TEA-REX

One evening, Rex, Mike and Bert were resting in their shed at Arlesburgh West after a hard day's work, when the Small Controller, Mr. Fergus Duncan approached them.

"Evening, Sir." said Bert, "What's up?"

"Tomorrow," the Small Controller began, "We are going to be having a special tea and refreshments carriage on the railway, just for small excursions up and down the line. And I need a strong and dedicated engine for the job."

Mike rolled his eyes at the prospect of having to carry passengers, but Rex excitedly raised his voice.

"Ooh, ooh! Pick me, Sir! I can do it!" he called.

The Small Controller chuckled.

"Very well then, Rex. It's a big carriage though, so you'll have a lot of work to do to be able to pull it."

"Don't you worry, Sir." Rex smirked confidently, "I'm sure I can manage."

The sun shone down upon the miniature gauge engine shed the following morning, as Rex woke up, feeling very confident about his new job.

"Of course Mr. Fergus Duncan would choose me!" he boasted to Mike and Bert, "I can pull tons of heavy trains of wool or ballast easily!"

Mike scoffed.

"Last time you pulled a train of wool, you derailed," he remarked.

Rex tutted.

"That was only because Farmer Willie didn't secure the wool on the trailer of his tractor. Had that not happened, I wouldn't have had any problems at all!"

His wide smirk returned and continued his boasting.

"I'm sure both of you would love to see me gliding along with this new refreshment coach."

He blew his whistle and set off out of the shed towards the station.

Mike and Bert shared a glance with each other.

Unfortunately, the teas and refreshments still had to be put into the carriage, and the passengers weren't at the station platform yet. Rex huffed impatiently.

"Come on, come on! What's the hold-up?" he scowled.

Mike and Bert rolled up alongside him, ready to take their first trains of the day.

"What's the matter, Rex?" Mike grinned cheekily, "I guess you're not that important if your carriage isn't ready yet."

Rex fumed but then smiled again before looking at Mike.

"Well, I assume they are taking so long because they know that I need to be sparkling clean and looking better than ever to pull such an important carriage." he closed his eyes, imagining him shining brightly, pulling the carriage along the line as fast as can be.

"Do you always have to be such a braggart?" Mike sighed with annoyance.

"Heh, makes a change from your complaining, Mike." Bert chuckled. Although he didn't like to admit it, he was also getting fed up with Rex's boasting.

An hour or two later, all the refreshments had been placed into the carriage. There was tea and coffee, cakes and cream buns. It all looked very tasty.

Rex idled at the station, steam wheeshing out from his cylinders, waiting for the passengers to arrive.

At last, he saw them walking onto the platform. There was the Fat Controller, his wife Lady Hatt, their grandchildren and his mother Dowager Hatt. Mr, Fergus Duncan was among them too, though he wouldn't be joining them for the ride.

"I say, thank you ever so much for this wonderful invitation, Fergus." The Fat Controller smiled, staring at the carriage at the platform, "I'm looking forward to this."

"Glad to hear it, Bertram." The Small Controller replied, "I'll see you back here soon."

And he walked away to his office.

"Ooh, Grandfather! I've never been on a miniature gauge railway before!" Stephen said excitedly, staring curiously at Rex.

"He's so small!" Bridget added.

Rex chuckled.

"Hop on board everybody!" he said with bravado.

All five members of the Hatt family stepped into the carriage and sat down. The Fat Controller immediately started to pick up a cream bun. That was, until his mother smacked his hand down.

"Oh, Mother…" he sighed.

"You can have something to eat in a bit, Topham!" she scolded, "We haven't even started yet!"

"But I'm hungry…" The Fat Controller looked down at the cream bun, crestfallen.

"Is the journey going to start yet, dear?" Lady Hatt asked her husband.

The Fat Controller turned round to look at Rex.

"Now then, Rex." he said, "I hope you give us a smooth and comfortable ride. We've never been on a miniature gauge railway before, so this will be a first for us all."

"No problem, Sir!" Rex replied. He blew his whistle and slowly pulled away from the station.

"Look at me, Bert! Look at me, Mike!" he called to the other two engines at the ballast hopper. Bert tried smiling through his annoyance, Mike just scowled.

"Be careful, Rex!" Bert called, "Don't do anything careless!"

"Pssh! As if!" Rex puffed on confidently, Bert and Mike sighed and went back to work.

As Rex puffed along the line, pulling the big carriage behind him, his driver turned his head back at the passengers.

"How's the ride so far, Sir?" he asked.

"Marvellous!" The Fat Controller replied, trying to eat an eclair out of the corner of his mother's eye. Lady Hatt was busy drinking a cup of tea, whilst their grandchildren were eating cupcakes together.

Rex meanwhile was busy thinking about his own image towards Bert and Mike, and he thought about how important he'd look to everyone else as he puffed along the line.

"I should speed up more, so I can get back to the yard quicker so Bert and Mike can see me being really useful." he thought to himself, and with that, he began to start picking up speed.

The Fat Controller and his family felt a sudden jolt, Lady Hatt accidentally spilt some of her tea all over the Fat Controller's trousers, Dowager Hatt smudged her sleeve against the cream of a bun.

"I say! What was that about?" The Fat Controller asked, both confused and rather cross.

"S-sorry, Sir." Rex's driver replied sheepishly, "Rex is just a bit preoccupied at the moment."

"Well, I just hope he focuses on getting this job done, and safely too." The Fat Controller groaned as he tried to wipe the tea stain from his trousers.

Rex's driver tapped his engine's cab.

"Rex! What's up with you?" he hissed, "You're supposed to be giving Sir Topham Hatt and his family a smooth ride!"

Rex looked back at his driver and then at the line ahead, he was too busy thinking about showing off again to Mike and Bert.

Up ahead of the line, was a very large goose. She had lost her little goslings, but thankfully, she found them on the other side of the line. She squawked as she began to waddle towards them until she saw Rex approaching. The small green engine gasped as he saw the goose, and slammed his brakes on, the carriage bumping into the back of his tender, causing the Hatt family to experience yet another unfriendly jolt.

"Oh good grief!" cried Dowager Hatt.

"Grandfather, I got cupcake icing on my trousers!" moaned Stephen.

"What's happening now?" demanded the Fat Controller turning to face the cause of the sudden halt.

"That goose, Sir." the driver pointed to the large bird, now waddling over towards Rex, honking loudly.

Rex wasn't thinking about how important he felt now, he was now thinking about how scared he felt. The goose was very big compared to Rex, in fact bigger. She was very cross about his sudden intrusion and started flapping her wings at him, her feathers smacking him against the face repeatedly.

"Ow! Ow! Stop doing that, you silly bird!" Rex snapped crossly.

The goose honked again and started jabbing her beak at his boiler, her webbed feet kicking his wheels, almost as if she was trying to push him off the rails!

"Ah! Gerroff!" he shouted, "Stop hitting me!"

"It's just a goose, Rex. Calm down." his driver chuckled. Rex, however, didn't find it so funny at all. The goose heading round to his face and pecking it all over.

"Ouch, ow! That hurts!" he groaned.

Rex blew his whistle and started to pull slowly forward, steam billowing out from both his funnel and cylinders in order to get the goose to move, which only served to make it angrier.

She pecked and honked harder at Rex, causing him to jolt back in fright, which in turn, caused the carriage to jolt backwards, Lady Hatt accidentally lost the grip on her cup of tea, it flew forward towards the front of the train, and smashed right on top of Rex's funnel, tea trickling down his face.

"Ouch!" Rex cried out, and he blew more steam out crossly at the goose.

She smacked her wings harder against Rex's face in response, and Rex tried to move forward quickly, this jolt sending the cream bun from Bridget's hand right to Rex and it smacked him on the funnel, the bun resting at the top and the cream and jam fell down onto his face.

"Urgh, come on!" he groaned louder and with that, he raced away, the goose now on the other side of the line with her goslings, still honking at Rex until he'd finally left.

Soon, Rex pulled slowly into Arlesburgh West station, The Small Controller waiting on the platform for the Hatt family. He stood waiting with a smile on his face which slowly fell once he noticed the food and tea stains on them, their sad faces and then Rex.

"Um… h-how was the ride, Bertram?" The Small Controller asked nervously.

"I'm sorry to say this, Fergus. But I don't think any of us enjoyed the ride." The Fat Controller replied, "Rex here kept racing along and stopping quickly and we got in a right mess."

The Small Controller looked over at Rex and sighed.

"I see, well, I'm ever so sorry for what happened today, Sir. Perhaps you could come back another day?"

"Perhaps." The Fat Controller replied and with that, he and his family left the station, though not before the Fat Controller tried to reach for one last cake from the carriage, before Dowager Hatt pulled him away to his car.

The Small Controller was very cross with Rex. He looked down angrily at Rex's jam, cream, tea and feather covered face.

"Rex! I thought I could trust you with being slow and careful, and it seems you gave Sir Topham Hatt and his family a terrible ride, I'm very ashamed of you!"

Rex looked down at his buffers in shame and then back up at the Small Controller.

"I was so focused on showing Bert and Mike how good I'd look whilst pulling the special refreshments carriage, I didn't think about doing a good job." he sighed sadly, "And there was a goose on the line too, it got really angry at me and tried to attack me."

The Small Controller rubbed his temples and groaned, pointing towards the shed.

"That's no excuse, Rex! You shall go to the shed and stay there for the rest of the day. And we won't remove any of the mess from you until you learn your lesson."

Rex sighed and replied with a dejected, "Yes, Sir…" as jam trickled down his face and he puffed slowly to the shed.

Later that evening, Bert and Mike puffed back into the shed on either side of Rex. When they saw him, they couldn't help but laugh.

"What ever happened to you?" Mike asked, "How was the refreshment carriage?"

"Must have been a 'sticky situation'." teased Bert and both engines laughed.

Rex fumed from his spot, first looking at the broken bits of a tea cup at his funnel, then down at the goose feathers at his running board.

"There was a goose on the line that got in my way, that's all…" he muttered.

"Probably wanted to have something to eat from the carriage!" chortled Bert.

"Honk, honk!" Mike giggled.

Rex pouted. He thought the two engines were being very silly indeed.

But for a while afterwards, Bert and Mike spoke to Rex of nothing but tea, cream buns and geese.

THE END

Well, that was quite a tale, wasn't it? Personally, I rather like the Railway Series and Series 20 mixed style this story has. The inclusion of the Hatt family was quite fun and Rex getting "attacked" by the goose was a funny addition which I really liked writing in. This isn't the last time we will see the Small Railway engines this season so make sure to look out for them in the future.

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

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.

The Flying Trevor - Whilst on a railtour on Sodor, Flying Scotsman meets Trevor the Traction Engine for the first time, and becomes fascinated with him, resulting in the big engine trying to get Trevor to go fast like him.

Elizabeth's Early Years - Wondering if the Fat Controller was always so bad at driving, Winston gets told by Elizabeth the story of what happened when the Fat Controller first learned to drive her.