10:10 a.m., Sunday, November 18th, 1951
Toby the Tram Engine had recently been painted chocolate brown with blue sideplates as a reward for helping James the red and vain engine after his accident with some tar wagons. He was showing himself off to Thomas at the shed in Ffarquhar, where he asked.
"What do you think of my new livery?"
"Seems attractive," replied Thomas. "You could catch a lot of eyes with that colour."
"Thank you," smiled Toby.
Then Thomas asked.
"What made you pick these colors anyway?"
"I thought I could look as good as you, perhaps even outshining James' paintwork since none of my brothers had blue cowcatchers. Just boring, dull gray ones. And speaking of James, he called me and Henrietta dirty objects because of the way I looked, but after what happened to him, he won't be bothering me with that attitude again."
Thomas narrowed his eyes.
"I'll speak to him about it after I take Annie and Clarabel on my noon run."
When Thomas met James at Knapford junction at 12:00, he told him about Toby.
"I'm ashamed of you, James. Calling Toby and his coach dirty just because they needed some new paint? Your vanity has gone too far this time."
"Never mind," said James. "I know better now."
And he puffed away without another word.
Back at the sheds, that afternoon, Thomas told Toby about James.
"He says he knows better now, but I know he'll recover from his accident."
"And he'll be back to his old self, but probably a little wiser," added Toby. "He will learn to be friends with me just as I did with Edward and Percy."
A short while as they rested in the sun, Thomas said.
"You know, being friends with you reminds me of the time Christopher learned to make friends with other children brought over here by Sir Nicholas Winton."
"What does this Sir Nicholas have to do with this?"
"Sir Nicholas Winton saved 600 Jewish children from Nazi Germany," said Thomas.
"Care to tell us about it?" asked Annie, Clarabel and Henrietta from the carriage shed.
"It's a very dark tale," said Thomas. "One that speaks of barbarism and indignity. Things were very bad over in enemy territory, but we didn't know about any of these concentration camps until Gordon's driver told us from his ham friends that the Jewish people, including children, were being forced into slavery. They had to work extra hard. If they didn't, they would be killed...or so I've been told."
"How awful," said Toby with sympathy. "I had heard about these Nazis from my passengers and they were wicked! At least the lorries who worked on my old railway weren't as wicked as them."
"Exactly," replied Thomas. "The Nazis wanted it to be that way because they thought they were better than everyone else, but no one is perfect. Look at James, he thinks he's better than every other engine and he got his punishment when he crashed into those tar wagons. Anyway, about Sir Nicholas, he was dubbed the country's answer to Oskar Schindler, who as driver told me, also rescued a handful of Jews. Two years before Christopher came, a train arrived at Vicarstown to drop off a group of Czechoslovakian children. Some of them could not even speak English and hardly any of them were accompanied by their mothers and fathers. Gordon took half of them to boarding houses along the main line while I took the last three, who went by the names of Anna, Helmut and Josef back here to Ffarquhar."
"Did they like it here?" asked Toby.
"Those three found it to be very peaceful and not quite as rough as it was back in the old country. The schools taught them English as well as math and anatomy. When Christopher started to live here, he and my driver's daughter Diana became friends with the trio, especially Josef, who was about a year older than him. Over time, I began to see that Christopher was looking up to Josef as the older brother he never had. He was even growing distant from some of his London school friends who had escaped a sinking ship. I told him he should spend more time with me, but he refused."
"'Listen, Thomas,' he said. 'I haven't had a human friend to spend time with since Diana, and she's a girl.'"
"'She could also be your future wife,' I joked. Christopher just took this too seriously and stuck his tongue out at me. But he kept good behavior when Sir Nicholas visited the island to see how his 'children' were doing. Josef did the same and after that he invited Christopher and the other Jewish to a Sabbath. It took place over in the old house close to the level crossing that separates the town from the quarry. I soon put the older boys to work at the quarry so that they could earn their keep…with the Fat Director's permission of course."
"Did your director say anything…defensive about this?" asked Toby.
"He told me not to overwork them too hard, and that the decision would be the responsibility of his and the quarry manager's. But then some of them started complaining, comparing their jobs to what they thought the Nazis were doing to their parents back home. I tried to defend myself, but it was Christopher who told them: 'You're in a free country now, and we still have a war to win.' That made them behave better and Christopher soon got tired of being with Josef most of the time and he went straight back to me. After Christopher had gone home, some of the children, including Anna and Helmut, went back home as well, but some like Josef chose to stay behind to start a new life. He still works at the quarry now and he even still wears that star on his vest as a proud reminder of his heritage."
"I think I might I have seen Josef just the other day," Toby said. "He was wearing a star on his vest, just like you said."
"That's him," smiled Thomas. "And maybe he'll tell you his side of the story tomorrow when you take the workmen to the quarry."
Toby did just that the following day. He met Josef, who told him his side of the story and then corrected Toby about Thomas' take on how the Nazis treated his people. They were being exterminated out of pure hatred, but Toby was very certain that such atrocities like this would never happen to them again.