It was a bright, clear morning on the Island of Sodor. Knapford Station was as busy as usual, with several trains entering and leaving. One train, however, wasn't moving - Gordon the Big Engine sat at the platform, quietly dozing. Suddenly, a familiar whistle blew and he woke with a start.
"Huh?"
"Well, hello, lazybones! Catching on beauty sleep, are we?" Gordon groaned as Thomas pulled into the other platform with a cheeky smirk.
"I happen to be waiting for Philip to bring me my coaches, little Thomas." However, his coaches were still nowhere nearby. He scowled.
"Philip?"
"Just a minute, Gordon!" Philip was hurriedly bringing express coaches from the yard to the station. Thomas chuckled.
"Oh yes, you do end up waiting a lot when you're slow, don't you, Gordon?" Gordon spluttered.
"I'm not slow!" Thomas snorted with laughter. Gordon gritted his teeth and harrumphed loudly.
"I'm an important express engine; I don't have time for this! I'm going to have a go at my speed record today, and I don't need you to distract me!" He smirked proudly, only to be bumped from behind by Philip and the coaches. He glared back at Philip, who smiled sheepishly.\
"Sorry!" Gordon's passengers climbed aboard, and the guard blew his whistle and waved his green flag. The big engine grinned proudly as he began to pull out of the station.
"See you at the end of the day, little Thomas! Express coming through!" With that,
Gordon rolled out onto the junction and towards the main line. Philip rolled alongside Thomas as they watched Gordon leave.
"He's so fast!" Philip gushed. Thomas rolled his eyes.
"Puffed up, too." He remarked, before chuckling.
Gordon rumbled along the main line, his coaches rattling behind him as his wheels pounded the rails. The wind was in his face and beneath his wheels as he rattled through Edward's station, where Henry was waiting in the platform with a goods train.
"Good morning, Gordon!" The big green engine called, and he whistled back in response. Gordon approached his hill and climbed it furiously, steam erupting from his funnel.
"Not today!" He panted, and finally managed to climb over the top and come speeding down the other side. His driver checked a stopwatch he was holding in the cab, and stuck his out the window, grinning.
"Well done, old boy! The record's almost ours!" Gordon smirked, and he thundered onwards towards Kellsthorpe Road. James was travelling in the other direction with a passenger train, and braked into the platform before noticing Gordon's approach and braking.
"Hello, Gordon! Have you noticed my shiny new paint-PHWOAR!" As Gordon braked to a halt, he slid through a puddle, splashing the red engine with mud. James spat furiously as Gordon ground to a halt, laughing.
"GORDON! I JUST GOT REPAINTED!"
"Cheer up, little James. It's nothing a routine washdown can't fix!" Gordon chuckled as passengers disembarked from his coaches and more boarded. James snorted.
"Easy for you to say! You're not the one covered in mud!" Gordon simply laughed and James scowled. However, an idea flew into his funnel, and the red engine grinned smugly.
"Gordon! You'll never guess who I saw at Vicarstown today!" However, before Gordon could reply, the guard's whistle blew and he started off.
"We'll have to chat later, James; I'm having a go at my record!" James spluttered as Gordon sped out of the station, leaving the mud-covered red engine behind.
"B-but, but...oh, COME ON!"
Gordon rumbled along the line, his coaches coming easily along behind him. He passed engines pulling trains on other lines. Passenger trains, goods trains, light engine...Gordon outsped them all. The record was sure to be his, and he was getting so close to Vicarstown, the station at the end of the line, and the last on his journey.
"This'll show silly little Thomas that I've still got it," He smirked. As he approached the station, he could see a large crowd of people on the platform, many with cameras. At the center of the crowd was an engine, though Gordon couldn't quite make out who it was.
"Nearly there, Gordon! You're so close!" However, as Gordon drew closer to the station, he suddenly gasped.
"No! Not him!" Quickly, Gordon began to slow down, and his driver gasped.
"Gordon! What are you doing? Speed up!" Try as he might, the driver couldn't get him to speed up again, and the big engine sidled quietly into the station, trying not to be noticed. When Gordon finally came to a halt, the driver and fireman stepped out of the cab in shock.
"What's gotten into you, Gordon?" The fireman asked. Gordon hastily tried to shush him, but the driver continued.
"If you hadn't slowed down in the junction, you would have beaten your record! We were so close!" Gordon tried to shush him again, but it was too late. A suave voice rang out over the station that made the big blue engine freeze in his tracks.
"Is that my little brother over there?" Across the station, an engine that looked rather similar to Gordon was being photographed by a lot of people, but they parted like the Red Sea to see what had gotten his attention. Gordon grimaced as he saw the engine's all-too-familiar green paint, smoke deflectors, two tenders, and a nameplate above his splasher that read…
"Flying Scotsman." He hissed under his breath, before groaning loudly at being noticed. Flying Scotsman laughed.
"Now now, Gordon, that's no way to greet your big brother, is it?" The photographers buzzed.
"His brother?"
"His brother?" Gordon, however, scowled at Flying Scotsman.
"What are you doing here?" He snapped, in a way less grand than he normally would. The famous engine smirked widely.
"I was just competing in a good old fashioned race with Spencer here!" To Gordon's surprise, his silver streamlined rival emerged from behind Scotsman, his face red with embarrassment.
"Hey."
"As you may be able to tell...I won." Scotsman chuckled. Gordon groaned even louder.
"Great, racing about on the main line, whoop-de-doo! Probably causing all sorts of delays with your recklessness! I-"
"It was for a good cause, Gordon." Gordon raised an eyebrow as his brother smirked at him.
"What cause would that be, Scott?" He snapped. The bigger brother grinned.
"Why, to see who Britain's Great Race competitor would be in this year's Great Railway Show of course!" As the station erupted into cheers, Gordon's stare remained blank. Scotsman raised an eyebrow.
"The Great Railway Show? Where engines compete to see who's the fastest, the strongest, what have you-"
"I KNOW WHAT IT IS!" Gordon snapped. Spencer snorted from behind Scotsman.
"Temper, temper!" He muttered under his breath. Flying Scotsman, however, remained focused on his brother.
"I'm not sure any engines from Sodor will be going...are they, Gordon?" Gordon harrumphed.
"Well, I'm not. Childish racing is beneath me. Have fun with your silly race!" He looked away, as if he had made his point. Spencer raised an eyebrow.
"We just raced yesterday…" He muttered.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were afraid to lose!" Gordon stopped dead in his tracks, to look back at his brother's smarmy, smirking face.
"What did you say?" He asked, with bated breath. His driver knew Gordon was getting upset, and pat his side.
"Easy, Gordon. I know you're upset about not beating your record today, but-"
"You couldn't beat your own record, Gordon!" Scotsman laughed, and Spencer joined in, causing the big engine to blush with shame. Flying Scotsman grinned at Gordon.
"Well, Gordon, seeing as the Great Railway Show is right around the corner, I think it'd be great fun if you came! Two brothers, racing side by side! Of course, I'd win, but-"
"Who says you'd win?" Gordon interrupted. Flying Scotsman was surprised at first, but raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
"Now that's more like it! Gordon, I expect to see you at the Great Railway Show in one month's time, where you and I shall compete in the Great Race!" The photographers cheered, and even Gordon smirked.
"You're on! I'll win with both buffers tied behind my tender!" To his surprise, Scotsman simply chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just that...if you can't beat your own record, how can you beat me?" With that, Flying Scotsman's guard's whistle blew, and the big engine began rolling away towards the Mainland, leaving a spluttering Gordon behind.
"Flying Scotsman, coming through!" As Scotsman disappeared from the station, Spencer kept laughing before Gordon shot a sharp glare at him.
"You're at the bottom of this totem pole; you lost to both of us!" The streamlined engine fell silent, leaving Gordon to scowl down the line his brother had travelled.
CHASE & DON'S
THE GREAT RACE!
Chase: Welcome to the first collaboration between Don (DonaldDouglasandToby6) and I, a rewrite of The Great Race. The canon special is infamously haphazard and kind of poorly structured, so we're excited to bring this hopefully more coherent version of this story to you! Our goal here was to take the same elements that went into the actual special, and, while taking some away and adding more in, to make something good out of it. This special will feature five songs, including an original one, "Good, Better, Best", which you can check out on SoundCloud, as well as modified versions of "Will You, Won't You" and "Streamlining" from the canon special. The characters are different, the story's different, so overall we want you all to view this as both a rewrite of the canon Great Race, and its own story.
Don: Hey! As Chase said, there are a lot of changes in this version compared to the original. Quite a few characters have had their roles expanded here while in the original, they didn't do as much. These include Henry, Stephen, Caitlin and Philip, among others. In fact, Gordon is now the main character instead of Thomas. It's something we both would have liked to see and hope we can capture. Some of what was in the original story was also taken out, such as Diesel's subplot because frankly, there wasn't much point in it to begin with. Thomas' role is heavily downgraded, though not gone completely, so we'll still see him pop up now and again. Ashima's role is also decreased, as she doesn't have anyone to act as life coach to. So which other international engine will be getting the focus? Well, you'll just have to want and see on that one.
Excited for this project to get under way! Come back soon to see the next chapter, where the engines ask an age-old question: Who Will Go to the Show?