank engine did look exactly like Thomas. However, she was painted in a light brown paintwork, with LBSC in yellow letters on her tanks. Face wise, she looked almost exactly like Thomas, with slightly thinner eyebrows, and a small beauty mark above her lip on her left.
"Fawn! Fawn!"
The engine looked around and saw Thomas steam up to her, she giggled at the sight, "Thomas! So good to see you!"
"You too sister!" Thomas laughed excitedly, glad to finally be with one of his many brothers and sisters.
"Look at you little brother! You're teal paintwork looks gorgeous!" Fawn giggled.
Thomas couldn't help but laugh with his sister. Heather just watched the beautiful scene – she knew very well that Thomas always wanted to spend some time with his many siblings, but he has never had the chance too.
"So, do you know what my important job is?" Thomas asked, eager to get to work.
"You mean 'our' important job!" Fawn laughed.
"'Our'? What do you mean?" Thomas wondered, puzzled.
Fawn couldn't help but giggle, "Look! We're all here! All of us E2's! Look!" As she looked ahead. Thomas looked ahead, and gasped excitedly, beaming from buffer to buffer!
Ahead, there were all of Thomas' brothers and sisters, busy at work, shunting and hauling trucks and vans to where they need to be! Thomas was excited!
"I-Is everyone here?!" Thomas asked eagerly, as he and Fawn set forward to join them.
"Sure are!" Fawn confirmed eagerly, "See! There is Matthew, and there's Reginald, oh! And here's Chloe and Holly! And right there is Louis and Theodore! Aha! There's Abigail! And over there is Paul and Oscar!"
Thomas gasped excitedly, and couldn't help but whistle! All the other E2's stopped what they were doing, and eagerly rushed over to greet their youngest sibling! They were all excited!
"Thomas!" They all cried out eagerly, whistling with him!
"Hey everyone!" Thomas peeped excitedly, "It's great to see you all again!"
"It's great to see you too Thomas!" Holly squealed excitedly!
"Ready to show us how well you can shunt?" Reginald laughed cheekily.
"We got to shunt all these trucks and vans into place for a big order along the south!" Oscar called out!
"Think your up to it?" Abigail winked mischievously.
"Let's do it!" Thomas laughed, as they all whistled together and sped off to do their work!
Thomas was having fun, all morning and throughout the afternoon, he and his brothers and sisters just shunted and hauled trucks and vans to where they were needed. Thomas was just happy to be with them again.
All this time, Thomas has always wanted to spend time with his brothers and sisters, but due to them all working in separate places on the Railway, and due to the amount of work...they barely had any time to see each other.
At one point in the afternoon, Thomas stopped at the water tower to fill his tanks. He began to worry now. He was so excited to be working with his brothers and sisters after so long, but he now didn't want to leave them later that day.
As Thomas rested on the siding, Matthew and Chloe steamed over, shunted a few trucks onto a siding. They could see their little brother looking sad.
"Hey Thomas, what is wrong?" Matthew asked, puffing closer to the teal tank engine.
"Is everything alright?" Chloe wondered, gently buffering up to Thomas.
"I..." Thomas looked down sadly, "I'm just a little sad...I wish we could work together all the time. Once this is done, I'll have to go back to Brighton...and I'll never see you all again."
As Thomas lamented, his other brothers and sisters began to gather around too, and they all shared a worried look between one another. But they all looked towards their little brother and smiled towards him.
"We all want to work together all the time too." Paul said.
"But we all have our own jobs to do." Louis commented.
"But that doesn't mean we'll never see each other." Theodore beamed.
"We will still see each other." Fawn soothed, "But that is why we will make every second count."
Thomas slowly looked up towards his brothers and sisters, and he slowly began to smile. The spark in his face brightened up their day.
"Come on Thomas." Fawn encouraged with a cheeky grin, "Let's show all those big engines we tank engines mean business!"
Thomas giggled cheekily, "Let's do it!"
Together the E2's whistled, and sped off!
Together they shunted all afternoon. These little tank engines held their ground, and shunted the trucks and vans into position, ready for collection by the much larger engines. Thomas was very happy indeed, improving his shunting skills and spending time with his wonderful brothers and sisters, Thomas just beamed!
The big engines all watched in shock as the little tank engines did their work. They were like bees in a hive, and they had a train ready within minutes. Many of them grumbled or threw an insult towards the tank engines – but they didn't care.
Working together to defend one another, Thomas and his siblings would sneak up and whistle rudely, or let off steam viciously towards them – leaving the engines spluttering in a cloud of steam!
By the evening, the big job was complete, and all the trains were on their way to the railways. The little tank engines all gathered together for a rest before they setted off for their home. They refilled with water and coal, and just gossiped upon one another.
Thomas had enjoyed every second of that day. He had the best fun he has had in a long time, and he finally got to spend time with his brothers and sisters!
And he couldn't wait for the next time they would meet again!
"And we would meet again many times after that." Thomas giggled, "It wasn't frequent, but whenever we did get together, every second would count – so we never wasted a second together."
All the engines listened in awe to Thomas' story. They enjoyed listening to the story, and adored the happy ending – even Gordon seemed impressed.
"That was a lovely story Thomas." Edward chuckled, breaking the silence. All the engines agreed.
"Your brothers and sisters sound amazing!" Percy peeped!
"So happy and cheerful! All there for one another!" Emily giggled.
"I can't imagine 10 other little Thomas' around the yard..." James moaned cheekily, causing the other engines to laugh.
"At least they'd be useful." Henry chuckled.
"For shunting my express coaches." Gordon laughed to himself, and the other engines couldn't help but laugh!
"Maybe I'll tell you another tale." Thomas giggled, "But let's get some sleep."
All the engines agreed, and with smiles on their smokeboxes, they dozed into a well earned sleep.
Okay, if my history serves me right, there were only 10 LB&SCR E2 Class tank engines built. And in TTTE, Thomas is one of them - I suppose that'd make 11, as all 10 of the E2's are scrapped, I don't get how it works XD - so I decided to do just a quick one-shot of Thomas spending time with his siblings 3 Not my best work I've ever done ^^; but it's better than nothing XD