Part 2 of 4. Not to say except that in this story, you'll get reintroduced to an old friend from the first two versions of the Railway Series/Shuffle, and one of the Shuffle characters gets mentioned in here. See if you can guess who that girl is.

Street Running

THUNK! Thomas' wheels hit the rails hard, "ouch!" he cried, "be careful up there, I'm over ninty years old you know." The Crane above sorted and went back to work. Thomas' crew soon joined him on the pier, and they too were in shock.

"How in Sodor's name did we end up in Japan?" asked the fireman.

"You got me," said the Driver. "It's impossible to mix up two ships with two different names. Unless..." he thought back to what happened at the harbour, "the clipboard. When it fell, it must've gotten soaked and ruined the name on the forms."

"Clumsy fool, just wait till I see him again," grumbled the fireman.

"I'm sure it was just an accident, it could've happened to anyone."

Just then, an important looking man came over in a fancy suit. He took one look at Thomas and gave a puzzling look, "you're not our new engine, what are you doing here?"

"It's a rather long story," explained the Driver.

He and the fireman explained everything. As they did so, Thomas spotted another steam engine coming into the dockyards. She was painted black with white lining and had a plate which read 'CJR No 1'. The engine also had a wheel arrangement of two front wheels, six driving wheels and two back wheels.

"Hello there, who are you?" asked Thomas.

"I'm Courtney, one of the engines of this railway, and you I'm sure are Thomas the Tank Engine."

Thomas was surprised, "you know me?"

"Duh, of course I know you. Everyone in Japan knows you. Your television show and books can found in any city in this country, not to mention that I see little kids with toy trains that look just like you. But what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on Sodor?"

"That's my crew is explaining right now."

"...and with the papers wet," said the Driver, "everything got mixed up and that's how we ended up here."

"I see," said the important looking man in the suit. "Well I suppose moments like this can happen. Sadly, that ship you just came in on is not heading to Canada or Sodor, I'll need to check to see which one will be going to either place. Till then," he continued, "the railway could use some help as we're short one engine and our new tank engine has not arrived yet."

"New tank engine?" Thomas asked.

"Oh yes, former Pennsylvania No 2469 was recently bought for the railway, but it appears he's been delayed, so I hope you don't mind helping out."

Thomas thought about it, then agreed to help, "it's better than sitting around doing nothing."

"Excellent, Courtney here will show you what to do." The man was about to leave, but stopped and added, "welcome to the Central Japan Railway." He then left for his office.

Courtney lead Thomas down to a little yard where they found loads of trucks waiting to be used. Some had the american style knuckle couplings while others had chains.

"Why does your railway have such a huge collection of trucks?" Thomas asked.

"It's because we have several engines in the fleet," explained Courtney. "There are three british tender engines, a tank engine attached to a coach working a branch line, and a chinese built QJ, now that's a big fellow I can tell you. Along with our new tank engine, we're due to get our own No 2, which is a replica of a D60 steam engine."

"A replica? But wouldn't it be better to use one of the surviving engines?" Thomas asked.

"Possibly, but they are three foot gauge and we're standard gauge. No 2 and I are replicas of Japanese National Railway steam engines, having been built during this decade of the 21st century."

Courtney's Driver interupted, "that will do Courtney, that goods train needs to go."

Courtney felt silly. Sometimes she had a tendacy to go on and on. She told Thomas which trucks he had to take and the Driver gave the crew her mobile GPS so they would know of where to go.

"Blimey that's a long way's off," exclaimed Thomas' Driver.

"Oh well, I could use a long run to strecth my wheels," smiled Thomas.

He was coupled up to the trucks and slowly made his way out of the dockyards. Courtney called out to him, "careful as you go Thomas! Our lines run through the city streets, you'll have to blow your whistle to warn others you are there!"

Courtney wasn't kidding. The tracks ran right through the streets, and Thomas found himself blowing his whistle alot more than he would on Sodor. Cars, buses and lorries stayed away from him, but there were some that drove too close.

"Hey back off!" cried Thomas and blew an emergency whistle. That would scare the drivers and they would drive away.

It was exhausting going through the city streets, but he found that going through the city, he could see tall skyscrapers that towered over him and there were plenty of beautiful bridges. He also passed other railways that carried either electric trains or the high speed trains through the city and into other areas of Japan.

After some time, Thomas reached a plaza where several workmen were waiting for him.

"Oh good, the supplies for the shops. Thank you so much," they said. However they spoke in Japanese, and Thomas couldn't understand them. The trucks translated for him, then laughed rudely.

"Sodor or Japan, it doesn't matter, trucks will be trucks," grumbled Thomas to himself.

He was soon on his way back to the docks. Since there was no way to turn him, Thomas had to go back down the line bunker first. His Driver kept a good look out, and kept blowing the whistle to warn others. Thomas was worried, he had dealt with drivers going over the crossings in the past when they're not suppose to, but those moments were not as scary as street running.

He was almost to the docks when suddenly, "look out!" cried a voice.

The Driver had looked away for a second to attend to the controls, and when he heard that voice, he looked back and saw a lorry had stopped at a set of traffic lights, leaving the trailer across the tracks.

"Oh blimey!" he cried. He slammed on the brakes and blew the whistle hard, hoping the Driver would move the lorry out of the way.

Sadly, the Driver didn't. Thomas shut his eyes. Moments later, he cried out as his back end hit the lorry with a crash. Pieces of the trailer flew everywhere, but thankfully the lorry driver was okay and so was his dog. Thomas continued on for half a mile before finally coming to a stop. His Driver and fireman inspected his back-end and groaned, "well that's torn it," said the fireman, "your buffer beam is bent out of shape, you'll need to be repaired before going back to work."

Thomas groaned, then he looked to his Driver, "I thought you were keeping a good look out."

"I was, but I have to attend to the controls too Thomas, so I was looking at them when I heard a little girl's voice cry out. Sorry about that though, hopefully the Central Japan can help repair you."

Thomas certainly hoped so. Still, he was glad no one was seriously hurt, and wanted to thank the little girl for warning them. As he looked around though, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

"She couldn't have just disappeared," he thought to himself, "who was she?"

I'm afraid that for you and me, that will have to wait till later.

This story was inspired by the street running many railroads in america either still do to this day, or did many years back. The accident is based on a real life incident involving an Amtrak passenger train where a semi-truck stopped over a railway crossing due to a red light. An Amtrak Passenger train cut the trailer into several pieces, but like in the story, the Driver and her dog got out alive. No one was seriously hurt.