TOBY AND THE WASHOUT

Based upon "Toby and the Flood" by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton and "Washout" by Christopher Awdry

Originally published December 2019

Thomas had been sent to the Steamworks for a five-yearly service, leaving Percy and Toby to handle the workload on the branch line.

"Bother," sighed Thomas. "I'll probably miss Christmas this year. Are you sure you two and Daisy and Mavis can handle the Christmas rush?"

"We'll all do our best," Toby assured him. "With the quarry less busy around this time, I'm sure Mavis can help out more with the goods traffic."

"Of course," smiled Thomas. "You two take good care of Annie and Clarabel for me. Oh, and you'll have to give Bear the best Christmas possible if I'm not back in time. It's his first one on Sodor."

The engines promised as Thomas puffed away.

The four engines all worked very hard, knowing that this is what Thomas would want in his absence. Snow had already started falling on the line when Thomas went in for his service, and the engines all worked hard plowing it as well as doing their jobs. It was thankful that the blue tank engine did return in time for the Christmas party that year, and Bear's first Christmas was a massive success.

But I'm afraid to say that as the warmer weather hit in the new year, this brought heavy rainfalls to the Island of Sodor, and this dampened the moods of everyone, figuratively and literally.

Whenever Toby crossed the bridge over the river near Hackenbeck, he, his crew and Henrietta noticed that the water level was gradually becoming much higher.

"I don't like the look of this," he said nervously. "If that river reaches the level of the railway lines…" He shut his eyes tightly, shuddering as he thought about when he had been caught on the tightrope.

"Toby," Henrietta called to him. "You're safe. The dam upstream is holding the water back, remember? And the bridge was strengthened when it was rebuilt."

"Thank goodness for that," agreed Toby, and carried on his way.

"You know, Toby," said Henrietta, "that river's got to come a lot higher if it's going to stop us."

"Y-yes," stammered Toby as he and Henrietta reached the other side. "I just… don't want history repeating itself."

The dam had been built many years ago, long before Thomas came to Sodor, so it could contain water to serve the communities of both Hackenbeck and Ffarquhar. However, in recent years, vegetation was beginning to grow on the sides of the wall, and it was showing signs of wear and tear. Harold the helicopter had been assigned to inspect the dam to make sure it was secure. Water from the two portholes near the bottom of the dam rushed out, swirling in its hurry to meet the river.

Suddenly, Harold noticed something about the dam.

"There's a few leaks!" he cried to his pilots. "We must warn everyone in case it collapses!" It was a good thing Harold had noticed the leaks, because after he'd left, more began to form, threatening to take the dam down.

Meanwhile, down at Elsbridge, Toby and Henrietta had reached Elsbridge safely to deliver their train of stone to Douglas.

"Efternoon, Toby," said Douglas. "Ye an' Henrietta ur lookin' woriat thaur."

"It's the bridge near Hackenbeck," explained Toby. "I'm afraid that one of these days, it'll collapse, and I daren't think what could happen if one of us was on it…"

"Och, spaur me th' thooght," replied Douglas, as Toby began to shunt his trucks into position. The weather had begun to get worse, and before anyone could say "Sir Topham Hatt", Toby had shunted his trucks harder than intended behind Douglas' train.

"Oi, be cannie back thaur!" called Douglas.

"Sorry, Douglas!" called Toby. "This rain is making it harder to see."

"Aye, an' I'll need lots ay sain if I'm gonnae make it tae Vicarstoon," sighed Douglas. "Who knows when thes weaither will lit up?"

The two engines said their goodbyes, and while Douglas carried on with his goods train, Toby and Henrietta made their way back to Ffarquhar, unaware of the danger heading their way.

Up ahead, Percy was about to take some coaches on his passenger run when he saw Harold swooping in, looking urgent.

"Bad news, I'm afraid, old chap," he said. "The dam's about to break up, and that could mean trouble for you on the branch line."

"But what about the passengers?" asked Percy worriedly.

"I'm afraid you'll need Bertie's help with that," said Harold gravely. "Your safety is important."

"He's right, you know," said his driver.

"We don't want to end up taking a bath," added his fireman. But then, Percy had an awful thought.

"Toby and Henrietta are coming this way!" cried Percy. "If the news doesn't get to them, they could be in trouble!" Quickly, he was uncoupled from the coaches and rushed over to the bridge.

When Percy had arrived at the bridge, he could see the water level was now higher than ever. Just then, he heard the sound of a familiar bell and gasped.

"Toby!" shouted Percy. "Don't cross the bridge! It could collapse at any moment!"

But Percy's cries were lost to the sound of falling rain, and so Toby and Henrietta couldn't hear him properly.

"Driver!" cried Percy. "Use my lamp as a signal! That should get their attention!" His driver jumped from the small engine's cab, and then began turning Percy's lamp on and off again, like Morse code.

"What's that?" said Toby, noticing the light going on and off.

"That looks like Morse code," said his driver. "S-T-O-P - we have to stop!" As they got closer, Percy came into their view, and quickly, Toby's driver put on the brakes.

By now, everything seemed to happen at once; the dam was leaking so much that it had finally collapsed, water rushing out at a tremendous rate! The river was now rushing much harder than it had ever done, heading straight towards the bridge! Toby had managed to stop, but unfortunately, he and Henrietta were halfway across when they noticed the river coming towards them.

"Go back! Go back!" cried Percy, blowing his whistle. Frantically, Toby tried to reverse himself and Henrietta away from disaster, but he wasn't fast enough. The bridge on Percy's end was now breaking away, leaving Toby leaning at an awkward angle.

"Ohhh, help!" he wailed. Henrietta had been uncoupled and was chained onto one of the sleepers for her safety, but she looked back in horror as she saw the position her closest friend was in.

"Oh no! Toby! Not again!" she screamed. Harold had flown in just in time to see the tram engine in peril.

"Here, Percy!" he called to the green engine. "Use this rope to keep the bridge secure! I'll see if I can pull Toby to safety!"

"Right," Percy said firmly as his driver caught the rope and tied it to the bridge and Percy's hook. "Don't worry, Toby!"

The little green engine then began to pull back on the bridge to keep the river from washing it and Toby away.

"But not too hard," called Harold. "We don't want to make this situation any worse!" Luckily, Harold also had a chain with him, and one end was attached to his underside while the other was on Toby's rear hook.

"Please hurry!" cried Toby. "I don't think the bridge can hold on much longer!"

"We're working on it!" called Harold. "Don't worry, Toby; you'll be safe before you know it!"

Once the chain was attached to Toby, Harold began to pull hard. Slowly but surely, Toby felt himself moving off of the bridge and back onto firm ground once more. They were just in time; no sooner was Toby off the bridge when it finally gave away.

"That was a close call there," gasped Toby, still processing what had almost happened to him. He and Percy both looked down at where the bridge once stood, now lying in the middle of the brown, rushing stream. "Thanks for saving me, you two."

"Oh, thank you, Harold and Percy," cried Henrietta, "for saving my Toby from certain doom!"

"Glad to be of service," said Harold, "and even gladder that everyone's safe and accounted for."

"Anytime," smiled Percy. "What is it with you and weak bridges anyway, Toby?"

"I have no idea, and I don't want to find out," Toby sighed.

Eventually, the heavy rains died down, and the damage could be assessed. Thankfully, the only major damage done was to the dam and the bridge near Hackenbeck, so temporary arrangements were made to keep trains going.

Thomas and Toby, stuck on the side leading to Knapford station, had to take it in turns with Annie, Clarabel and Henrietta all at once as well as tackle the goods traffic. Percy, Mavis and Daisy were stuck on the side of the bridge where the quarry was, so the green tank engine had to occasionally help Mavis up there, and they also tackled the goods trains. Percy also helped Daisy with the passengers. In between on the roads, Bertie and some lorries helped to move goods and passengers over to the stations on the other side.

"This island sure is beautiful," smiled one of the lorries; she was painted blue with a registration plate reading "LOR 4".

"It's alright, I suppose," muttered another lorry who was painted green with the registration plate of "LOR 3".

"I-I hope everyone's friendly," a yellow lorry stammered, his nameplate was "LOR 2". "W-we can't have a-any d-disturbances."

"Don't worry," chuckled Bertie. "The engines all have good in them, even some of the ones who don't seem the nicest on the surface."

"That's a joke," grunted a red lorry, his nameplate reading "LOR 1". "Roads should rule this island; many branch lines have been ripped up on the mainland already!"

"Oh, hush up!" growled the blue lorry. "Terribly sorry about him, Bertie. He's been like that since day one."

"I can imagine he'd get on well with a certain steamroller and double decker bus turned henhouse," muttered Bertie.

When Bertie got a chance to meet up with Toby and the three coaches, it didn't escape his notice that the tram engine and Henrietta were quite badly shaken.

"It must have been horrible," Bertie said quietly.

"Twice now…" Toby's voice was dry. "I… I don't know how I got lucky both times."

"Because you have friends who care about you, Toby," Annie said soothingly.

"If we were engines, we'd help at a moment's notice," agreed Clarabel.

"I wish I could have done something myself," sighed Henrietta.

"But you did during the first time something like this has happened," Bertie reminded her. "Didn't you say you brought workmen up with Mavis?"

"I… I did," Henrietta realized.

"And sometimes talking about things helps too," said Bertie. "Yes, coaches can't move on their own, but you, Annie and Clarabel have your own roles to play. I can't count how many times Thomas has mentioned that Annie and Clarabel have made him feel better after a tough day."

"And sometimes, the reason Thomas has swapped jobs with Percy," said Clarabel, "is because Percy has had a tough day himself."

"Something tells me that could very well happen when the bridge is mended," Annie put in. "Percy's probably just as shaken up too."

Toby gave a small smile. "You two aren't the only ones who have that gift." If he and Henrietta were people for a brief moment, Toby would have turned to wink at her, but the tone in Toby's voice told Henrietta everything.

When the bridge and dam were mended, life returned to normal on the Ffarquhar branch line, and Toby, though still scared of the bridge, remembered he always had Henrietta right behind him to give him some solid words of comfort. The rebuilt bridge was now much stronger than the previous one, with stone columns at either end giving it a much stronger foundation.

But what about those lorries, you ask? Well, they are still around, and this isn't the last that the Ffarquhar engines had seen of them. But that's a story for another time.

THE END

Author's Comments

Here's a new version of a mashup that I did way back in December 2019 for the early days of the Seventyverse. Toby and the Flood is my personal most overhyped episode of the whole series; a lot of fans give this episode high praise despite its unrealistic aspects, yet they thrash something like Thomas' Animal Friends for the same reason. This is part of the reason I'm doing Series 5 Redux; toning back the more outlandish elements in favor of character moments to make it more in line with the four seasons prior. Mashing Toby and the Flood with Washout was a decision that I still think was a good one, as it feels like a middle ground Britt Allcroft never really found. Also, we will see the lorries again interacting with the Ffarquhar engines. Speaking of which...

Upcoming stories:

- Thomas, Percy and Old Slow Coach

- Rumors and Speculation

- Baa!

- Mavis and the Lorries

- Double Teething Troubles