NELLY AND BOCO

Nelly had been at the Steamworks for a few weeks but soon, she was finally repaired, painted a dim purple with the number 53 painted on both sides of her cab. She felt very pleased but was still rather nervous about going to work. Victor noticed this and puffed over to her.

"Are you sure you're feeling ok, my friend?" he asked with concern.

Nelly kept her focus on the line heading outside the Steamworks. She took a deep breath and exhaled before looking at Victor.

"M-mhm." she replied, "I'm doing great."

"Alright, Nelly." said Victor, "Now, all your repairs are complete. It's time for you to head to Wellsworth to start your work."

Kevin raced over to her, but he suddenly tipped over when trying to stop and fell on his side by the door.

"Good luck!" he cheered, wiggling his hook up and down.

Nelly giggled and blew her whistle as she made her way out the Steamworks, slowly and carefully.

"B-bye, Mr. Victor. Bye Mr. Kevin!" she called as she quietly made her along the line towards Wellsworth.

Soon, Nelly puffed into Wellsworth Yard. She was rather alarmed at the rows of trucks and coaches haphazardly sitting about the yard. She gulped nervously and puffed slowly towards the turntable.

"Ah! Nelly, hello there!" Edward called cheerfully from the shed.

Nelly jumped in surprise.

"Oh! Mr. E-E-Edward… h-hello…" she blushed.

"The first day on the job is quite scary, believe me." said Edward, "When I first came to Sodor, I was rather nervous, I even felt like giving up at first. But I didn't. I buckled down and got on with the work. You just need to find your courage. And I'm going to help you."

Nelly looked up at Edward and smiled slightly.

"Th-thanks…"

"First things first, these trucks here." He indicated to a line of empty wagons on the right side of the yard. "They need to be arranged for Donald to collect. He'll be coming by in a bit to get them. The best thing to do is to get them ready now, so that when Donald arrives, he can immediately couple up to them and go on his way." Edward explained.

Nelly blinked, rather perplexed by all this information.

Edward chuckled.

"Here, I'll give you a start to show you what to do."

Nelly watched intensely as Edward pushed the trucks into a line.

"Don't you h-have to give th-them a biff?" she asked.

"Oh no!" Edward laughed, "Most engines do that, but you shouldn't. Only do that when they misbehave."

"Ah. Ok. Got it!" she replied.

She hurried onto the turntable, turned around and bumped into some coaches.

"So, I biff coaches r-right?" she asked.

"N-no!" Edward cried out, "Don't biff the coaches! They don't like being biffed! Coaches should not be biffed in any way!"

Nelly looked down disheartened.

"Oh… sorry…"

Edward sighed.

"Listen, just make sure to not rush. You'll get yourself all flustered and you won't know what you're doing. Make sure to listen very closely to my instructions."

"Got it, M-Mr. Edward!" she replied.

For the rest of the day, Nelly and Edward worked hard together, shunting, and arranging trains together. Edward was extremely impressed with Nelly's work ethic.

"Thank you, Nelly!" James called as he backed down onto his train of tankers and puffed slowly out of the yard.

"Y-you're welcome!" she called back to him.

"Nelly I must say," Edward said as the two engines backed down into their shed at the end of the day. "You're a very hard worker. I'm so glad to have someone like you to work with me on my branchline."

Nelly looked down at her buffers shyly and blushed.

"N-no problem…" she smiled.

"Now tomorrow, I'm giving you a challenge." the old blue engine said, "I'm going to see how well you can shunt trains in the yard without me there at all."

Nelly instantly looked over at Edward and gasped.

"The only reason I spent so much time with you here today was because I personally asked the Fat Controller if I could teach you how to run the yard. Tomorrow, I have lots of jobs to do. Passenger trains, banking trains up Gordon's Hill, taking goods trains to Brendam Docks and back, but at least I'll have someone as hard-working as you to run the yard."

"Y-you sure, Mr. Edward?" Nelly asked nervously.

"Just take a deep breath, and go do your job tomorrow with confidence, I believe in you, Nelly."

Nelly sniffled as tears of joy gently trickled down her cheeks.

"Th-thank you so much, Mr. Edward! I'll do the absolute b-best I can!"

Edward chuckled.

"That's great to hear! But, if you do need just a bit more advice, BoCo will be here to help you out if need be."

"Who is BoCo?" she asked curiously.

"A very good friend of mine. You'll know him when you see him. He's big and green and very friendly."

Edward yawned.

"But now… it's time for going to sleep…" And with that, he began to doze off.

"Goodnight, Nelly…" he said sleepily, his eyes drooping.

"G'night, Mr. Edward…" Nelly yawned too, before falling fast asleep.

The sun was shining brightly down upon Wellsworth Yard as Nelly woke up. Edward had already left to do his own work, and Nelly puffed out her shed and smiled confidently out at the yard in front of her.

"Good m-morning, world!" she said cheerfully.

Nelly set to work arranging trains for the engines to collect or to just neaten the yard.

As she was backing down on a train of salt vans for Rosie to collect, she heard a deep horn sound out, and she saw a very big and long diesel engine roll into the yard. As the big green diesel engine stopped on the turntable and turned around, Nelly froze up immediately. Her fear of 'Arry and Bert weren't anything compared to her fear of this diesel, he was much, much bigger than either of them.

The big green diesel backed down onto a line of coaches next to Nelly. Nelly held her breath.

"Oh! Hey there, little one!" the diesel greeted cheerfully, "Nice to meet you, you must be Nelly. That old geezer Edward told me about you!" he laughed heartily, before looking at both sides of the yard.

"Blimey, you certainly are a hard worker, I haven't seen this yard so tidy in a while!"

Nelly's teeth chattered and she found it extremely hard to even stammer her words.

"You feeling alright, kid?" BoCo asked perplexed.

Nelly screamed out in pure terror and ran off, now trying to hide herself between some large vans.

"S-stay a-a-away!" she shouted out as loudly as she possibly could, steam billowing out from her funnel in a desperate attempt to completely hide her from BoCo.

BoCo raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Ey kid, you feeling alright?" he asked, "Stress not getting to you or anything?"

BoCo was coupled to his coaches and slowly began to roll forwards.

"G-go away! D-don't h-h-hurt me!" Nelly shouted out, utterly terrified.

BoCo blinked for a second, before looking at the station then back at Nelly.

"Well, thanks for arranging my coaches, Nelly. But I've gotta head off now. Train to pull and all." He blew his horn and pushed his coaches back down to the station. He looked over at his right side, watching Nelly still trying to hide from him.

"Good thing you're working here in the yard for Edward. Really helps the guy out. Just saw him as I arrived here at the scrapyard, pretty busy there too." He honked his horn and slowly pulled out the station, his engine roaring loudly as he disappeared into the distance.

Nelly stopped as she watched him leave, pushing the truck in front of her slowly forward.

"M-Mr… Edward… a-at the… s-s-s-scrapyard?!" she cried out. "Oh n-no! That b-big s-scary d-d-diesel wants E-Edward scrapped! I-I have to s-stop him!"

And with that, Nelly dashed onto the turntable, turned right round, and her wheels pounded the rails as she made a mad dash out of the yard and towards the scrapyard.

A few seconds after she left, Henry arrived at the station.

"Alright, I'm here for my train and-" He stopped as he looked at the yard nearby but saw no shunter.

"Huh. That's strange. There's nobody else here."

Nelly hurried as fast as she could towards Crock's Scrapyard, and, sure enough, Edward was there, chatting with Reg. Nelly slammed her brakes on as she pulled up alongside them.

"Mr. Edward!" she burst out, "Are y-you ok?!"

Edward was very surprised to see Nelly away from the yard, so was Reg.

"Nelly? What are you doing over here? Shouldn't you be shunting trucks in the yard?" he asked perplexed.

"Now, don't you w-worry, Mr. Edward!" Nelly exclaimed, "I'm not going t-to let you get s-scrapped!"

Edward and Reg both looked at each other, then back at Nelly.

"What are you talking about, Nelly?" Reg asked.

"Don't scrap him p-please, Mr. R-Reg!" Nelly cried out. "Y-you sh-should scrap that b-big, mean d-diesel!"

Reg and Edward sat in silence and confusion before Edward began to speak again.

"Nelly, since you're here, do you mind taking these trucks for me back to the yard? I've gotten stuck at the moment, just need to be fixed up for a bit. I can come collect them later and-"

"Oh no!" Nelly was now in complete panic mode now. "Th-that big d-diesel m-made you b-break down s-so you can be s-s-scrapped! I'll s-save you, Mr. Edward!" she declared and quickly buffered up to Edward's trucks and pulled them away, leaving the blue engine alongside Reg.

"B-but, Nelly!" Edward called, "That's not the way to the yar-"

But Nelly had already dashed off.

"Was she talking about BoCo?" Reg asked.

Edward sighed.

"I suppose it's something like that…"

Nelly raced along the line, flying through Suddery, the trucks of scrap rattling along behind her.

"Th-that big, mean d-diesel is going to s-scrap Mr. Edward! He's m-made him break down, and he's g-going to t-take his jobs! I'm going to d-do all Mr. Edward's j-jobs today f-for him so M-Mr. Controller Man can k-keep him!" she proclaimed.

At Brendam Docks, Porter was shunting a train of vans full of fish for Henry to collect later that evening. Both he and Cranky were very surprised to see a strange looking tank engine dash into the docks with some trucks of scrap and immediately start trying to couple up to the vans.

"'Ere! Whatta you doing with those?!" Cranky called down to Nelly.

"I've g-got to s-save Mr. Edward!" Nelly shouted up to him, "I'm g-going to d-do his jobs for h-him!"

Salty, who was just rounding the bend, heard the commotion and rolled up alongside Nelly and Porter.

"Ahoy mateys! What seems to be going on today?" he asked.

"AHHHHH!" Nelly screamed out and dashed off with both the scrap trucks and the vans of fish.

Salty, Porter and Cranky stared blankly as they watched Nelly race away.

"Was it something I said?" Salty asked.

As Nelly hurried along the line back up to Wellsworth, she suddenly saw two small engines alongside a few trucks of china clay on the line opposite her. She slowed down as she approached them.

"This is all your fault, Ben!" Bill snapped.

"My fault?" Bill huffed crossly, "It's your fault that I broke down!"

"You've both broken down, and it's both your fault!" Bill's driver snapped.

The twins sulked but then they saw Nelly alongside them.

"Oh, hello-" Bill began.

"Are these for M-Mr. Edward?" Nelly asked quickly.

"Um, well-" Ben tried to explain.

"I'll take them with me!" Nelly exclaimed, as she reversed back a bit, blew her whistle, and raced onto the other line and began to push Bill, Ben and their trucks as well as pulling her own train along.

"Woah!" cried Bill, "What are you doing?!"

"Careful!" Ben shouted out. But Nelly wasn't stopping for love nor money.

Edward was completely dumbfounded as he watched a train consisting of Bill, some china clay trucks, Ben, Nelly, some fish vans, and his scrap trucks race past the scrapyard. So was Reg.

"D-don't worry, M-Mr. Edward!" Nelly called out as she rocketed past, "I'll s-save you!"

"What on Sodor?" Edward gasped.

Nelly barrelled into the yard with her unusual train, screeching to a halt as Bill bumped into the buffers.

"Thank goodness for that!" Bill gasped.

"Stopped at last!" Ben added.

Nelly then looked over towards the station platform and saw the stationmaster talking to the guard.

"What's happened?" the stationmaster asked.

"Gordon got himself stuck on the hill pulling the express, and we need some to bank his train!" the guard explained.

Nelly then remembered when Edward told him that he banks trains up Gordon's Hill.

"M-Mr. Edward will n-need help with h-his jobs. T-then, Mr. C-Controller Man w-will keep him and I'll th-then get r-rid of that d-diesel!" she thought to herself.

And with that, she blew her whistle and began puffing backwards as fast she could towards the hill.

"Oh for goodness sake!" yelled Bill.

The stationmaster and guard watched in horror as the strange train raced away towards Gordon's Hill.

"Oh no! Stop!" the stationmaster shouted, "BoCo will be going down that line!"

But it was too late.

Nelly, Bill, Ben and their train raced along towards Gordon's Hill. Whilst Gordon and his coaches were on the left side, Nelly's train was going along the inside line. When she saw Gordon stopped on the line next to her, she began to slow down.

"So are we stopping and starting?!" Bill groaned.

"Oh no! Mr. Gordon's on the w-wrong line!" Nelly exclaimed.

"No." Ben replied, looking back up the hill in horror. "I think we are!"

Nelly looked back and gasped as she saw BoCo racing along towards them with a goods train in tow. He honked his horn loudly as he saw the trucks of scrap ahead of him.

"Outta the way!" he shouted.

Gordon blew his whistle and hurried away down the hill to get clear.

As soon as Gordon was out of harm's way, BoCo crashed into the scrap trucks, his front wheels leaving the rails and he tipped over on his side, his heavy train pushing him into the rest of the trucks, knocking them all off the line or into pieces, until he ground to a halt, right next to Nelly.

Nelly held her eyes tightly shut and didn't say a word as she tried to sob silently.

Eventually, Edward, now having been fixed up, arrived pulling Rocky. Along with him was Winston, being driven by the Fat Controller, who was most annoyed.

"What on earth has happened here?!" he boomed "Fish vans, scrap trucks, china clay trucks, Bill, Ben and…" he stopped when he saw Nelly in the middle of the wreck.

"Nelly?! How did you end up in this mess?" he asked.

Tears rolled down Nelly's face as she took a deep breath and began to speak.

"W-w-well, S-Sir… I t-thought Mr. E-Edward was g-getting s-scrapped so I-I tried to g-get his jobs done f-for him, so you'd k-keep h-him w-working here. Th-this diesel w-was going to r-replace him…"

The Fat Controller rubbed his temples and sighed.

"Nelly, Edward is not getting scrapped, and BoCo here is not going to replace him. Edward just had a minor problem with his brakes and just so happened to get stuck at the scrapyard, all it took was a minute or two to fix the issue. BoCo has been working on this railway for years and is a very good friend of Edward's."

He looked at both Edward and BoCo, then turned back to Nelly.

"You left the yard unattended and left lots of trains delayed. You caused an accident involving several engines!" he scolded, "But what I want to know is why? Why are you so scared of BoCo?"

Nelly stuttered a bit before plucking up the courage to speak again.

"I-I just… i'm just really scared of diesels!" she burst out.

Everyone stopped and listened.

"D-diesels on the Mainland w-were so m-mean to me and 'Arry and Bert w-were too…" she sobbed, "I just get s-so scared of d-diesels because of h-how they t-treated me…"

Edward cleared his throat before speaking.

"I can understand that you got very scared of diesels for a reason, Nelly. But not all diesels are like that. In fact, most of the diesels on Sodor are some of the nicest you'll ever meet, especially BoCo here. I'm very lucky to have a friend like him."

Nelly stopped and looked up at Edward and then back at BoCo.

"I don't think I'd want to replace someone like Edward. I don't think I'd want to replace someone like you, Nelly. Edward told me how hard working you are." BoCo smirked.

Nelly blushed and gave a small weak smile.

"Th-thank you…" she looked back down at her buffers and sighed.

"I'm so sorry… th-that I caused s-so much trouble…"

"Well, I'm glad we managed to understand how this whole thing happened in the first place." BoCo replied, "But before we do anything else, let's get back on the rails, yeah?"

It was late in the evening by the time the work was finished. The china clay trucks were taken away by Bill and Ben back to the docks. The broken parts of trucks and scrap were collected by Harvey and taken away to the scrapyard. And Edward helped BoCo to the Dieselworks.

Nelly was left by herself in the sheds at Wellsworth that night. She felt very ashamed about what she had done.

"I-I'm going t-to s-say sorry to both M-Mr. Edward and B-BoCo tomorrow…" she said to herself.

The next morning, Nelly woke up to see both Edward and BoCo on either side of her in the sheds.

"Morning sleepyhead!" BoCo called cheerfully.

"Glad to see you awake!" Edward chuckled.

Nelly puffed slowly forward and looked at both engines.

"I-I'm really sorry, M-Mr. BoCo. I didn't kn-know what you w-were like. Sorry f-for judging you before I got to know y-you…"

"It's alright, you're not the first engine to have done that." BoCo smiled.

"And… s-sorry for messing up your jobs and not s-staying in the y-yard…" she said to Edward, "I shouldn't have g-gotten so worked up over n-nothing…"

"Well, I'm just glad to see you safe and sound, and I'm glad that now, we can all get along with each other." Edward whistled as he slowly pulled out of the sheds for the day's work.

"Y-yes!" Nelly replied cheerfully as she followed suit, along with BoCo.

While her first day on the railway wasn't the best start, Nelly quickly improved and became one of the hardest working engines on the Island. Wellsworth Yard became highly organized and all trains heading in and out of the station and yard are always on time and never late. Nelly became very good friends with BoCo and started to get to know the other diesels on Sodor, like Salty. She became more open to others and made sure to not judge others so quickly as well as not get so flustered over simple things.

THE END

Well, so far, that's the longest story I've written. And what a tale it was. Nelly I think is at her best in this episode, and the return of BoCo here was also enjoyable. I really loved the inclusion of Bill and Ben, they have always been two of my favourite characters, Nelly rushing all over with both them and trucks was great to write about. BoCo will be appearing again in other stories, so I'm sure that will be great news for lots of people.

As always, here's what's coming up next:

Gordon Goes Foreign - After getting into a heated argument with Flying Scotsman about what London Station is called, Gordon sets off to London to prove that it is named King's Cross.

Tea-Rex - Rex gets rather overconfident when he gets chosen to pull a special dining coach. Although, an angry stray goose manages to bring his ego down.

Knights of the Turntable - When Arthur hears about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, he decides to gather some engines to be his own knights, in order to help him out with a job he doesn't want to do. Unfortunately, disaster strikes when Emily becomes an impromptu damsel-in-distress.

Busy Going Sideways - Stafford gains a helper at the Shunting Yard, in the form of one of the strangest engines on the Island, Travis. But Travis doesn't like working on the rails as he has to travel sideways, and it makes him dizzy. His moody personality doesn't help matters either.