Tim
One morning, Rex wasn't feeling well. Duck had to take him to the Works on a flatbed. At Crovan's Gate he saw a saddle tank engine resting in the shed. "Hello. I'm Rex. Who are you?" The old engine jumped. "I'm Sir Handel. Where are you from?" Rex told him he came from the Arlesdale Railway. "Oh. Most of my railway used to run where you worked. Are you in the mood for a story?" asked Sir Handel. "Yes please!" chimed Rex.
Sir Handel began his story. "A long time ago, when I worked with Duke on the Mid Sodor Railway, and I was Falcon while Peter Sam was still Stuart, there were a few passenger engines on my former line. There was Jennings, who consistently suffered mechanical failures and was later reduced to goods trains; Jerry, whose arrogance regularly got the best of him; and Tim who seldom said a harsh word to anybody, and was arguably the ultimate passenger engine on the route. Sometimes Peter Sam would banter him when he was a cocky newcomer. Tim just ignored him, but nevertheless there was a time when Tim supposedly broke down with the picnic train. Stuart came to the rescue. He was feeling proud. Here's the thing, but. Tim actually didn't need Stuart's help. With one final effort, Tim plugged away to push Stuart and pull his train on the way to Arlesburgh. Stuart was very embarrassed. 'Too bad, Stuart. Poor old engine, you can't win!' Tim sneered. Stuart never teased him again and, to be honest, the older tram engine almost certainly made him the kind soul he is today. Afterwards we all continued to work hard and have fun, but this was before hard times came." Rex was impressed. "What happened next?" Sir Handel sighed. "It isn't nice to talk about. Things were bad during the Great Depression. Unless we kept the trains running, our railway would close. And that's what eventually happened. Tim was a hard worker, yet our manager sold him a few years before the Second World War. The workmen didn't have much time to check us, so we weren't maintained properly. After all, the company needed more money to survive." Rex asked anxiously: "But why's it not nice?" Sir Handel groaned again. "They turned Tim into a steamboat. I don't know whether that's what he desired. But nevertheless, it could've been worse. He was neither scrapped nor turned into either a generator or pumping engine. Nowadays he works at Brendam docks pulling and pushing barges where they're needed." Rex was speechless. Suddenly, he found his voice again. "I never thought I'd say this, Sir Handel, yet I admire you. You really know your history, don't you? Have you more stories to tell?" Sir Handel smiled slightly. This is how engines say 'yes' without actually saying it.
To be continued…