ENGINENAPPED!
The Skarloey Railway is a very old one, even older than the North Western. Skarloey and Rheneas have been a part of the line for most of its years, and have been around much longer than most of the other engines on the island. One morning, before the sun had come up, Skarloey had woken up early. Skarloey knew it would be a while before his crew came to steam him up, and he couldn't help but feel bored. To pass the time, he tried finding something interesting to look at, but everything was the same as it always was. Skarloey sighed and simply looked up at the dawn sky. All was silent and still in the shed until Rheneas eventually stirred.
"Good morning, Skarloey," he whispered sleepily. But Skarloey didn't reply - he was too lost in thought. Rheneas frowned. "Skarloey?" Skarloey jumped.
"Oh, erm, sorry, Rheneas. I was just thinking."
"What about?"
"Well..." Skarloey trailed off. "I know you don't like thinking of yourself this way, but you and I are very... old." Rheneas rolled his eyes playfully.
"Why'd you have to remind me..." Skarloey wasn't so jovial though.
"So, with that in mind, do you ever wonder if we are so old that we have seen everything there is to see? That now, nothing can surprise us anymore?"
"That's a morbid thought, isn't it?" Rheneas chuckled, but Skarloey remained stoic. Rheneas' chuckles became uneasy.
"Oh, you're… serious… Skarloey, are you alright?"
"Simply musing is all. It makes sense, doesn't it?"
Rheneas wasn't so sure, but didn't particularly want to think about it. He was about to try and retort when Skarloey and Rheneas' crews arrived.
"Come on, old boy," grinned Skarloey's driver with spirit, "We'll get you ready first. We've got our first run soon." Skarloey sighed.
"Just as always... Alright, driver." The driver didn't notice his engine's somber tone, and he and the fireman quickly set to getting him ready for work. Rheneas, however, was concerned.
"Skarloey, are you sure you're ready to take trains?" Skarloey grimaced but said nothing, so Rheneas continued. "If you'd like, I could take the first train to give you a bit more time to rest. Perhaps the sun may cheer you up. Besides, it's a bit of a change." Skarloey gave a small smile.
"Thank you, Rheneas. I wouldn't want to upset my friends."
"What? But Skarloey, we just steamed you up!" protested the driver, "What are we supposed to do now?"
"We could just keep him in steam," suggested the fireman, "There may be another job that needs doing, in which case we'll be ready. In the meantime, let's see if stationmaster has any more tea."
The driver was reluctant, but agreed. They went off to the station, leaving Rheneas' crew to shrug and steam their engine up.
"Thank you again, Rheneas," Skarloey said gratefully, "I just hope this doesn't become a habit."
"Oh, it won't, not with you being so stubborn," Rheneas teased. The two engines quietly laughed as Rheneas slowly rolled out of the shed. Skarloey yawned and shut his eyes. Rheneas' puffing had woken up Peter Sam, who barely opened his eyes to see him leaving before heading back to sleep.
Rheneas collected the coaches and puffed to the station, where James was waiting impatiently.
"Where's Skarloey?" James snapped, "He usually pulls this train, and gets here on time too."
"He was feeling um… unwell, so I offered to take his place."
"How noble of you," James huffed sarcastically. Rheneas rolled his eyes. As the passengers climbed aboard the train, he saw two children who weren't anywhere near the coaches, instead still standing on the standard gauge platform.
"Who are they, James? Are they passengers?" Rheneas asked. James glanced over.
"Oh, them? They're not passengers, I think they're young rail enthusiasts. They come up here every morning and stand there, watching trains go by."
"That's all they do?"
"They're harmless, but it's a shame they don't have cameras with them. Then they could take pictures of me and I could really show how splendid I-"
As James was yammering on, Rheneas looked at the children again, who seemed to have not taken any notice of them.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, James," Rheneas interjected as he started rolling away, "but I have passengers to take. Goodbye!" James hadn't noticed that Rheneas was leaving, but by the time he did, he was gone. James scoffed.
"Narrow gauge engines..." he muttered. He blew his whistle and departed in a huff. The two children looked at each other.
"You know, Peter, that red engine was right," one spoke up.
"Which one, Stewart?" asked the other.
"The one with the number."
"But they both have numbers, don't they?"
"I... never mind. Anyway, just watching trains pass through until daddy comes and gets us is getting a little boring."
"But I like watching them!"
"I didn't ask you. How about we do something that's more fun?"
Peter frowned.
"Like what...?"
Peter and Stewart surveyed the shed. The little engines slept soundly, unaware of their presence.
"We're still just looking at them," Peter pointed out.
"Shh!" hissed Stewart, "You could wake them up!" Sir Handel loudly snored in response to this. "Besides, we're going to do more than just look at them. We're going to drive one." Peter gasped.
"But daddy said not to touch them!"
"Daddy's an old stick-in-the-mud. Do you want to be a stick-in-the-mud too?"
"Um…"
"Come on, driving an engine isn't that hard. Now, help me choose one."
Peter looked at the array of sleeping engines, until he heard a small hissing sound. He turned and saw Skarloey, who had a light billow of smoke coming from his funnel. Peter pointed at him.
"That one's in steam already!"
Stewart grinned and, not bothering to question why he was, the two boys climbed aboard Skarloey's cab.
"Wow, these controls look even better than the pictures daddy showed us!" Peter in amazement.
"Don't get too excited, you're just shoveling coal. I'm driving."
"What? You said we could both drive it!"
"That's not how driving a steam engine works, Peter," Stewart sneered, tossing him the shovel, "Just don't burn yourself." Peter pouted and started shovelling coal into the firebox. Stewart studied the cab controls for a moment before tugging on the regulator. Skarloey, being asleep of course, wasn't aware of the newfound activity in his cab. Slowly, his wheels began to move.
"We're moving, we're moving!" cheered Peter excitedly, "Now, we can be real drivers!"
"You're a fireman, but whatever makes you happy," murmured Stewart, but even he became excited as Skarloey moved out of the shed and towards the open line.
Skarloey approached the station, still asleep. On the standard gauge line, Paxton rolled in with a train of oil tankers. He hummed to himself until he saw Skarloey rolling along the line, eyes still closed.
"Skarloey?" Paxton gaped, slamming on his brakes in surprise. Skarloey didn't answer. "Is he… sleep-puffing?" He closed his eyes and by the time he opened them again, Skarloey had already moved out of sight. "I must be seeing things…" Paxton continued on, not giving it a second thought. Just as he left, Henry rumbled through, whistling briskly. This gave Peter an idea.
"Oh, let's try whistling! I always wanted to blow the whistle!" Stewart reluctantly stepped aside. Peter eagerly jumped and tugged on the whistle chain. Skarloey's whistle blew loud and long, causing the two to cheer - but they didn't realize that this had woken Skarloey up!
"Huh? What's going on?" Skarloey yawned. He then realized he was moving. "You could've woken me first, driver," he muttered indignantly. Peter and Stewart didn't dare breathe.
"These trucks feel rather light today at least. It's almost as if they aren't even..." Skarloey looked back to find he wasn't pulling anything at all.
"What?" he gasped, "Where's my train? What sort of joke is this, driver?"
"W-What do we do?" Peter whispered to Stewart, "If we're caught-"
"Who's that back there?" Skarloey demanded, noticing the two unfamiliar figures in his cab "You're not my driver!"
"Now you've done it," snapped Stewart, "Don't say anything else, leave it to me." He cleared his throat. "Uh, we're your relief crew for today." Peter mouthed "Seriously?", but Stewart elbowed him in the ribs. Skarloey narrowed his eyes.
"What kind of a fool do you take me for? I would've been told, and besides, you're far too young! I have no idea who you two delinquents are, but take me back to my shed at once!" To his surprise, Stewart just chuckled.
"Why would you want to miss out on the fun? Just relax and enjoy the ride."
"What?! You are not taking me out on a joyride!" Skarloey fired back.
"Why can't we? You can't stop us," Stewart snickered. Skarloey glared and tried applying his brakes, only to find that he couldn't! "Say, Peter, how about we speed this up a little?"
Peter cheered as Stewart opened the regulator wider. Skarloey started to speed up, causing him to gulp.
Henry's whistle had woken up Peter Sam, who glared in the direction the big engine had left in.
"Bother that Henry! Someone should teach him some manners," he huffed earnestly, "Isn't that right, Skarloey?" Peter Sam looked over, expecting to see Skarloey agreeing with him, but instead saw nothing at all - Skarloey was gone!
"S-Skarloey? Where are you?" Peter Sam frantically looked about the shed, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"O-Oh no! Everyone, wake up, wake up!" he shouted, jolting the others awake, "Skarloey's gone missing!"
"What?" mumbled Duncan sleepily, "Peter Sam, do ye have any idea what time it is?"
"No, but I don't care! Skarloey's gone!"
Duncan and Rusty shared a look.
"Peter Sam, Skarloey typically takes his first train this early in the morning," Rusty said patiently.
"You don't understand!" Peter Sam insisted, "Rheneas took it instead, I saw him! So Skarloey should still be here!" Sir Handel scoffed.
"Peter Sam, you're making a fool out of yourself. Skarloey just gallivanted off to do something else, which is certainly not something to wake me over! I was having such a good dream too!"
Just then, Skarloey's crew came back, looking rather refreshed.
"Stationmaster knows how to brew a good tea," the driver chuckled before stopping in his tracks. "...where's Skarloey?"
"You should know!" Sir Handel retorted, "You're his crew!"
"Well, we don't! We left him parked by Peter Sam, and now he's not there!" the fireman exclaimed. Rusty's eyes widened.
"But if he's not here then… that means…" Everyone looked at each other in disbelief, barring Peter Sam, who was still sulky.
"And you didn't believe me! Huh! The least you can do now is call for help!"
"Right, he couldn't have gone far," agreed the driver, and he and the fireman ran back to the station, leaving the engines in suspense.
Skarloey continued to puff faster and faster. The more he sped up, the more frightened he got.
"Please, stop this now!" he tried again desperately, "This is too dangerous, especially for children like you!" Stewart rolled his eyes
"You think we can't handle driving you? Gosh, you're just like daddy."
"Wait, daddy!" Peter cut in anxiously. Stewart turned, annoyed.
"What about him?"
"He should be at the station by now, shouldn't he? If he is, he'll wonder where we are!"
Stewart's face paled.
"Oh… I forgot about that. If we don't hurry back now, we're going to be in big trouble."
"So you should be," Skarloey muttered, to which Stewart sped him up more.
"This is the wrong way!" Peter cried, "Let me do it!" Peter and Stewart started bickering over the regulator. Skarloey winced.
Rheneas was enjoying his trip along the line. He hadn't been out this early in a while, and was finding the peace and quiet to be enjoyable.
"Maybe I should ask Skarloey if I can take this train more often," he chuckled to himself. He had turned around at Skarloey Station, and was now heading back up to Crovan's Gate. When he pulled into Rheneas Station, he saw the stationmaster on the platform.
"Hello, sir! Good morning!" Rheneas called cheerfully. To his surprise, the stationmaster looked anxious.
"It isn't a good morning, Rheneas. Skarloey has disappeared!"
Rheneas gasped, horrified.
"What? How could that be?"
"I don't know myself, but I've gotten word from Skarloey's driver, and not even he knows where he is. I've just told The Thin Controller, and he wants us to be on high alert." Rheneas was stunned but assumed a determined expression.
"Don't worry, sir. I'll do my best to look for Skarloey. I'm coming down the line now, so I should be able to spot him." The stationmaster smiled with relief.
"Thank you, Rheneas." The guard blew the whistle and Rheneas departed, considerably less cheerful than before.
Skarloey rounded a bend, approaching his full speed. Peter and Stewart were still arguing.
"The longer we're gone, the more angry daddy will get!" Peter protested.
"But I want to drive longer!" Stewart whined, "Who knows when we'll get another chance at this?" Just then, the two heard a loud yell.
"BRAKE!" Skarloey shouted, "There's a branch on the track!" Peter and Stewart halted their argument and peeked out of the cab window. Sure enough, a large branch lay on the rails, right in their path! The boys gasped and started to panic.
"Brake lever! Where's the brake lever?" Stewart exclaimed, to which Peter started flicking random controls. Skarloey closed his eyes tightly, preparing for the worst. Before any of them knew it, Skarloey's front wheels slammed into the branch, jolting them off the rails. They came back down, crunching the ballast. The impact forced Skarloey to come to an abrupt stop. Slowly, Stewart and Peter stood up, bewildered.
"That's it?" Stewart muttered, but Peter tugged at his arm.
"Come on, we have to find daddy!" Peter and Stewart hopped down from the cab and started running off into the lush greenery beside the line.
"Wait! Come back! You can't just steal me out of my shed, derail me, and then leave!" But Peter and Stewart didn't care a bit, and were soon gone. Skarloey looked around to see if he could call for help, only to find no-one.
"I suppose I'll be stuck here for a while then…" he sighed.
Meanwhile, as Rheneas rolled along, he looked all around to see if he could catch a glimpse of Skarloey. However, he couldn't see him anywhere.
"An engine can't just disappear out of thin air…" Rheneas mused, "I hope wherever he is, Skarloey's alright." He whistled loudly, which echoed around the landscape. A short ways down the line, Skarloey heard the whistle and could see tall puffs of smoke in the distance.
"Rheneas!" he gasped to himself before calling. "Rheneas! I'm over here!" Rheneas rolled into view, face lighting up.
"Skarloey!" Rheneas came to a standstill alongside his friend. "What happened to you?" Skarloey grunted.
"Two silly boys who should never be near a train." Rheneas raised an eyebrow. "It's… a long story," Skarloey added sheepishly. Rheneas chuckled.
"You can tell me once I fetch the breakdown train and get you back onto the rails."
"What? I appreciate it and all, but you have passengers to take, which really are mine!"
"Don't worry about it," Rheneas reassured, "I'm sure your friends will just be happy you're safe and sound, just like I am." Skarloey smiled as Rheneas was uncoupled and hurried away.
The wait was agonizing for Skarloey, as his undercarriage felt rather uncomfortable, but he was absolutely delighted when he heard Rheneas' whistle again.
"Oh, thank goodness." The workmen set to work on wrapping chains around Skarloey. Then, the crane slowly lifted him up into the air before placing him back onto the rails again. "That's much better."
"Care to tell me what thrill you've been on all morning now?" Rheneas asked as he buffered up to him. Skarloey snorted.
"I wouldn't exactly call what happened 'thrilling.' Two cheeky lads took advantage of me being in steam, and stole me away on a joyride! I only stopped because a branch was on the line!"
"Oh my… What rascals children are these days!" Rheneas stopped and groaned. "I felt so old saying that…"
"Never mind," Skarloey chuckled, cheering up a bit, "They've always been rascals. Now, we best get back to the sheds. Can't keep the others in the dark forever." Rheneas chuckled too and he and Skarloey set off back to Crovan's Gate.
At the sheds, the engines were tense as they waited for any news regarding Skarloey. Suddenly, they heard a familiar whistle and watched excitedly as Rheneas pulled in, towing Skarloey.
"I knew it!" proclaimed Peter Sam, "I knew all along you were in trouble, Skarloey, but no-one else listened!" Sir Handel and Duncan quickly shushed him as workmen ran up. Peter Sam subsided as the workmen started examining Skarloey for damage. They found that he hadn't been hurt, and so Skarloey was able to work for the rest of the day.
By the time he came back to the sheds that night, everyone was already asleep, except Rheneas, who had a smirk on his face. Skarloey raised an eyebrow.
"What happened?" he asked cautiously. Rheneas grinned.
"I think you'll be pleased to know that we likely won't be seeing those boys again."
"Oh? What brought this on?"
"I wasn't there to see it, but James told me he saw The Thin Controller talking to their father, and the way he told it, those two will get quite the smacking when they get home! I don't think either of them are going to go near you anytime soon!"
"That's nice to hear, though I don't think they'd get far if they tried again anyway. The Thin Controller scolded my crew for keeping me in steam. Let's hope I won't need a 'relief crew!'"
The two chuckled and looked up at the twinkling stars above. There was silence for a moment before Skarloey spoke up.
"You know, I was proven wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"Well… I said that I can't be surprised anymore, but what happened today certainly surprised me!" Skarloey chuckled. "I suppose that there is plenty of life left to see after all." Rheneas smiled.
"And we'll be with each other every step of the way."
"Will you two be quiet? I'm trying to sleep," Sir Handel mumbled. Rheneas and Skarloey chuckled and closed their eyes, falling fast asleep.
Author's Note: Another outing from the narrow gauge engines, this time starring Skarloey and Rheneas! The two haven't gotten a lot of attention in the series, especially in recent years under the Brenner era. It's a shame, too, as the two have a really nice brotherly dynamic that was fun to explore. The other engines had small but still fun roles, especially Peter Sam, who I liked making the panicking one that no one listens to. As it happens, the other major duo in this story are also brothers, and writing them was... a bit nerve wracking, if I'm gonna be honest. I'm still uncomfortable writing human characters already not present in the series, though I think this time around was a lot better than previous attempts that I like to pretend don't exist. For clarification since I couldn't find a way to fit into the story proper, the two boys aren't young children, but they aren't teenagers either. I like to think of them as tweens or so, but that's just me. Next time, we will be returning to the big railway in a Halloween adventure! See you then!
