This is my first fanfiction, so I hope that I can receive any constructive criticism. Thank you!

Five engines sat in a shed, complaining and grumbling. "It's not fair that all of you are main characters in books, but I'm in only one!" the diesel said, crossly. "Oh, do be quiet, you metal box!" a red steam engine called out. A yellow engine spoke up, trying to break up the argument, "Mike, you can't even pull your trains properly! You shouldn't be talking." The diesel looked at the yellow engine, then at Mike, and then smiled. "See? Jock's taking my side, as he clearly can see who will win this."

"That's not what he's trying to do!" The green and blue engines said. "How would you know? It's not like either of you can pull a trailer, let alone pull an engine and an entire train along with it!" the diesel snorted. The grumbling and arguments grew only louder, and it seemed to be heard for miles around. Two small diesels pulled up alongside the shed. "Mike," one chuckled, "you'd better calm down. You wouldn't want your injector to fail again!" the two identical diesels chuckled. "Watch out Frank! You don't want to smash something other than the shed wall!" the second one remarked.

The two diesels ran off to collect some hoppers from the ballast mines, and could still be heard chuckling, long after they departed from the sheds. The dispute soon stopped when the Small Controller came to give the small engines their duties. "Mike and Bert," he spoke sternly, "you two are going to be pulling passenger trains with Sigrid. Frank, you are to be on shunting duty at the mines today. And Rex," he said, turning to the green engine. "I need you to help pull ballast trains today. We have had a very large order lately, as Sir Topham Hatt says the lines on his railway need to be re-ballasted.

Soon, all the engines set off for their jobs.

All except for one.

Frank had encountered an engine failure and was unable to run. He had to stay in the shed until a standard gauge engine could come and get him to the works. This had the Small Controller thinking. Lately the work loads have been getting very large. He thought to himself. If another engine were to have a failure, we could not be able to perform as well, and might risk being shut down. He thought, nervously.

We need some more engines.