LOGAN & HECTOR

Coal is a very important resource on the island of Sodor. The Fat Controller's steam engines need coal to keep running and being really useful. Most of Sodor's coal is delivered from the mainland, but various small deposits of it had been discovered around Crosby. As a result of this, a coal mine and plant had been established, and the engines on the North Western Railway spent time taking trucks up and down from the mine. However, as industry expanded, less and less engines had time to go down to the mine, and there had begun to be a backlog. As a result, the coal board bought a new engine to shunt trucks down at the mine for the other engines to take away. His name was Logan, and he was very eager to start work. He rolled into the coaling plant, where the manager was waiting for him.

"Hello, Logan!" The manager said, "Pleasure to see that you've arrived! Hopefully, you can get right to work, eh?"

"Yes, sir!" Logan whistled, and rolled up to some coal trucks, bumping them hard. They groaned.

"Who does he think he is? Bumping us about! We should teach him a lesson..." The trucks whispered amongst themselves as Logan went about his work. Across the yard, a large hopper truck watched with concern.

"He could have trouble..." Hector muttered, as the little sentinel shunted by.

Logan worked hard all day, as the coal trucks bumped and bashed about. He was completing his final load of the day when the trucks decided to play their tricks. Logan was preparing to shunt them underneath a hopper when they bumped him forward.

"Hey!" Logan shouted, but it was too late. Logan gasped as he surged beneath the hopper. Before he had time to even think, coal rained down from the hopper and covered him from smokebox to cab. Logan coughed as the dust settled, while the trucks cackled.

"Dirty little engine! He doesn't know how to handle us coal trucks!" They laughed and laughed, while Logan turned red with embarrassment.

"Yes I do! I can handle trucks like you anyday!" But the trucks continued laughing at Logan, as Hector looked on from across the yard. He sighed and looked down.

It took a long time for Logan's crew to dig him out of the coal and for him to steam away onto a siding to get the coal dust out of his funnel. He felt very sorry for himself.

"Not a good thing to happen on my first day, eh?" He said to no one in particular.

"No, indeed." Logan was surprised to hear a voice next to him. His eyes darted over and saw a large black hopper truck looking back at him. Logan had never seen such a large truck before, and he was secretly rather frightened.

"Who are you?" Logan stuttered. The hopper smiled back. Although he intended to be friendly, it made Logan rather uncomfortable.

"The name's Hector." The hopper responded, "You're new around here, eh? Never worked with coal before?" Logan hadn't, but he wasn't sure what to think of Hector. He had never met any truck that wasn't troublesome, and this made him rather suspicious.

"I have," Logan lied, "but why do you ask?"

"Really? You seemed to let the trucks bang you up pretty bad today." Hector chuckled, "It seems like you could use some help to let you learn the ropes around here. I've been working here for years, and I'm sure I could lend you a hand in helping out. We all need a little help when we work somewhere new." Hector grinned, but Logan glared back.

"I know what you're trying to do! You're trying to make me listen to you so you can trick me into getting into trouble! Well...I won't let you!" And with that, Logan, his smokebox now clear, rumbled away, leaving Hector confused.

Logan continued his work, but the trucks were proving to be rather troublesome for him. Not only were they just as rude as ever, but they decided to make it look like Hector was in on their schemes too, to make Logan cross. The trucks didn't like Hector; they thought he was too goody-goody to be a real truck, but they were all afraid of him due to his size. As Logan moved a long line of trucks with Hector at the rear across the yard, the trucks jerked back and forth.

"Big and bad! Strong and solid! We're all lead by Hector the Horrid!" The trucks chortled.

"Stop that, you stupid hopper!" Logan panted, getting more and more covered in coal dust the harder he worked. Hector, however, was trying his best to keep the trucks under control.

"I'm not doing anything, Logan! It's the other trucks!" But Logan was too cross to keep listening. The yard was filled with delays all day, and the engines who arrived were rather cross to find that they had been delayed.

"Hurry up! I nae have all day!" Douglas grumbled as he waited for Logan to shunt his trucks. Logan rushed ahead.

"Sorry!" Logan panted, and buffered the trucks up, giving Hector an extra hard bump at the rear. Douglas felt the bump too, and glared at Logan before puffing away. Logan was exhausted, and puffed away to rest.

Douglas made his coal delivery, and went around the train to take it back. However, there was a loud hissing, and he rolled to a stop.

"Oh, bother! I can nae move! I burst my safety valve!" Douglas needed another engine to come and take his empty trucks back to the coaling plant. The closest one nearby was Thomas, and he rolled onto the front of the train.

"Hello, Hector!" Thomas smiled. Hector smiled back wearily; it was nice to see some comfort after how trying the last few days had been.

"Hello, Thomas. Wonderful to see you." The little blue engine was surprised to see Hector sounding tired; he always seemed to be full of energy.

"Is something wrong? You sound tired." Hector sighed, before looking sadly down.

"There's a new engine at the coaling plant, his name's Logan. We've had all sorts of delays this week because he's new and doesn't want to listen to me to learn the ropes simply because I'm a truck. ¡Estoy frustrado!" Thomas smiled back at his friend as they rolled along the line.

"Well, Hector. Maybe he just isn't ready to accept new things, like taking advice from a truck. When you first arrived on the island, weren't you scared to try new things too?" He chuckled, leaving Hector to give a small smile.

"I hadn't really thought of it that way, Thomas." Hector replied, "I was a little of frightened of being filled with coal when I got here. But there's nothing I can really do to show Logan that I really want to help." He sighed.

"You'll see, Hector. You'll find a way. You always do, after all! Remember when you helped James through that blizzard?" Thomas smiled, as he shunted Hector onto a siding at the coaling plant, "Bye, Hector!" Thomas puffed away. Both he and Hector were unaware that Logan had overheard their conversation, and was doubting his own beliefs.

A few days later, James arrived at the Coaling Plant. He was in a foul mood, and didn't want to pull dirty trucks.

"Dirty trucks, dirty sidings. Ugh!" He rolled in and bumped some trucks hard. James heard an unfamiliar whistle, and saw Logan shunting a long line of dirty coal trucks.

"Hurry up and shunt my trucks, you little shunter!" He shouted. Logan wasn't in the mood to get yelled at by a big engine, so he simply whistled back.

"We've had delays all morning, so you can jolly well sit tight or shunt your own trucks." He called back. James scowled and lumbered away to fetch his coal trucks.

"Stupid shunter...I should have my trucks waiting for me...this yard's going down the drain." James began banging trucks into line. However, his aggravation caused him to be rather rough.

"Come on, you lot!" He bumped another truck onto his long line. The trucks were getting annoyed with how James was treating them, and decided to play their tricks.

"You think you can push us around, big guy?" The truck at the front of the line snickered, "Come at us with your best shot!" James glared; he didn't like getting teased by trucks.

"Maybe I will!" James shouted, and banged into the long line as hard as he could. The trucks flew forward, cackling all the way.

"Thanks for the bump, red!" The truck giggled. James looked on in horror as the trucks raced ahead.

On the other side of the yard, Logan buffered up to Hector and was preparing to take him across to the top of the plant. Both were unaware of the long line of trucks heading towards them.

"Come on, Hector. Let's make this easy, shall we?" Logan bumped Hector hard before starting off. Hector glared back, when he suddenly heard a rumbling and looked to the left. He saw James' trucks soaring down the line. Hector gasped.

"Logan! Faster!" He boomed.

"Nice try, Hector. I'm not falling for your tricks today!" Logan chuckled in reply. The trucks were getting closer.

"This is not a trick, Logan! Move now!" Hector shouted, the urgency in his voice rising. The trucks were almost at the points. If Logan wouldn't listen to him, he would have to take desperate measures.

"I told you, Hector. I'm not fall-WHOA!" Logan jumped as Hector bumped into him. Before Logan could even have time to react, the trucks surged into Hector. Hector groaned in pain as he fell onto his side, spilling coal everywhere as the cackling trucks spewed off the rails and across the line.

"Hector?" Logan asked in horror after the dust had settled. Hector was covered in coal dust and his side was dented. He looked in a very sorry state. Logan heard a whistle, and a horrified James raced in.

"Hector, are you alright?" James gasped.

"I'm fine," Hector coughed, "Just a few dents and scratches, that's all."

"I'll get Rocky!" James steamed away, leaving Logan to wait with Hector.

When James returned with Rocky, Logan assisted in the rescue operations by shunting the unhurt trucks away. Rocky was rigged up to Hector and lifted him high into the air.

"Are you alright, Hector? You did a pretty risky thing back there." Rocky said with concern as he put Hector down on the line.

"I'm fine, Rocky. Just a little abollado, that's all." Hector grinned, but coughed in pain. Rocky looked concernedly at Logan.

"Can you take the big guy to the Steamworks, err...Logan? Victor needs to look him over, no matter how fine he says he is." The little shunter shunted forwards in silence, and began pushing the dented Hector to the Steamworks.

Along the way, Logan spoke up.

"Y-you saved me!" He stuttered, "Why?"

"Because I was trying to help you. Like I have been this entire time, muchacho." Hector weakly smiled back.

"I guess you really were then..." Logan awkwardly chuckled, before frowning, "Sorry for doubting you actually wanted to help me...I'd never met a helpful truck before, and I guess I wasn't sure if you were being completely honest or not."

"That's alright. I guess I do come on a little strong," Hector smiled back, "When I'm back, I can show how to keep the other trucks in line and make everything run like clockwork, if you'd like."

"That'd be great, thank you, Hector. You know this yard better than I do, and I guess I could use a little help." Logan smiled. Hector raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"There's one thing I need you to promise me, Logan."

"What's that?"

"That you always know that you'll always have more to learn!"

Logan and Hector, now friends, laughed all the way to the Steamworks.

After Hector's repairs were completed, he immediately went to work with teaching Logan the ropes.

"Come on, Logan! Easy does it!" Hector called as the little sentinel moved a long line of trucks into place for James to take away.

"What happened to whip that little shunter in shape?" He chuckled in disbelief. Hector grinned back.

"He wants to learn, and a desire to learn makes everyone better." He responded knowingly. James winked at Hector before leaving the coaling plant, as Logan continued his work. Hector chuckled at his new pupil.

"He's got a lot to learn, but he's going to be a really useful engine. I just know it."

THE END

I've always been fond of Hector, hence my decision to bring him back here. Out of all the merchandise-exclusive characters thus far (I plan to introduce all of them with original stories, but Logan was the only one I could do right now), Logan is my favorite, despite being the least developed. He's just such a fun concept for a character. A little coal shunter? Yes please! I think I've given him a good scrappy and stubborn personality that makes Hector have to keep the little guy in check. We'll be seeing more of Logan in future, believe me. I have plans for him...mwahaha. Seeing as we have no new episodes to reveal this week, I've decided to give you guys ten new facts about Rampage of the Rail Bandits, just to get y'all excited:

1) The main character of the special will not be Thomas, although Thomas features in the deuteragonist role. This character is also not part of the Steam Team, although they have appeared in one of these stories.

2) Although not the main character, Lucian will have a role in the special.

3) There will be one returnee, but he will be rather minor and more focused upon in the following set of episodes.

4) One of the new characters is a piece of rolling stock.

5) The aforementioned piece of rolling stock is female.

6) We will have a human villain again, but he will be much more threatening than Sailor John.

7) The special will continue the trend of "collapsing bridges in Thomas specials", but it will not be a major plot point.

8) The special will feature pairs of characters off in certain plots. There are six of these pairs.

9) While Sidney will not have a major role in any upcoming episodes as of now, he will appear in the special.

10) The special is mostly based around Ballahoo.

Get hype, peeps! And, as always, what is next!:

- Back-Engine

- The Abominable Snow Engine (don't know how I forgot this one last time)

- Monkey Business

- Bugged

- Duck Season

- Merrick and the Meteorite

- The Full Monty

SUDRIAN SURPRISES:

- Top of the Class

- Close Encounters of the Toad Kind

- The Missing Ballast Trucks

- Toby's Travels

- A China Clay Christmas

- Gordon and Bear