End Of The Line

Gordon backed down angrily into the shed. 'Trucks!' he grumbled. 'I'm an express passenger engine! I should not have to pull them! They hold me up on the hill, and then try and derail me on the other side, and to add to that, one of the stupid things derails itself on some points, and the Fat Controller blames me for it!'
'And with good reason!' replied Bear, who backed down into the berth next to him. 'The signalman didn't set the points in time. I'll let the Fat Controller know next time I see him, but you, Gordon, should know better than to act like royalty every time you have to pull trucks!'
Beyer and Edward gave each other agreeing looks. Gordon noticed this.
'And what makes you so wise, you mainline menace? You think you're better than all of us?' he said rudely to Beyer.
'I…' began Beyer.
'You're all the same, you B12s. Nothing but trouble, the whole lot of you!' Gordon carried on. Edward gasped. He expected James to say something like this about diesels, but he never knew Gordon shared the same views about a particular design of steam engine!
'Now see here!' began Beyer, but Gordon cut him off.
'We 'A' class engines are far more reliable, efficient and well-behaved than your lot. All you B12 and B17 engines do is cause us nothing but trouble!' Gordon sneered.
'THAT'S ENOUGH!' yelled Edward. He looked furious. The other engines were surprised and slightly scared. They had never seen Edward like this. 'Gordon, your attitude is making you worse than them, and if you carry on like this, you'll meet a similar fate!'
Beyer, slightly frightened, asked 'You…you mean 98462…a-and 87546? Wh-what h-happened to them?'
Edward realised how scared he had made Beyer, and apologised, before adding 'It's because of their accident that they were sent away. They were bound to be expelled from the railway, though, given their bad behaviour, but, to be fair, it may not have been entirely their fault…'

98462 and 87546 never sought repentance following their accidents. They thought they were in the right, and constantly criticised the Fat Director and the other engines for this. One evening, the two engines were alone in the shed. 'I should be pulling high-speed expresses, not slow goods. I'm clearly too good an engine for this park railway' said 98462.
'That makes two of us!' agreed 87546. 'I should be in use, not standing in the shed, collecting dust, like that relic, Edward, should be doing!'
Then an idea flew into 98462's funnel.
'You're confined to the shed, you say? Listen, I've got an idea to get you out. We'll show that Fat Idiot what we can do…'

The next day, when the shed foreman came, 98462 told him that 87546 was to be let out. 'It's Director's orders' lied 98462. 'He came by this morning in a hurry, and told me to let you know.'
The foreman, suspecting nothing, sent one of the workmen round to 87546's crew's houses, to let them know. It was only when both engines had left for work that he started to feel that something was wrong. Surely the Fat Director would let him know immediately if an engine was to be let out of the shed, instead of asking an engine like 98462 to tell him! However, he had just heard that Henry had broken down – again – so he decided not to think about it anymore.
He might've stopped the accident if he had.

Edward was shunting in the yard that day, when the signalman ran up. He pointed to two coaches standing outside his signal box. 'Can you move these coaches to the other loop, please?' he asked. 'There's an empty train of coal trucks due to come in to make way for a local passenger train, and they're both on the same line.'
'Right away' said Edward as he reversed onto the other line, and coupled up to the coaches. They both had names on their sides, which read 'Annie' on the coach facing him, and 'Clarabel' on the coach behind her. 'Where are we going? Where are we going?' twittered the coaches.
'Just onto the other siding. We have to make way for two other trains to come through' Edward replied.
'Oh such a shame!' replied Annie.
'We never go anywhere these days!' replied Clarabel.
'Well, maybe you may get lucky!' laughed Edward.

At Vicarstown, Thomas had just finished shunting a local train for 87546. It had originally been for Henry, but he had just been told of the last minute change in engines. Unfortunately, the only coaches available were old ones, which were gas-lit. It was still early in the morning, and the passengers had just started to arrive. They weren't too keen on having to travel in old coaches who were clearly due for an overhaul, but were in a hurry for either work or school, and so boarded the train, regardless. Thomas had had his doubts about the train he had just assembled, but there were no coaches left in the yard, until Gordon came in with his express from Barrow-In-Furness, and Edward was due to fetch some new coaches from Crovan's Gate. Just then, 87546 backed down onto his train. 'Pooh!' he exclaimed. 'Smelly old coaches! I'd rather have new ones any day!' He was soon followed by 98462.
'Saw you needed a bit of help' he said. 'We real engines must stick together.'
Thomas was confused. 'Aren't you supposed to be in your shed, 87546? Last I heard, you were banned from pulling trains. And shouldn't you be taking your express goods now, 98462?'
'Shortage of engines, and it's too heavy for one engine.' 87546 said quickly, hoping the Fat Director hadn't heard them. This was partly true, given Henry's breakdown, but Thomas didn't realise 87546 was lying to him. The guard blew his whistle and waved his green flag. 'Come on, come on, come on!' barked the two engines. The coaches groaned and creaked after them. They had heard about what had happened the last time 87546 had taken a passenger train and were not too keen on having him take them out.

Soon they were racing along the main line. 'Come on, come on, come on!' urged 87546.
'He's at it again!' groaned the driver. 'Any other engine would surely have learned their lesson by now!' agreed the fireman, before muttering 'he'll be the death of us one day!'
Bridges and houses flashed by, and soon they were nearly at the yard where Edward was shunting.

Meanwhile, Edward had just shunted Annie and Clarabel into the loop on the 'down' line towards Vicarstown, when Neil, one of the old Sodor and Mainland engines, bustled past with a train of ballast trucks. Every wise engine knows that ballast trucks are the most badly behaved, and Neil was clearly having trouble with them. Neither of them could hear them very well when they were approaching, and tried to ignore them when they arrived, but they did hear a lot of impolite name-calling going on between him and the trucks. The ballast train halted next to Edward.
'Having trouble, Neil?' asked Edward kindly.
'Aye! Yon trucks, agin! I've 'ad enough of their havers!' Neil replied.
Eagle pulled in with some empty coal trucks onto the loop next to the signal box, just as the signalman ran up. 'Neil, there's an express due in on your line. You'll have to move on to the other line to make way for it' he said.
Edward spoke up. 'Please sir, may I take the train over for Neil. He's having far too much trouble with his trucks, but I can handle them!'
'Very well, but be quick!' replied the signalman.
Neil uncoupled and moved forward, and Edward left Annie and Clarabel. Once Neil had moved into the siding where the two coaches were, the signalman changed the points so they were set for Gordon to pass by. This meant that all four lines were in use. This was not usually encouraged on a railway, but exceptions had been made, since Gordon, 98462 and 87546 were pulling express trains. Both were running late. Gordon had been delayed due to some maintenance on the line, and the other two had been halted by another signalman, with the Fat Director standing next to him, outside a signal box. He hadn't been too happy to hear that 87546 had lied to everyone, nor that 98462 was pulling passengers when he was forbidden to do so, and had told them to finish their passenger train and leave the railway. The routine was that one train would be shunted onto one line, to make way for a late train to run through, and then, while a third train had been halted, move onto another train, once it was clear, for that third train. The trouble was that, at the same time, the signalman had gone off-duty, and another signalman had taken over. This signalman suffered from short-term memory loss, meaning that he soon forgot about Neil's goods train. So he set the signal for 'all clear' for 87546, who was tearing along the line. Edward, Eagle and Neil heard 87546's whistle in the distance. By then, it was much too late.

Immediately, Annie, Clarabel and the engines went into a panic. The points were set against Neil and the coaches, so they couldn't move, to make way for Gordon, who had been delayed by a last-minute passenger. Eagle was blocked by Edward, who tried to reverse in his fright, but the ballast trucks had slipped their brakes on 'accidentally on purpose.' 'Push! Push! Push!' they cried to each other, holding the whole train in one place. 'No, no!' everyone cried. 'There's another train coming through!' The trucks either ignored their cries, or decided to keep the train at a standstill because another train was approaching.

'Get a move on! Get a move on!' barked 98462 and 87546 to the coaches. The coaches wailed openly. They had a bad feeling that something would happen to them all. Then 98462 saw that the line ahead was blocked, and called out to 87546 to stop. They braked hard, but were still going much too fast to stop in time. 'Stop! Stop!' wailed the two engines, but the coaches, fed up with their bullying and unaware of the danger ahead, pushed them relentlessly forwards. 'On! On! On!' they cried. As the train approached Edward, all the engines shut their eyes, while Edward's, Neil's and Eagle's crews ran for cover.

The scraping of metal against metal could be heard for miles around, as could an almighty CRASH! Eagle, Edward and Neil opened their eyes in just enough time to see what was left of the local train strewn across Edward's line and Gordon's line. They quickly shut them again as Gordon raced through, hit the wreckage and derailed, himself and his coaches scraping Annie and Clarabel's paint, while the passengers screamed in panic! Worse followed. A faint burning smell could be smelt everywhere, and soon the yard was in a raging inferno. Screams were heard, as passengers trapped in the flames tried to escape, but failed. Edward slowly opened his eyes, and saw 98462's face pleading in desperation, begging Edward to save him. Edward looked at him sadly, and said 'I'm sorry. There's nothing anyone can do.' There was nothing else he could say.

'…It was the worst accident this railway has ever had' Edward concluded gravely. 'Neil, Eagle, Annie and Clarabel were just in need of a repaint. Annie and Clarabel were in so much shock that it took their being given to Thomas when he was awarded his branch line to help them to recover fully. I was so badly damaged, I was almost beyond repair, and rebuilt to my old design. Gordon was also extremely badly damaged, but not as bad as me, although the fire had burnt our paintwork off. The fire brigade managed to put the fire out, but two hundred and forty-six passengers were hurt. The worst thing was that two hundred and twenty-six passengers died in that terrible accident, over eighty of them unrecognisable, their bodies were so badly burnt. Most of them had been in the stopping train. It eventually also turned out that the impact had broken the couplings on some of the coaches at the end of the train, and those coaches just rolled in the opposite direction. Thomas took them back to the Big Station, while another engine helped clear up the mess. But worst of all was the sorry condition of 98462 and 87546, both of whom stood in front of me, beyond repair and dead. So, Gordon, unless you want to end up like them, I suggest you change your attitude.'
'Pah!' huffed Gordon. 'Those two were foolish and despicable, just like that thing next to you, and unlike me. Roll yourself on the scrapheap, demon, you're nothing but trouble, you and all your design!'
Edward and Beyer gasped. Gordon was proud, but not usually this rude! Beyer was stunned to the point of tears. 'Then I hope you get what's coming to you!' he replied tearfully as Gordon rolled away to take his evening express. Bear, seeing this, consoled Beyer, while Edward rolled out of his station to take his passenger train for his branch line. He had a few things he wanted to say to Gordon in privacy.

Based on the Quintinshill Rail disaster of 1915, when a delayed troop train collided with a local passenger train, and caused an express coming on the opposite line to hit the wreckage and derail, and a fire to break out that consumed all the coal in the tenders of the troop train. 226 passengers died, not counting four unidentified bodies (assumed to be children). Two other trains in the loop were blocked off by the wreckage. The signalmen on duty were held responsible for culpable homicide, and subsequently arrested and sentenced to prison.