Sodor, March 2015:
Luckily for Casey, the tank cars weren't a problem for once today but he knew he had to be on his guard, once he attached them to the train of military choppers and double heads with Henry, that's when it becomes incredibly difficult and dangerous. Jerry looked to Brittney and grabbed the coal shovel from her.
"Why don't you take the controls for a while, it won't be too long before you'll be drive'n him for a live'n." He said kindly. Naturally Brittney was excited, however, some came across her mind, Jerry has had her driving Casey more and more as the year came into being, what was up with that? Maybe Jerry's just trying to give her experience for if she ever for whatever reason went back to the states. Not once did she consider Jerry's retirement as she quickly jumped onto the driver's seat and took the controls. Jerry laughed at her giddiness, so what if she was being a little self-centered at the moment, what young person wouldn't be when it came to driving a steam engine? However, despite his good health, his age was finally getting to him, he found the shoveling of coal to be very difficult and painful to his old back. Oh how he missed going to his chiropractor in Ft. Oglethorpe, a small town just south of Chattanooga in Georgia, the best one he's ever known, the doctor he sees on Sodor was nowhere close to even good and he charged twice as much, it made him feel older to the point where he felt like burning the guy's office to the ground and expose him as a fraud. Oh well, at least he could still do the job and Brittney was smart enough to listen to him about how to drive a steamer. Any who she carefully brought the train all the way to Vicarstown where Henry was waiting patiently. When the two engines came up, Casey blew his whistle but at the same time Henry blew steam out from his cylinder cocks, he hadn't forgotten the agreement they have made earlier today.
"D'oh! Dad gummit Henry, I wuddn't ready for it!" Casey shouted as the Black Five engine laughed.
"Now now Casey, you and I both know this is what we agreed to, so I'm going to lead for this journey."
"Fine, but move your train past the switch so that I can attach these here cars to your train will ya?"
"Of course." And so he did, and Casey was surprised at what he saw, twenty five flat cars with one AW101 chopper per car. Oddly enough, all of them were asleep but Casey knew all too well that this is indeed going to be a difficult job and they will be awake soon enough. After the trains were connected, it was fifty five cars long and Henry uncoupled from it to let Casey get himself positioned. Now because of the issue of time, they couldn't get him turned around so they two engines had to go tender to tender. That left Casey to look at one of the helicopters, he seemed to be the oldest, probably because he had a mustache. Casey decided to pay the fly boys no mind as Henry blew his whistle. Of course, that did little, all of the helicopters had awoken and began murmuring among each other, especially when they got a face full of exhausted steam from Casey's stack. Obviously the one with the mustache was the one to complain.
"Hey-ack, would you mind cutting cutting the smoke before you get your dirty railroad suit in out system?" He coughed.
"Can't make any promises son." Casey replied, slightly offended by the fly-boy's attitude. The choppers complained more as the engines gained speed to reach a steady pace of 50 miles per hour.
"You're moving too slow."
"Stop blowing smoke in my face."
"Go faster."
"I can't wait to get off this stupid flat car."
"These rails are too bumpy."
"Why couldn't we just fly over there?"
"Why is the RAF even sending us to this island anyway? it's took stuck in the past." Finally, Casey has had enough, when they got half way to the destination, a crossing came about, Henry tooted his whistle twice but he got the scare of his life when Casey gave his whistle a very long and loud blast. It scared the helicopters as well, they have never heard an American whistle before.
"That's enough you goddamn bird brains! Just be glad we're trying our best to get you to your new home quickly and safely, and not drag'n y'all to a damn scrap yard!" He shouted at the top of his voice. The choppers all silenced themselves and Henry regained his composure, he too was getting tired of the constant complaining, although he did think the scrapping part was a little uncalled for. However, he didn't want things to be silent, at least he could have a chat, it would help to pass the time, maybe he can talk to him about it afterwards.
"Say Casey, we all know you and Sarge din't quite get along at first, what made you two become friends now?" He asked.
"Years of arguing and living with him, most of it was while I was being brought back to working order. We did however have a few instances where we could have a decent conversation."
Chattanooga Tennessee. March 20, 1993:
The disaster caused by the Storm of '93 was finally over. While a few centimeters of snow still hung around in the early Saturday sun, the temperatures were climbing rapidly, much to the relief of the engines of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Unfortunately, the storm has come as a surprise to the citizens due to the reluctance of the weather broadcasters, believing the South would cool off so suddenly when the temperatures were steadily climbing the week before the storm formed, it left it's mark indeed and many business owners will probably consider taking winter storm precautions with their buildings in the future. Lots of damage was left behind by the storm and it even left a city record of twenty three inches of snow. It was miserable for everybody, especially the engines that didn't have good shelter in Grand Junction.
"How do them yankees do it Kelly?" Casey asked.
"I don't know, but that was much worse than the Great Blizzard of 1899." She replied, happy to find the cold was finally gone for the season. Over the next few hours, the crews, inspectors and such came to prepare the museum for the coming spring visitors and repair any damage the storm left behind. For the most part the buildings have remained intact, minus the sheet metal roof of the Soule shops falling down under the weight of the snow. Well, at least the others won't get to brag about how warm they were during the storm. Casey thought as one of the volunteers at the museum carefully lubricated everybody's parts. Oddly enough, it was Jerry, but now he was in his late forties and now he was often the man who drove the locomotives all the time.
"So how did that there storm treat you old friend?" He asked.
"Like the F-units and Geep's after the war." Casey replied sarcastically.
"That bad huh? Well at least the Geeps have learn some'n over the years or at least the survive'n ones." As if on cue, Beth rolled in, towing Sarge to the wye to be inspected easier than the East Chattanooga wing. He seemed to be enjoying himself, despite the fact that he still had a lot of un-melted snow on him.
"What's got you all high and mighty? You just sat through the worst snow storm in history." Casey asked. Sarge's expression momentarily changed from happy to slightly irritated.
"If ya must know Green Horn, I was just enjoying this wonderful sunlight, it's melting the snow off."
"Got stuck in the shade?" Sarge was slightly hesitant to answer, he knew Casey had heard of what happened to the roof of the shed, maybe he could try to be pleasant for once and see what happens.
"Well, given the circumstances...yes I did."
"Well that explains why the snow's still on you, but it beats have'n to sit out here and endure it." Sarge was caught off guard, he was expecting Casey to laugh or at the very least tell him he had no idea what cold feels like.
"How bad was it for you cade- I mean guys?"
"Like sit'n in a freezer in the arctic circle."
"Affirmative, that does seem pretty close to reality." The pair laughed at the joke as a relieved Beth continued her way of placing Sarge near the wye.
Another few years have passed, the two engines while they still didn't like each other were growing more and more civil with one another as Sarge got better and better at remembering that he wasn't in the Army any more. Often they would just chat about the weather or what goes on in the outside world, especially when Casey was brought in for his rebuild. He was so happy that he would steam again. The Geep boys however were more army pigeons than Sarge was, often times they would shout "yes sir" or "yes ma'am" when they were told to do something, but Casey had to give them credit, they had a lot of work ethic and they were proud to be doing the job they have been requested to do, even more so than the RSD girls. Over the time span of his restoration the museum has acquired more and more stuff, like a Southern E8A number 6914 named Larry that they plan to restore into working order. While she did spend a long time on lease to the museum, Norfolk Southern donated her to them. The museum had also acquired Lookout Mountain Incline Railway number 2. The museum even somehow got a hold of one of the RS-3's that were traded by Southern to get Cassidy and Mary back for excursions. But the one Casey really wanted to meet was Taylor, a Canadian National J-7-b 4-6-2 Pacific number 5288, he came to the museum via donation from Steamtown in Scranton Pennsylvania in '99. Now in 2001, he is steaming again as the museum was about to give Cassidy, who hadn't been running since 1989, a very extensive rebuild. Sarah, who had also been retired in '99 due to excessive maintenance costs, sat in the East Tennessee end of the museum next to her man in her original livery. All around them were a bunch of left over water jugs from the Y2K craze and happy faces of the other engines around. Sarge was given the day off and he was still sleeping oddly enough, usually he was the one that woke everybody up at four-o'clock in the morning, guess he wanted to get as much sleep as possible before the day started.
"Wake up Lazy Bones." Cassidy said to him.
"Huh? Oh, what do you want Cassidy?" Sarge groaned as he tried to go back to sleep.
"Aren't you forget'n what day today is?"
"No."
"Really? What day is it?"
"Friday?"
"No, well yes but today is the day Casey finally steams again."
"Oh yeah, well congratulations soldier, now if you don't mind, I'd like to use my day off."
"Come on Sargey, at least see him in his original black paint." Beth laughed, this is what got the the sleepy steamer, he hated being called "Sargey".
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that Cadet Bethany!?" He shouted in his typical Army tone.
"Take it easy Sarge, you ain't in the army anymore, remember?" Casey asked blankly.
"Of course I do Green..." Sarge changed his gaze to find Casey in his original black paint. "So is this what you looked like during the steam era?"
"Yup."
"Impressive, it really is."
"Thanks."
"Now let me go to sleep please."
"Oh no you don't Sarge, you keep waking us up at four in the morning, now it's our turn to keep you up all morning." Sarah butt in, Sarge ignored her and tried to go back to sleep, only to find that every time he closed his eyes one of the diesels would toot their own horns or one of the steamers that could would ring their bells all the way until it was time for Casey to pull the first local excursion. Unfortunately, the museum decided to have his whistle replicated so he was stuck with the steam boat whistle, that dog gone too deep for trains whistle, oddly enough Sarge was the only one who was fine with it. Any who he was finally allowed to sleep when Casey pulled out of the shop.
Sodor:
Casey was relieved that this train was top priority today, normally the Salad Bowl Express would be on top. Maybe The Fat Controller was paid very handsomely by the RAF for this train. However, the Alco couldn't help but think about how he snapped at the choppers, maybe he was a little harsh to them, maybe he'll apologize to them once they stop at the airfield, provided they didn't try to complain again once they got there. At least they were making good time, nothing but green signals ahead as far as the eyes can see. Soon enough they came to the final twenty mile stretch, the two engines increased their speed slightly to make a mad dash for being early and thus easier for the other trains to get ahead of schedule. Henry hoped that the last story would be a short one.
"So you became more and more civil with Sarge over the years, what made you two finally become friends?" He asked.
"Some would say November of '91 was the start, but I'd say late October of '95 was when we really decided to just put our differences aside."
Chattanooga, October 28, 1995:
All the engines sat quietly in front of the television, it was game six of the 1995 world series between the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians. The Braves led the series 3-2 and led the game 1-0 as Braves closer Mark Wohlers came up the mound for the top of the ninth inning. The southern engines were shaking and praying for a win for Atlanta, while the Braves have been the world series a couple times before, something weird kept happening and both times they choked when it mattered most, losing the Twins in '91 and the Toronto Blue Jays of all teams in '92. But tonight, they have Cleveland right where they wanted 'em, but again Atlanta has collapsed in the past. Sarge looked over to Casey to find his teeth chattering and sweat beads all over his face.
"I know how you feel Casey, when I was in Virginia back in '66, the Orioles were facing the Dodgers, and then again in '83 they were facing the Phillies."
"One, Baltimore swept the Dodgers in '66, and two, thanks for beat'n them good for noth'n Phils."
"Anytime Casey, anytime." Moments later, the first out popped up over the short stop, the engines cheered.
"You know Sarge, I've been think'n." Casey started.
"Yeah."
"Well, we've been at each other for a while, and, well, maybe we've been at it for far too long." The second out for the game was made by a fly ball to center field, again the engines cheered, oddly enough it was quiet Milly who has been cheering the loudest the entire series.
"Whooo! One more out baby, one more out!" Sarge looked to Casey again.
"Please continue."
"Well, how about we just put the water under the bridge and start over?" At that moment, the final out was caught in center field, the Atlanta Braves has now officially become the only team in baseball to win a world series in three different cities. The engines cheered loudly, finally, the city of Atlanta has a championship and they were going to let everybody know it. But Sarge and Casey just looked at each other, Sarge could see the sincere smile that Casey gave and he too smiled slightly.
"I'd like that Casey, I really would."
Sodor:
"Sarge and I became very strong friends after that, we hit a few bumps of course, but we managed." Casey said, and when he completed his sentence the train has reached the airfield twenty minutes early. "Alright gentlemen, welcome to Sodor, we hope you enjoy your time here and sorry about that little outburst earlier."
"Oh no, we apologize for our behavior, we simply forgot our manners." The helicopter with the mustache replied, Henry smiled to himself, at least he didn't have to have a little conversation with the Alco about said outburst, for now at least.
"Alright chaps, we must be off, lots to do and little time to do it." Cranes came as the Henry uncoupled for Casey to take the cars to the yard, when they were emptied they were lights as feathers and with ease he took them away.