My tenth season 5 rewrite kicks off. This one takes place shortly after Cranky Bugs, and no, it does not contradict the second half of "Sudrian Times of War", as Sandra and Archibald were let out if the workload was too much, only to be sent back to their siding in disgrace.
ThomasAngryBirds' Remakes and Stories
Remake 12: Horrid Lorry
Based on the same story
After the disaster at Brendam Docks a few weeks back, work on the North Western Railway quickly returned to normal. In spite of the working efforts of all the engines, there was too much to handle, and the Fat Controller had to put Sandra and Archibald back into service, hoping they would behave.
"Finally!" said Archibald, "About time that bloated git of a controller saw some sense and use a real engine like myself!"
"And me," agreed Sandra, "we can't let those silly engines make us look bad!"
However, all was not what it seemed. Sandra had to take Thomas' passengers, but was very rude towards Annie and Clarabel, and bumped them roughly along the branchline.
"What a rude engine!" Annie said to Clarabel.
"Shut up back there!" Sandra snapped, "Coaches are worthless things, not worthy the materials they had been built with!"
"Thomas doesn't bump us like that or call us rude names," Clarabel agreed with Annie.
The passengers complained about the bad service, and the Fat Controller put Sandra back onto the siding until she could control her tempers. Next day, Thomas took out Annie and Clarabel again, and they told him of Sandra's rude behavior.
"I can't believe she would mistreat you like this!" Thomas said crossly, "I'll give her a piece of my mind if I see her next!"
Archibald's behavior had not improved at all either. One November day, he had to work at Brendam to do shunting work, and he was not happy about it, especially when he came into the docks late, bumping the trucks roughly. Cranky the crane was quick to criticize.
"These ships can't be kept waiting!" grumbled Cranky, "They have important cargo, you know! If they miss their tide, they will be delayed at the docks!"
"Ah, shut it, you tall, dumb, ugly thing!" snapped Archibald crossly, "That cranky blue puffball Edward was nagging me in telling me how to handle those dumb trucks!"
"Makes no difference," snapped Cranky, "you should look up to those ships and show more respect! You are, after all, only little!"
"Little?!" Archibald fumed, "I just want to have a rest and let someone else do my work!"
"Perhaps a lorry should do your job, then!" suggested Cranky. Archibald liked this idea.
"If we have lorries on this island," he said, "then it means less work for me, and good riddance to those dumb engines!" So later that evening, Archibald boasted about what Cranky had said, and his own view on the situation.
The other engines were horrified at such an idea!
"Distorting!" remarked Edwin.
"Disturbing!" spluttered Harry.
"Disorienting!" fumed Sarah.
"Such stuff and nonsense!" said James furiously.
"We engines run this island!" snorted Henry.
"Absolutely ludicrous!" said Gordon, "I wouldn't waste my time listening to things from that crane! I have better things to do like taking the express!"
"What if a lorry does arrive?" Percy asked to no one in particular.
I'm afraid the Fat Controller had ordered a lorry to help, along with two more.
The next morning, Cranky had unloaded the third lorry onto the ground, when Edward arrived to take some trucks to Tidmouth.
"Hey, you down there," called Cranky, "your job is done now these lorries are taking over! One of them wants to talk to you!"
The first lorry was very rude.
"What's that blue steaming lump of scrap iron doing here?" he said, "Be off with you!"
Edward said nothing, and just simply puffed away with his trucks.
When Archibald met up with the three lorries that evening, he decided to speak with them.
"I want a word with you!" he called to them.
"What do you want, steamer?" the second lorry demanded.
"I actually feel how you three feel," Archibald explained, "working with losers and all."
"Well, yeah, but you are an engine like them!" the third lorry said rudely.
"That's as may be," said Archibald, "yet you are the enemy of my enemy, in other words, my friends."
The three lorries looked at each other.
"If I help you," Archibald explained, "we can make those losers look bad, and then Fat Hatt will get rid of them, and he'll have no choice but to turn to us, as well as my friend Sandra."
"You got yourself a deal," said Lorry 1.
"What do we get in return?" asked Lorry 3.
"All the stone you can wish for," said Archibald.
"Deal!" said Lorry 2. And the three lorries chattered excitedly. Archibald smirked to himself. That went well, he thought to himself. But he didn't know things would go wrong...
The next day, the lorries set out to make sure they would prove better than the engines. When Percy was shunting Gordon's express, he saw Lorry 1 being rude to Sarah and Edwin. The lorry then saw Percy.
"Oh look!" he taunted, "It's another little green goblin on wheels! You'll be scrapped! Wait and see when I prove my worth on this useless railway!"
"Well bust my buffers! What a horrid lorry!" exclaimed Edwin.
"Disgraceful!" agreed Sarah.
Thomas' branchline ends at Ffarquhar, and beyond the station was Anopha quarry. The line leading to Anopha runs alongside the road, and there is a crossing, which didn't have gates, and there were no fences separating the rails and roads.
Thomas, being the only engine on his branchline was allowed as long as he took care, which he always did. He would blow his whistle, and people and their horses or cars would stand clear, and Thomas would puff down the line to the quarry with his trucks rolling behind him.
On this day, Thomas saw Lorry 2 while he was shunting trucks.
"Well, well, well," Lorry 2 mocked, "no wonder this railway is a terrible mess! You should be in a siding rusting away, not working at this quarry!"
"That's what you think," snapped Thomas, "The Fat Controller knows that I'm a really useful engine!"
"Useful?! Bah!" the lorry laughed, "Just toodle off, you blue lump of scrap!"
"Toodle?!" Thomas spluttered furiously, "Lump of scrap?! Let me tell you-!"
The manager of the quarry came to stop the argument.
"That's enough!" he said firmly, "Don't bother arguing with him, Thomas. There's no work here for you today, I'm afraid."
Thomas sighed and he puffed away back to Ffarquhar. The lorry smirked triumphantly.
Meanwhile, David was to take some flour from Ballahoo to Kirk Ronan where it would be taken to the flour mill to make English muffins, bread, and other wheat. But there, David saw Lorry 3!
"Why are you here?" David asked.
"We three are doing your work now," Lorry 3 said, "you're too slow to start up! For us lorries, a key to the ignition, and we're off!"
"I'm sorry," said the flour mill manager, "but times are changing."
"David may be old," said the fireman, "but he still has life in him yet!"
"Come on, David," said the driver, "I'm sure passengers will still use us. We have a passenger train due to take in three hours."
David puffed sadly away to the sheds.
Meanwhile, Thomas was with Annie and Clarabel, puffing into Hackenbeck tunnel. In his race with Bertie, Thomas won because he could go through the tunnel, and Bertie went over the hill.
Lorry 2's rear was loaded to the brim with rock, and his driver was driving him very recklessly.
"Watch it buddy!" a motorist shouted as Lorry 2 dodged him.
"Out of my way!" shouted Lorry 2. Suddenly, his driver jumped clear as Lorry 2 left the road. Lorry 2 had landed and tumbled near the tracks, but his driver managed to survive, but with injuries.
As he puffed out of the tunnel, Thomas saw the wrecked lorry.
"Stop driver!" he said, and his driver did. Thomas could see Lorry 2 was a mangled wreck.
"What a mess," exclaimed the driver.
"No kidding," groaned his driver, "rotten roads! But anyway, I need some help to get to the hospital."
Thomas' driver and fireman led Lorry 2's driver into Clarabel, and told the guard about the accident.
"I'll call for help when we reach Elsbridge," said the guard.
Thomas pulled into Elsbridge where the guard phoned for the breakdown train, while the lorry's driver was taken to the hospital to recover.
The manged remains of Lorry 2 were taken to Wellsworth, and Harry began to laugh at him.
"What is this lump of scrap?" he teased.
"I'll be back," replied the lorry, "so you can wipe that silly smile off your smokebox!"
"Pah!" laughed Harry, and blew steam at him. Then a tow vehicle pulled up and on its flatbed was Lorry 3.
"What happened to him?" asked Harry's driver.
"He was overloaded with too many sacks of flour," said the lorry's driver, "and he broke down as a result?"
"Not very useful now, eh?" Edward commented.
"GRRAAAH!" the lorries growled.
At Tidmouth Harbor, Sarah was in giggle fits.
"They got Lorry 1 on a barge!" she giggled, "What happened to that one?"
"That stupid lorry driver didn't watch where he was going," said the foreman, "and his lorry plunged into the sea as a result!"
Sarah laughed so hard at Lorry 1 she nearly cried. "You say we're useless? Look at you now!" she teased.
Lorry 1 didn't answer; he was shivering from the cold November water. All three lorries were gathered at Wellsworth to be taken away by Henry in a couple of days. Edwin came by the day before they left and grinned.
"Well, well, well, the Brothers Grimm!" he chuckled, "Smashed, Broken, and Sunk!" He meant Lorries 2, 3, and 1, respectively.
When the Fat Controller heard that Archibald had some involvement in their plan, he was banished to the same siding as Sandra. But the lorries never returned, and the engines worked very hard to make sure they never will.
As for the driver of Lorry 2, he recovered from his injuries, and he now worked as a porter for Wellsworth. I think he was happy in his new position.
That's Horrid Lorry done with. There's 16 more season 5 episodes left to rewrite, but I'm sure I can rewrite the whole season while fitting it into the RWS timeline.
More to come!
