Lee's Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

Stories

Grouch

On the Island of Sodor there are always troublesome trucks and silly freight vans that cause no end of disruption and cause confusion and delay, but since the demise of the Spiteful Breakvan and S.C. Ruffey a few years back, no truck has dared be as troublesome as the engines know how to get the better of them. However, a new truck was slowly gaining a reputation for being the meanest on Sodor, his name was Grouch. He only smiled when he caused offense to engines and he loved insulting any train he could and due to the reputation he was gaining, the other trucks in the yards sang a song of warning to all the engines.
"He may be tough, you will say ouch. No-one can stop you from that devious Grouch!" they sang this again and again and laughed after they finished. The engines in the yard at that moment whistled loudly to keep them quiet.
"Stop it!" cried Emily
"Be quiet!" demanded Duck, but the trucks started singing once again while Grouch looked on.
"He may be tough, you will say ouch. No-one can stop you from that devious Grouch!"
"Stop it this instant!" shouted Emily.
"Why don't you shut up you little Scot?" gruffed Grouch angrily. Emily felt very insulted and she left off steam in anger and directed it straight at Grouch. Emily then steamed off as she didn't want to stay at the yards being insulted. Duck had to stay and mind the trucks, but then all of a sudden he heard Mavis' horn. She was towing BoCo to the yards. When she stopped, she told Duck that since BoCo had broken down, he had been told to come and mind the yards. Duck accepted and once BoCo was in place, Duck and Mavis left. The trucks fell silent as BoCo looked on at them with a stern face, but then Grouch decided to have a say.
"Oh would you look at that..." he said in a harsh voice "BoCo is a NoGo!" The trucks immediately laughed at the joke and grouched roared with laughter aswell. Poor BoCo couldn't move and couldn't blast his horn, he could only shout, but the incessant laughter of the trucks drowned out his voice. It stayed like this for the rest of the day.

That night at Tidmouth Sheds, engines gathered to talk about the Grouch situation. They had already spoken to the Fat Controller about the issue, but he told them to ignore it, the engines couldn't.
"He is a disgrace to Sodor!" said Gordon
"He knows no good..." added Percy. Soon enough, more engines arrived and even some Diesels did too.
"Diesel? Why are you here?" asked Thomas
"I am not fond of Grouch either...he called me a Disease..." he then replied. James tried to not laugh at this, he didn't, but his face went into an odd expression.
"It's a shame Edward isn't here anymore..." said Henry "Grouch wouldn't have stood a chance against him!" Everyone agreed. The gathering then continued and most engines spoke of their disgust of Grouch.
"We should chuck him in the sea!" declared Salty.
"Send him to the Smelters..." suggested Fergus.
"Get Cranky to drop something on him!" added Daisy.
"Just get rid of him!" shouted Annie and Clarabel. "He said we should be scrapped! How dare he!"
"I agree with all of you..." said Toad in his low voice "But we have to do it discretely or the Fat Controller will be mad at us. He'll punish us."
"Hmmm..." deliberated Gordon. "If we have the chance, anyone of us, we will try and rid Sodor of him, but as Toad said, do it discretely..." The engines all agreed and made their way home and went to sleep.

Morning came and the attempts to get Grouch off Sodor were now in force. At Brendam Docks, Stanley was pushing trucks along for Cranky to load, one of these trucks was Grouch. Stanley hoped Cranky would 'accidentally' drop goods onto Grouch and destroy him. Cranky did drop goods, but not onto Grouch, they landed onto some other trucks.
"Miss did ya'?" remarked Grouch.
"No" replied Stanley "Just a little accident..." but he wished they hadn't missed. Later on that day at the Quarry, Bill and Ben were taking trucks to be filled. Grouch had now been moved here by BoCo after he'd been fixed and placed him directly at a crossing at the Quarry where Derek would soon be on his way. Derek then came into view, but just short of the crossing his engine stopped.
"Not again!" cried Derek. Grouch laughed loudly.
"You can't get rid of me!" he said. Bill and Ben whistled loudly in anger and Grouch just laughed even more. He was now really getting on everyone's nerves.

The day carried on and Grouch was moved around most of the Fat Controller's Railway where various attempts to get rid of him were tried. First of all, Harvey lifted him over and placed him on his back, but Grouch insulted everyone even more, and then the Fat Controller came and saw what was happening.
"What's going on here, Harvey?" he asked
"Er...um...I lifted him up by error, Sir! Sorry..." Harvey replied. The Fat Controller accepted and made his way. As soon as he was out of view, Grouch started the insults yet again.
"Ugly...Ugly...Ugly...Ugly...that's what you are Harvey! UGLY!" he shrieked. Harvey then gave up and the next attempt came at the turntables. Toby placed Grouch in the centre of the turntable and as it spun he hoped as he had no brakes, he would be flung off and destroyed, but it didn't happen. Grouch just enjoyed the spin on the turntable.
"It's like a funfair ride!" he said and then laughed. Toby couldn't believe it. Numerous attempts then carried on and no-one succeeded. James, Dennis, Molly, Murdoch, Neville, Oliver and Thomas all tried after this, but got nowhere. Grouch just smiled each time as they failed.
"Am I really this liked?" Grouch asked jokingly. "None of you can seem to leave me alone!" Once again, Grouch just laughed. The engines were now ready to give up.

The next morning the engines woke up to another day of attempts to try and get rid of Grouch, but no-one could be bothered after the previous day's failures. Meanwhile, at Brendam Docks, Grouch was in the sidings with the sea both in front and behind him.
"Ahhh! Beautiful day for insulting engines!" he said. The other trucks agreed and once again sang.
"He may be tough, you will say ouch. No-one can stop you from that devious Grouch!" Everyone at the Docks had now had enough.
"BE QUIET!" demanded Gordon, but Grouch responded with an insult.
"Oh look, it's the bog-eyed Blue Monster!" He chuckled with delight, but this would soon be cut short as Clark and Arthur were struggling with some silly trucks. They forced themselves greatly and put pressure on the couplings. Arthur managed just but Clark's trucks broke the coupling and they were off. Grouch didn't know that the trucks had been diverted into the siding where he was. He noticed, but it was too late.
"Oh bother…" called Grouch just before the trucks slammed into him. They all groaned with pain but the force of the impact carried them on and further down the siding they went and then they broke through the buffers and fell. Unfortunately, Bulstrode was waiting below the siding when they landed in his hull. They went smash and crash, but luckily for Bulstrode, his hull had been reinforced, so he didn't sink.
"Third time lucky, I suppose!" he mumbled to himself. Eventually, the scene of the accident was cleared and the majority of the trucks were fine, but some weren't. As workmen unearthed the trucks, they found that Grouch was destroyed. Falling into Bulstrode's hull had done significant damage anyway, but more trucks on top of him had destroyed him entirely.

The news soon spread and all engines and diesels celebrated with delight. The trucks now knew what would happen if they misbehaved like Grouch had, but the trucks didn't take long until a new leader of them was in charge.
"You will cower in fear. Here is our new boss. You best not get her angry as her name is Joss!" sang the trucks and they cackled with laughter. Everyone was now wary of Joss, but would she ever be as mean as Grouch?