The Front Line
Chapter One
It was a dark December night on the Island of Sodor, the chance of an air raid was immanent. With the frost on the ground making the engines work twice as hard, they all tried to keep there spirits up, after all that was the only ay they were going to win the war. Henry had been ordered to go to Barrow-In-Furness to pick up 2 new engines that had just come out of service from British Rail. As he approached the bridge between Sodor and the main land, he had to stop in the passing loop to let a coal train pass him, while they were waiting the signalman talking on the emergency phone next to Henry. He looked angry, he was speaking to they yard foreman at Tidmouth, all Henry heard was "...well where is he? I have just signalled number 3 into the loop and he needs to pick up the new engines. Where is the coal train? Oh for fuck sake is there another loco that can take the train. No? Right then, I'll tell him. Goodbye" He ran back to the signal box and picked up his phone, he seemed anxious. After about 20 minutes they heard something, it as the 2 new engines thundering along the line. You could see the twin columns of steam, bellowing out of the locos, for miles around. They were very big, they had 10 driving wheels. This astonished Henry, he had never seen such an engine, but they were very dirty, and covered in scares and dents. Henry whistled to them but no answer came. He pondered for a moment, and then his driver was told to go back to the shed and await further instructions.
When Henry got back to the shed he saw the new engines, so he went up and said hello. "Hello my name is Henry" he said eagerly. The engines just gave him a blank stare, and continued with talking to there fitters. Henry went into his berth in the shed; the other engines asked Henry about the engines but he had nothing to tell them. One of the firemen came up and said "They both ex-war department engines and have help with the ammunitions trains, so be nice." The other engines didn't know what to say, but then Henry added "They were sent to France to help fight against the Nazis," Gordon replied rather rudely "Well i hope they don't think they can boss us around just because they are ex-WD" Just then they heard a tremendous noise from outside, one of the engine's safety valves had lifted. But his driver acted quickly and got him under control. Once they had been checked over the inspection pit, the Fat Controller came to tell them there jobs; they brought them onto the turntable so the other engines could introduce them selves. The first engine was Called Gordon and its number could just be made out under all the grease and soot, it was 73651, the other engine was called Sturdee, and the number was 73652. Gordon (Number 4) took an instant dislike to Gordon (73651). Percy was staring deeply into the scars on Gordon's face, "Anything interesting?" Gordon suddenly said in old tired voice. "Oh...s-s-sorry" murmured Percy. "Its no problem really, i don't mind anymore" replied Gordon. "How did they happen?" Thomas inquired. "Errrm...if you don't mind we have to get our ammunition train" replied Gordon in an odd way. The engines all looked at each other. Something was wrong.