DEEP FREEZE

Based upon the story by Christopher Awdry and "Snow" by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton

Adapted by Zack Wanzer and Rachel Ravens

Winter was rolling around on the Island of Sodor, and with it came the anticipation and excitement that was Christmas.

"This will be our first one as full members of the North Western Railway!" cried Julie when she met up with Bear at Kellsthorpe Road.

"It'll be Derek's first Christmas on Sodor too," replied Bear.

"Is Emily ready to go yet?" asked Julie. "She's been in the Steamworks since last year."

"Last I checked, no," said Bear. "She's coming along well in her overhaul, but it'll be at least another year before she's ready."

"Oh, that's a bit of a shame," sighed Julie. "We'll just have to make next year's Christmas really special when she comes out of there."

"Indeed we shall," smiled Bear. "I can't wait to see you at the party on Christmas Eve."

"You too, Bear," grinned Julie as the two engines parted ways. "Oh, this will be a wonderful occasion…"

While Christmas was indeed a wonderful occasion, the snow, as usual, does cause major problems.

The Skarloey engines were just as capable of taking trains in winter as the North Western engines despite the size difference, and they each had snowplows on. Skarloey was taking the old coaches out on one of the extra scheduled trains for the Christmas season.

"Ugh, more third class passengers inside me," grunted Agnes. "Why couldn't they just go in the other coaches?"

"We're just as full as you!" retorted Ruth. "You don't expect everyone who rides inside of you to be of higher class, do you?"

"It does surprise me why Sir Robert Norramby hasn't shown up on Sodor for the last few years," grunted Agnes. "Where even is he? I thought he would have appreciated our little line."

"Has he seen Duke since he was found?" asked Lucy.

"Last I heard, he went off to travel the world shortly after Skarloey and Rheneas' centenary," said Beatrice.

"Oh, flatten my funnel," Skarloey gasped. "That is the worst possible timing. He probably doesn't even know about Duke, considering his response to Peter Sam during the celebration."

"Who doesn't know about what?" yawned Jemima.

"Long story," sighed Ruth. "I just hope we'll be able to break the news gently."

The six of them were so engrossed in their discussion that they didn't notice a very high snowdrift up ahead.

"Uh oh!" cried Skarloey's driver. "We'd better brake."

She applied Skarloey's brakes, but unfortunately, the rails were too icy and the old engine skidded across the rails.

"Drop some sand!" Skarloey called to his crew. "That should help."

The driver and fireman did so, and while it did help Skarloey grip the rails, it wasn't quite enough. The weight of the coaches didn't help either, and with a crash, Skarloey landed right in the snow.

"Brr!" he shivered, trying to turn his wheels. "We've got to get the passengers to the next station. We can't be stranded in the middle of nowhere." Unfortunately, Skarloey's attempts to move only made him more buried in the snow.

"Oh, b-b-botheration," he stammered crossly. "This must've been how Thomas felt when he got stuck himself. Snow is nothing but trouble!"

"I'll call for help," said the driver, and she raced to the nearest phone box.

Rusty was having a rare moment of rest in a siding with his maintenance train as he was waiting for Skarloey to pass.

"Should only be a few more minutes," said his driver. "Then we can get back to work."

"Good," sighed Rusty. "At any rate, my prime mover might freeze."

Just then, the stationmaster came over.

"Skarloey's crashed into a snowdrift," he explained. "Do you think you could help him and his passengers?"

"Of course," agreed Rusty. "The snowdrifts must be pretty high in this weather." The little diesel was about to set off to the rescue, but there was another problem…

"Oh, come on!" grunted Rusty. "What's going on today?"

"I think your prime mover's gotten too cold," replied his driver.

"This is all we need," sighed Rusty, "and right on the Christmas season too."

"We'll need some antifreeze before you can get going," sighed the driver.

"I understand," Rusty said quietly. "Do we have some?"

Fortunately for Rusty and his driver, there was, and after it was used on Rusty's prime mover, the little diesel could finally set off to the rescue.

"Rusty, w-what happened?" Skarloey shivered under the snow.

"Sorry I took so long," said Rusty. "I had some trouble starting up."

"Snow seems to cause problems for everyone," Skarloey sighed.

"Try telling the passengers that," grunted Agnes.

"What do you mean?" asked Rusty, but Skarloey was just as baffled. The two engines got their answer when Mrs. Last cheerfully hopped down from Ruth with something in her hand.

"Never mind about being late, Skarloey," she said kindly. "This is the best cocoa I've ever had."

"The passengers are having hot cocoa like nothing happened?" laughed Rusty. "I don't believe it."

"At least they're making the best of a bad situation," agreed Skarloey.

"Well, let's get you lot to the station," said Rusty. He looked over at Mrs. Last. "You'd better get back aboard the train, Mrs. Last."

She hopped back in Ruth and Rusty started down the line when he and Skarloey were coupled up; Skarloey's snowplow was removed and set to the side.

"I just hope that this is the last problem the island has with snow today," he said to himself.

"I'm sure the big engines will be doing just fine," assured Skarloey. "They can clear bigger snowdrifts than we can, and they've got Donald and Douglas on buffer to do that."

"Oh, come on!" groaned Bear as his engine struggled to turn over again at Knapford station. He was due to take a slow goods to the mainland, but his engine wouldn't start up due to the cold weather. James couldn't resist teasing him about this.

"Dear, oh dear, Bear," the red engine chuckled. "Going into hibernation, are we? Just because you're named Bear doesn't mean you have to act like one!"

"That's not the first time I've heard that joke, and it's not funny no matter how many times I hear it," muttered the Hymek.

"We steam engines would never suffer in the snowy weather," boasted James with a grin. "We'd just plow on through without any problems at all!" He puffed away, chortling at his own wit, while Bear just glared at the departing red engine.

"Never mind what James says, Bear," assured Henry when he came alongside with his next passenger train. "His advantage is that he has an enormous ego to keep him warm."

Bear couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, Henry, that was a good joke." He sighed. "I may need to go to the Steamworks to get this fixed."

"Is the Dieselworks still not ready yet?" asked Diesel when he shunted Gordon's coaches to the platform.

"I'm afraid not," sighed Bear. "Between the chaos of Kirk Ronan station, the Norramby branch line construction, Arry and Bert's… err… old tricks, and now with this snowy weather, things have been put on hold again."

"And maybe a few other setbacks you didn't mention?" added Henry.

"Indeed," Bear agreed.

"If that Dieselworks isn't finished in the next year, I think I might crash through some buffers and then a wall," grunted Diesel.

"I heard that!" snapped Thomas when he came in with Annie and Clarabel.

As he went along the main line, James found that he couldn't keep his smug expression for very long.

"Oh, it is quite cold out here," he said quietly.

"I think my buffers will freeze right off," said Harry.

"Can coaches even get frostbite?" asked Randolph. "Because I feel inclined to agree with you."

"I remember Dexter's buffers nearly came off in the winter once," said Mick. He winced at the mention of his brother. "The rest of you haven't caught sight of him in the yards at all, have you?"

"No," Sean sighed. "This is seriously strange. Have you seen Dexter at all, James?"

"No, I haven't seen him either," the red engine replied. "I'm getting really concerned. Albert Regaby hasn't come back and secretly withdrawn him while we weren't looking, has he?"

"He didn't understand railways," said Harry, "but at least he was honest."

"There's got to be something that we're missing," James sighed. "Who was with Dexter last? Do you four remember?"

"It was a couple of years ago…"

"Uh…"

Unfortunately, James didn't get a proper response because he realized he was running low on water.

"We'll have to stop at Crovan's Gate to fill up," said his driver. "Thank goodness that the water column never freezes up there."

James got to the water column and left his coaches at the platform. His driver and fireman were shivering and weren't exactly paying attention to the water gauge.

"I hope it doesn't take too long," said James' fireman. "I want to keep warm by shoveling coal."

The crew were so focused on trying to keep themselves warm that they didn't notice the water beginning to spill out of James' water tank and onto the sides of his tender.

"Ooh!" shivered James. "You can turn off the tap now!"

"Sorry, James!" called the driver as he turned the tap off. "That should be good enough for the rest of the journey."

His crew jumped back in his cab and buffered up to the coaches.

"Let's make up for lost time, you four," said James as he puffed away.

"I wish we were people," said Sean. "Then we could be the ones keeping warm inside coaches."

"We are helping these passengers get to their destinations for Christmas," said Harry hopefully. He sighed when he realized no one else responded. "Dex was always able to put a more positive spin on the situation," he added quietly.

"You were always the closest one to him, mate," sighed Mick. "I just hope he's just hiding somewhere in the yards and is completely fine."

"Yes…" Harry nearly burst into tears. He tried to compose himself. "M-maybe he's just playing a really huge joke on us."

Unfortunately for the coaches, James was too busy trying to make up lost time to pay attention to the conversation. And to make matters worse, he began to feel thirsty.

"I need a drink, please!" he called to his driver. The driver turned on the tap, but no water came.

"Huh?" gasped the driver. "What's going on?"

"Maybe the duplicate will work," replied the fireman, trying to turn that on. "Of course I could be wrong…" But the duplicate wasn't working either.

"I've got such a pain!" groaned James.

"There must be a blockage in your pipes," his driver explained.

"What kind of a blockage would that even be?" grunted James. "There's no fish in the water column!" James looked around to see if Thomas had heard that; thankfully, he was lucky.

"Whatever it is," said the driver, "it's best that we drop your fire to see what the problem is and call for help."

"Are the sleepers going to be set alight?" gasped James in alarm, remembering what nearly happened to Henry a few years ago.

"Nothing like that, James," assured his driver. "Your tender's still coupled to you, and we weren't going too fast."

"And what about the passengers?" asked James. "We can't just leave them here."

"Don't worry," replied the fireman. "We'll get Henry and Bear to come down to tend to the situation." And with that, James had to be content. Secretly, however, he was not looking forward to seeing Bear, especially after his earlier remarks.

It wasn't too long before Henry and Bear arrived.

"I'll take the train on," said Henry. "Bear, you take James back to the Steamworks."

"Of course," Bear agreed, and the two suited action to word. The Hymek gently buffered up to the red engine. "So, James," he chuckled, "had a little problem with cold weather, eh?"

"Certainly not!" insisted James. "I was just, er… resting because my wheels were tired."

"That's where you're wrong, James," said his driver. "Your filler cap's frozen solid; it must have been that water that spilled out while we were filling up."

"Well, well, well," laughed Bear. "And you said that you steam engines don't have problems in snowy weather and just plow right on through."

James went redder than ever with embarrassment; his face went so red he could've melted the ice himself!

Bear managed to collect himself. "You know, James, a failed injector could happen to anyone. Remember when I took the Limited and broke down a few yards from the signal box?"

"How could I forget," sighed James. "I heard from Henry you were concerned if you could stay on the railway or not. But you did better than I did today, keeping your brakes off to help Henry."

"I understand that a brake injector and a water injector are two different things," said Bear, "and if things had been different, you would have continued to struggle on to the next station."

"Thanks, Bear," smiled James. "I'm sorry I was rude to you earlier. I suppose my injector failing served me right."

"At least you didn't get caught in a snowdrift," said Bear. "That would have been a real issue to work out."

The two friends couldn't help but chuckle as they headed back to Crovan's Gate.

Just as James and Bear entered Crovan's Gate, Skarloey, Rusty and the old coaches finally got back to the station.

"Oh, hello, James and Bear," said Rusty in surprise. "What are you two doing here?"

"My injector froze just as I departed the station," James explained. "Why are you two doubleheading the old coaches? Surely they can't be so full they need two engines."

"You would not believe what mishaps have happened just when I was getting to Lakeside," said Skarloey. And it wasn't long before the four engines and the old coaches were exchanging news.

"Just goes to show you cannot trust snow," remarked Rusty.

"Or ice," added James.

Just then, Gordon came rushing by with the express and a snowplow on his front. "Hey, look out! There's snow about!"

"No, really?" grunted James sarcastically when he and Bear had their buffers covered in snow. Gordon wheeshed loudly when he stopped with the express, and Skarloey, Rusty and the old coaches rolled their eyes on the narrow gauge platform.

Then Donald and Douglas shot past on the down line with snowplows, breaking a snowdrift in their path.

"Uh oh…" gasped Gordon as the snow covered him. "Help!"

Donald and Douglas braked and glanced back sheepishly.

"Oops…" Douglas said quietly. "Ah think we hae tae rescue Gòrdan neist."

"If James can have a frozen injector and laugh, then surely a big proud engine like you can do the same," chuckled Bear.

"Pah!" moaned Gordon, as he fell as silent as the snow.

THE END

Author's Comments

Episode sixteen of Series 5 Redux is here, being a mash up of Snow and Deep Freeze! Snow is quite possibly the worst episode of series five as it basically treats avalanches as if they were a laughing matter. I mean, Skarloey's crew would've likely frozen to death, even with the heat from his firebox to give them warmth. It basically makes a potentially interesting episode awful. Here, we've put some emphasis as to how the snow affects both the North Western and Skarloey Railways as well as steam and diesel engines; everyone will get affected in some way in bad weather. Out of the rewrites thus far, this has probably felt the most like a Victor Tanzig story, in which two stories take place at once and come together at the end. It wasn't really intentional, but it was nice to do.

Upcoming stories:

- Something in the Air

- Put Upon Percy

- Oliver Takes the Post

- Make Someone Happy

- Sir Topham Hatt's Holiday