RUMORS AND SPECULATION

Based upon "An Important Visitor" and "Rumors and Speculation" by Andrew Brenner

Adapted by Zack Wanzer and Rachel Ravens

The engines of the North Western Railway love the sights of Sodor wherever they go. The most recent addition to the railway was Old Slow Coach, who currently runs with Duck and Oliver on their branch line on alternating days along with some normal coaches.

"The branch line is as beautiful as I remember," smiled Old Slow Coach while she and Oliver were on a run together. They stopped at Haultraugh station where Dilly, Dallas and their ducklings resided. The first group of ducklings they had the previous year had grown up, and a new clutch of ducklings had hatched.

"Spring has definitely come to the island," chuckled Oliver. "Welcome, little ones."

"Aww, so cute," Old Slow Coach cooed at the ducklings. "Haultraugh's never had such social ducks before."

"That's because Donald and I weren't around," said Duck when he came in the opposite direction. "We pranked each other a few years back with ducklings, who are the oldest ducks of this lot, Dallas and Dilly."

Old Slow Coach was surprised. "You're joking, Duck."

"It's no rumor, Old Slow Coach," grinned Duck. "At this rate, we should call it the Ducklings' Hault."

The trio couldn't help but laugh at Duck's joke as Oliver's guard whistle blew and he puffed away. Before Duck had to go, however, he got an idea.

"Hey, little ones," he called quietly, "jump in my cab. We're taking a trip to Knapford." The ducklings obeyed and Duck was off when his guard blew the whistle.

As Duck had hoped, he managed to get there ahead of Henry, and he heard a horn from close by.

"Diesel," he called quietly, "you'll never guess."

"What is it?" he asked as he came alongside. Then he saw four small fluffy heads peeking out from Duck's cab.

"Hello, little ones," he said excitedly as they hopped onto his bufferbeam. "Aww, aren't you just the sweetest little things."

"They just hatched last week," Duck explained. "I still can't believe mine and Donald's pranks came to this."

Diesel blinked. "You pranked each other?" Duck recounted what had happened shortly after Diesel's return to Sodor.

"All this time, I had no idea about that," Diesel remarked. "I just assumed Dilly and Dallas showed up one day at the station and never left."

"I guess I'm full of surprises too."

"Beg pardon, Duck, but I think you'll find that's my line!"

The two had a good laugh, but were interrupted by Henry's whistle.

"Uh oh," Diesel muttered.

"Little ones, back in here," called Duck. The ducklings obeyed just in time.

"Duck, Diesel!" called Henry when he came in with his passenger train. "You'll never guess."

"What is it, Henry?" asked Duck.

"I heard from Daisy down at Elsbridge that there's to be an important visitor to the railway," he explained. Even as Henry was speaking, some of the passengers that came out of his train were actually workmen who were going to clean up Knapford station.

"A visitor?" asked Duck with surprise. "It hasn't even been a year since Stepney and Flying Scotsman came to our island."

"Indeed," Diesel remarked. "Not to mention Bowler, but good riddance to him."

"It's not an engine visiting our island this time," explained Henry. "It's actually a person."

"We'd better spread the word," said Duck. "I'm due back on a return trip any minute now."

"We may have a meeting about it this evening," said Henry. "See you at the sheds then, Duck."

That evening, the engines had gathered around Tidmouth sheds. Curiosity about the visitor was through the roof, and they couldn't help but feel excitement.

"This is most certainly exciting," grinned Oliver.

"I wonder who's going to be showing the visitor around," said BoCo.

"Probably won't be any of us," sighed Lauren to her fellow Midland engines.

"Yeah," agreed Julie sadly. "We're still not officially owned by the railway."

"Oh, don't worry, you lot," soothed Edward. "I'm sure you'd be just as eligible as the rest of us."

"Even if you five were owned by Sir Topham Hatt, the engine taking the visitor around would probably be me," said Gordon. "I'm one of the finest North Western Railway engines."

"You?!" scoffed Daisy. "Huh. The visitor would want to ride in a modern engine like moi. I don't need any coaches."

"Here we go…" muttered Toby, rolling his eyes with annoyance.

"I think the visitor would rather pick a splendid red engine like me," smirked James. "There is no way he or she can resist being taken by me. I'll ask my driver to give me an extra special polish when the visitor comes."

"Wha thinks it's a guid thing Emily is nae ready tae gang yit?" sighed Donald. "She'd nae git a guid faist impression 'ere."

"Certainly not," agreed Nicole. "It's probably best to adjourn this meeting before this argument between the three gets worse."

"Ye heard Nicole!" called Douglas. "Meetin' adjourned! Back tae oor sheds."

It was most unfortunate for Henry, Diesel and Bear that Gordon and James continued to argue over who the visitor would choose until they all fell asleep, whereas Daisy kept going on all night at Ffarquhar about being chosen herself. Fortunately for those sleeping at Wellsworth, Arlesburgh or Vicarstown, they had peaceful nights, even if the Midland engines were still a bit sad.

The next morning, Thomas, Annie and Clarabel were yawning when they reached their connection with Bear at Elsbridge. The Hymek wasn't doing too well either.

"Restless night?" asked Thomas.

"No question about it," said Bear, before breaking into a yawn himself. "Henry regrets setting up that meeting… last night."

"Maybe save the meetings for… emergencies," yawned Annie.

"Probably for the best too," agreed Clarabel.

Further down on the branch line, Daisy was doing her normal run with the milk as well as her passengers. It was a bright day today, and the diesel railcar was in a cheerful mood.

"I sure hope the visitor picks me to ride in," she hummed. Just then, she heard the buzzing of Harold the helicopter.

"Good day, Harold," she called above her. "How's your patrol today?"

"No one's landed themselves in danger today, m'lady," replied Harold. "That's well and good, especially now, because I'm showing this visitor around the island. Cheerio." He flew away.

Daisy's face fell at the last thing Harold mentioned. "I'm showing this visitor around the island" was what the white helicopter had said.

Eventually, Daisy got to Ffarquhar where she saw Mavis with some trucks.

"Oh, hello, Daisy," Mavis said. "Toby mentioned you kept him and the others up all-"

"Why me-e-e-e-e-ee…" Daisy gasped dramatically. "WHYYYY?! Why? Why-y?! And of all the worst things that could happen, this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!"

Mavis blinked, bemused and confused. "Er… you lost me there." She could see that Daisy's mascara had begun to run from the tears leaking out of her eyes.

"Sir Topham Hatt's chosen Harold to take the visitor around the island instead of any of us engines!" wailed Daisy before bursting into more sobs. "How could he choose that whirly bird thing over us?!"

"Er… okay, I'm starting to see why Toby, Thomas and Percy were exhausted last night," sighed Mavis. "Should we tell the other engines about this?"

"We must, my dear," Daisy said through her tears. "The others would have to know of this travesty!"

The quarry diesel rolled her eyes. "Toby is sleeping at the quarry sheds right now, so I think he'll have to wait," she sighed. "I just hope Percy and Thomas get breaks in the day too."

It wasn't long before the word spread around the island.

"It's despicable!" exclaimed Gordon.

"Disgusting!" agreed Henry.

"Engines are meant to take visitors around our island," said James. "Not that whirly-bird Harold!"

"Is it just me, or did they break up the whole 'three D's' routine?" muttered BoCo to Edward.

"Yes, that is a bit odd," agreed the old engine. "Disregarding that, this is turning into a massive problem."

The next day, Gordon was on his express run when he saw Harold flying around.

"He's trying to race me like he did with Percy a few years ago," Gordon said under his breath. "I'll show him!" He then began to go faster to try and outpace the helicopter.

"How's this for speed?!" Gordon shouted, but Harold had already flown away. "Ohh…"

Next, it was James' turn to see Harold.

"He's going toward the mountains at Culdee Fell, I think," he commented. "Hmm… I bet he's a mountain climber. Maybe he'll see the mountain engines up there."

Later on in the day, Percy was on a goods run near some farms. He saw Harold hovering up ahead before flying away.

"I know what he's doing," said Percy. "He's counting cows and sheep! I wonder how many there are across the island. I'll have to ask him when I get to talk to him next."

The little green engine felt much better as he went on his way.

When it was evening, this time, it was Gordon, James and Daisy who had called everyone together. The other engines all groaned as they arrived at the meeting.

"I can imagine this won't end well," Duck sighed to Oliver.

"Three, two, one…" Oliver grunted, bracing himself.

"He's a mountain climber!" James explained to the others.

"Who?" asked Douglas.

"The important visitor, of course," said James.

"He can't be," scoffed Percy. "I saw him counting cows and sheep."

"Counting cows and sheep? Pah!" snorted Gordon. "You make it sound as if he's trying to sleep on the job. If you ask me, that visitor's a speed inspector!"

"Only you would be naive enough to think an important visitor would be counting farm animals from the sky, Percy," added James.

"What?" grunted Percy. "There's newborn animals every year, that's important to keep records of."

"Everyone calm down!" called BoCo. "This is all just rumors and speculation. We haven't heard it from the visitor's perspective or Sir Topham Hatt's yet."

"BoCo's right," said Duck. "We're jumping to conclusions without knowing all the facts."

"Remember what happened during…" Katie broke off, realizing that what she was about to say would make things very uncomfortable. "Er… forget what I was about to say."

"No, Katie, you're right," sighed Diesel. "We don't want that happening again."

That took everyone by surprise, but the 08's words were enough to get everyone to go back to their sheds and settle down for the night. But whatever the visitor's intentions were, they still remained on everyone's mind…

The next day, Daisy was traveling with her passengers and the milk, and was going smoothly, but she saw Harold up above her again.

"I'll show that whirly bird I am worthy to carry around the visitor," she huffed. But unfortunately, she failed to notice a guard waving a red flag and the tunnel was being worked on at Hackenbeck.

"Daisy! Stop!" cried a workman as the diesel railcar drew closer. Her driver applied the brakes, but it was too late. Daisy shut her eyes tightly as she hit the tunnel rubble, and her passengers were thrown out of their seats in surprise.

"Ouch…" muttered Daisy.

Just then, she heard a bell ringing from further up the line.

"Daisy!" cried Toby and Henrietta in shock.

"Toby, Henrietta!" she called. "Please, get help!"

"Where are your passengers headed?" asked Toby.

"Up toward Elsbridge," she explained.

"We'll get them there as quickly as we can and call help for you," promised Toby. He puffed off as quickly as he could.

It wasn't too long before BoCo came up with Judy and Jerome. Sir Topham Hatt was also on board.

"Daisy, are you alright?" he called.

"My buffers are dented, my paint is scratched and my front windows probably cracked from the impact, but other than that, I'm perfectly fine!" huffed Daisy sarcastically.

"Er… we'll get you to the Steamworks as soon as possible," BoCo sighed; the Dieselworks was still under construction. "At least you'll get a chance to meet Emily up there."

"And hopefully this accident will teach you to mind your surroundings and take better care of your passengers in the near future, Daisy," added Sir Topham Hatt sternly.

"Yes, sir," Daisy said quietly. "I'm sorry, sir, and to the passengers as well…"

"Sir," said BoCo, "just to let you know that the reason why Daisy, James and Gordon have been acting strange lately, is because they are wondering about this special visitor and why he's been riding in Harold. What's he doing?"

"Mr. Walsh has been trying to find a place to build a new tunnel," Sir Topham Hatt explained.

"A new tunnel, sir?" asked BoCo curiously.

"Yes, it's to be on a branch line that we're planning to have built up to Norramby. Mr. Walsh used Harold because it would be much easier to search from above."

BoCo smiled. "Well, I wonder who will be running that one?"

"For now," said Sir Topham Hatt, "I'm thinking Emily will run it when she's ready, but nothing's set in stone just yet, er, so to speak. While she's being restored, I might send Nicole and Katie down to restore the new branch line and Johnson and Julie will help Lauren on the Kirk Ronan line."

Unfortunately, this sparked up more discussion amongst the engines.

"A tunnel for a new branch line?" James asked when he had heard. "I might have known it!"

"All you knew, James," said BoCo, "was rumors and speculation!"

"All the same, this new branch line does sound exciting!" smiled Katie. "I'd be very happy to help restore it."

"Me too," agreed Nicole. "I wonder where that branch line will go."

"Ooh, I wonder if the new branch line being restored means I'm the one chosen to run it," James grinned, and the other engines gave a collective groan.

"'Ere we gang again…" muttered Douglas as James started rambling on about branch lines.

THE END

Author's Comments

Here's the sixth rewrite for Series 5 Redux, based upon Thomas and the Rumors, or rather, the magazine stories it was based upon. I have no idea why Britt and David decided to change up the construction of a new tunnel with finding new sand for the children's playground; it made better sense, at least from a railway perspective, to find a location for a new tunnel being built. As you can tell, this rewrite more closely follows Andrew Brenner's original text with bits of Britt and David's adaptation thrown into the mix. Daisy was a lot of fun to write for, especially when she channels her inner Rarity, as what seemed to be shown in The Railcar and the Coaches. As for the Norramby branch line, if you've read enough of my stories, then you can pretty much tell who's going to run it in the near future.

Upcoming stories:

- Baa!

- Mavis and the Lorries

- Double Teething Troubles

- A Better View for Gordon

- The Old Warrior