Next chapter coming up right now.
I do not own Thomas the Tank/Thomas & Friends or I would have kept them in their models forms.
One of Thomas family's favourite pass times was fishing.
Thomas and his dad would always compete on who could catch the most fish or biggest. Meanwhile Thomas's mom and sisters would always watch on amused by the two's antics.
Now working on the North-Western Railway, he didn't get much chance to fish, but when he does he tended to invite Edward or Henry along as both enjoy it too. Not surprising both Gordon and James would refuse to do so…they would always come when Annie and Clarabelle ask them to come.
It came like a tradition whenever the drivers all got time off they gather up to fish as it was nice to relax from the stress of their jobs.
Gordon, Henry and James, the Mainline Team Thomas liked to call them, would always compete to see if got the biggest while Edward and Thomas, the Branchline Pair, would try to catch the most. Annie and Clarabelle would always make everyone sandwiches they could enjoy and these days were pretty fun as it was indeed nice to unwind and relax.
Though now it was harder to get those days off as the railway got more and more popular as it was now one of the last Steam-Powered Railways left in the world and so many people wanted to come and see it. Many people loved coming here as even the drivers admit there was like some peaceful aura that Sodor had and so many kept wanting to come here.
But that means the Railway got more and more busy so that means the Mainline Team and the Branchline Pair had a lot more work to do. Which left less time for them to hangout and have fun, but they all admit they would one day love to do that again whenever they could, but work comes first.
One day Thomas was pulling up to Elsbridge Junction and he saw his engine needed water so he hope he could fill her up here.
He pulled the train to a stop and he waited for the passengers to hop off than hop onto James's train as he was waiting there already.
He waved to James when James headed off and he saw his chance to fill up his engine so he started heading around to hook up the water tower's hose to his engine. He, however, saw to his annoyance he saw the tower had a out of service sign on it.
"Oh, come one." He sighed annoyed and one of the workmen called over to him.
"Sorry Thomas, wind damage. You can use the river to fill her up."
Thomas nods at that as along the way to Ffarquhar was River Els and Thomas knew he could get his engine over there to fill her back up.
One of the workmen gave him a bucket to use, but Thomas saw it had some holes in it so he knew he will have to fill and empty out quickly. He headed off down the rails and drove carefully to sparing use whatever water he had left in his tank engine.
Some time later he arrived at the river and he soon tied a rope to the bucket before lowering it into the river. He than pulls it out once it was fill and he saw some water leaking out of the holes so he pulled it up quickly. He than emptied it out than lowered it back into the water and repeated the process a few times.
He smiled once he got the engine filled up and hops back inside the cab before heading off to Ffarquhar.
However, along the way suddenly steam started erupting out and he knew something was very wrong. He saw too much pressure was building up and died his engine's fire down before slowly heading to Ffarquhar.
Once he arrived he quickly uncouples his engine from his coaches before he took his engine off to the side. He turned his engine off and informed some workmen nearby what was going on. They put up warning signs on his engine as the engine had a risk of a serious problem and Thomas called up Sir Topham Hatt telling him what was going on.
Not long after Sir Topham Hatt and an Engine Inspector arrived and Thomas informed of them what was going on.
"Sounds like the feed pipes are blocked. I will take a look in the water tank." The Inspector said before climbing up a ladder and looked down into the water tanks. He was there only for a brief moment before coming right down and had a confused look on his face.
"Sir you might want to take a look." He said to Sir Topham Hatt who was confused before he too climbed up the ladder and looked down into the tanks too than he got a look of confusion on his face.
"Inspector…are those fish? How did they get in here?" He asked out loud confused as he saw the fish swimming around in the water.
"I must have accidently grabbed them when I filled up the tank." Thomas said surprised by the course of the problem.
"Well, we will need to get them out." Sir Topham Hatt said and all afternoon Thomas and the Inspector took turns to fish out the fish with Sir Topham Hatt supervising. Thomas admitted he wanted to fish more again, but he never expected he will fish out of his own engine's water tanks.
Some time later they managed to get all of the fish out of there and seeing it was close to lunchtime they decided to cook up the fish for fish and chips.
After finishing their lunch Sir Topham Hatt and Thomas joked about fish and trains do not mix.
Thomas also vowed to make sure when getting water from a river again he will make sure to bring a hose to avoid this situation in the future.
Hope you enjoyed