Chapter 2: The highly advanced engines.

Thomas and the others went across the Vicarstown bridge onto the mainland, they couldn't wait for their visit. They all chuffed under an arch-shaped structure, and they had arrived at the same yard where they had the Great Railway show.

Spencer, Connor, Caitlin, and the flying Scotsman were all a little ahead of the others, and Connor and Caitlin were admiring the yards.

Connor: "Wow, quite an impressive yard."

Caitlin: "Yeah, this is quite an amazing structure. The turntable is at the top of a slope."

The flying Scotsman: "Yeah, me and Spencer's home has been quite a modern place."

Meanwhile, Thomas and Rebecca were the 2 engines in front of the others. Rebecca was also admiring the yards.

Rebecca: "Wow, this place looks splendid!"

Thomas: "indeed Rebecca, this is the yard where we had the great Railway show. Engines from all around the world came here to compete, I made a lot of new friends that day."

Rebecca: "Wow, that sounds like great fun!"

James: "At least we can all have a friendly hang out this time."

Gordon: "I agree, a couple engines seemed pretty selfish around that time."

Then they heard someone calling them over. When the engines looked over, whoever was calling them looked extremely familiar.

Thomas: "Is that who I think it is?"

?: "Over here pals!"

The saw the engines over at the spot where they had the most decorated engine competition, and there were some old friends.

The first one was Axel, he was a red and black NMBS/SNCB type 12.

The big side panels of his boiler were deep red, and it had 2 large stripes with skinny yellow outlinings. All of his wheels were red, and his tender had the same big yellow outlined black stripe on each side of it.

Thomas: "Hey Axel, Nice to see you again."

Axel: "You too Thomas, even though we hardly knew each other."

Then another engine slowly puffed up alongside Axel, this engines name was Frieda.

Frieda was a dark blue DB class 10, and every single one of her wheels were rich red. She had a pair of black smokescreens on each side of her smoke box, and faint red stripes along her boiler. She had 2 skinny light yellow stripes going along her streamlined side plates all the way to the back of her tender which had the number 406 painted in red on each side of it.

Frieda: "Well hello little tank engine, I thought we would never see each other again."

Thomas: "Hello Frieda, you're not still upset about when I mistook you for Gordon, are you?"

Frieda: "Nye, that was nothing. I'm truly sorry for the way I acted at that time."

Then as Thomas looked somewhere behind Axel and Frieda, he smiled bigger when he saw someone else.

It was Shane the Australian engine, he was a big teel SAR 520 class with yellow stripes on his front bumper. He even had 2 long yellow stripes going along his sides, and across each side of his tender. He had the number 520 on each side of his cab, and the letters S.A.R on each side of his tender between the 2 yellow stripes in that area.

After Thomas puffed past Axel and Frieda, James puffed into the spot Thomas was just in.

James: "Axel?"

Axel: "James?"

James: "We cool for this hang out."

Axel: "Totally."

Just then, Gordon pulled up about 2-3 yards in front of Frieda.

Gordon: "Frieda, is it? I heard Thomas mistook you for me."

Frieda: "Yes, but forgiven and forgotten."

Meanwhile, Thomas was saying hello and talking with Shane.

Shane: "Goodaye Thomas, how are you and your friends doing?"

Thomas: "Feeling great Shane, and are you doing okay in Australia without me?"

Shane: "Sure I am Thomas."

Suddenly when Thomas looked behind Shane, he gasped in complete shock, surprise, and delight.

He saw a pink Nilgiri mountain railway X class tank engine, and she had so many colors on her paint job. Her cab, sides, and boiler were perfectly pink, but her smokebox and funnel were still black. She had so many multiple colors on her pistons, dome, and her front and back buffer beams were blue. Her pistons and dome had so many different details coated in orange, green, pink, and white.

Luckily for Thomas, he knew exactly who this engine is.

Thomas: "Ashima!?"

Ashima: "Thomas, over here!"

Thomas: "excuse me Shane."

Thomas quickly puffed towards ashima, and ashima ended up doing the same. then they accidentally bumped buffers with each other, causing them to get dizzy. Once they regained theirselves, they just laughed it off.

Thomas: "It's so great to see you again ashima!"

Ashima: "You too Thomas."

Ashima looked behind Thomas for a second, and she got curious when she spotted Connor, Caitlin, and Rebecca.

Ashima: "Hey Thomas, who are your 3 friends over their?"

Thomas "Oh, them? Those 2 big streamlined engines are Connor and Caitlin, and that big yellow engine is Rebecca."

Then Shane reversed alongside ashima to talk with Thomas again.

Shane: "So you really feeling okay spending some time here?"

Thomas: "I sure do, why?"

Ashima: "Because…..there's another group that's hanging out here too."

Thomas: "Really?"

Ashima: "Yes, but they don't seem very friendly."

Then James, Phillip, and Rebecca pulled up near Thomas.

James: "No worries ashima, I mean how unfriendly could this group possibly be?"

Then they all heard a few unfamiliar whistles from a slight distance. They looked over, and they saw something that nearly made their jaws drop.

It looked like a big CNR U-4-a with 2 metal bars across his face. His entire front around his face was navy blue, and he had a light gray boiler. His side plates were deep blue with yellow outlining, and his cab and tender were that matching blue color.(his tender also has that yellow outlining)

His wheels were also that matching blue, but they had a white outlining. And he had 2 blue acute triangles with yellow outlining underneath his face, and it had a light smack in the middle of them.

Thomas: "Vinnie!?"

Vinnie pulled up in front of Thomas and James with a menacing grin on his face.

Vinnie: "Well well well shrimp, we meet again."

Then Phillip started pulling up alongside Thomas and James.

Phillip: "Hey Thomas, James, how are you gu-*GASP*."

Vinnie: "Oh shorty, you're here too?"

Vinnie started to chuff towards Phillip who started backing up a bit, but Thomas chuffed over the switches in front of Vinnie blocking his path.

Thomas: "You won't be bothering Phillip anymore!"

Vinnie: "Ugh, can't you take a joke?"

Thomas: "We heard their was another group hanging out around here, so where are they?"

Then everyone looked towards their right, and they saw some unrecognizable engines.

The engine that chuffed alongside Vinnie was Lightning, He was a bright red Class Q-1 4-6-4-4 #6130. He had a skinny yellow stripe going along each side of his boiler, and had a big long golden lightning bolt painted on each of his side plates. His cab had a very dark red roof, and his wheels were matching red with glittering brass coupling rods and red pistons each with a yellow stripe going across them. He had 2 skinny dark blue stripes going along each side of his tender, and he had a pair of pitch black eyebrows.

Lightning: "So Vinnie, is this that little blue shrimp you've been telling me about?"

Vinnie: "You bet!"

Thomas: "I am not a shrimp!"

Vinnie: "Oh quit your whining blue boy!"

Then another engine puffed up beside Lightning, this engines name was Kace.

Kace was a class L-1 Hudson, and he had a slightly large and buff chin. His boiler and smoke box were deep yellow, and he had the letters "CO" on the side of his smoke box. His cab, wheels, pistons, and side plates were deep silver, and he had the number 490 on each side of his cab. His tender was silver also, but it had a thick yellow stripe going across it with a skinny red stripe right above it.

Lightning: "Kace, how about you call in the rest of our crew."

Kace: "Sir yes Sir!"

Kace blew a loud tone of his whistle that got the attention of all the engines. (including the international engines)

The first engine that showed up was Linoro, he was bright white a 0 series Shinkansen. The base right above his wheels was dark blue, and a matching blue stripe was going all the way across all of his windows. He and a glittering silver horn, and he had a slick grin on his face.

Linoro: "What's the hanging mates, is this the other group that was gonna be hanging with us?"

James: "Who said we'd be hanging out with engines that are friends with Vinnie!?"

?: "We did of course."

The engine that spoke was Bruce, he was a big very dark blue DBR class 01. His front buffer beam was dark red with black firm buffers, and on top of them was a brass eagle ornament. He had 2 skinny purple stripes going across from his smoke box to the very back of his tender, and he had a pretty large nose.

Bruce: "Hey guys, we got a nice pack of geeks here with us!"

The engines felt insulted, but they still looked over at the remaining engines.

The first one was Augustine, he was a Class 19D 4-8-2. His boiler, cab, and tender were all slightly dark green, but he had a bright red and very thin buffer beam with the same shaped buffers as Gordon. He had a black smoke box with a green-gray head lamp, and the top rim of his funnel was a matching dark green. He had a matching dark green cow catcher, and all his wheels were bright neon green. And finally, he had the letters RFB painted in bright red on each side of his tender.

The last engine of the whole group was Tatsu, he was a Cross country voyager passenger Diesel. Each side of his cab was slightly dark green, but the front base around his front window was yellow. He had big square shaped buffers with a bright red buffer base, and the rest of his sides were silver with red entry doors. He had a rather small face, and had a tiny gray mustache.

Tatsu: "Oye, who be these wee engines?"

Lightning: "These are some of those engines from Sodor Vinnie was telling us about."

Linoro: "You mean that island that this place is connected to?"

Augustine: "These engines do look….usable, for some railways."

James: "Uhh, what is that supposed to mean?"

Lightning: "It means that no other engine is more modern than us."

Thomas, James, Gordon, Phillip, and Rebecca were shocked at this, they thought they were pretty modern for their standards.

Phillip: "We can be just as modern as we wanna be you big bullies!"

Vinnie: "Oh yeah, then prove it!"

Phillip: "I won a race against Gordon once, and he didn't even catch up with me."

Gordon just groaned while rolling his eyes once he heard that, then ashima moved ahead of Thomas a few inches.

Ashima: "They've shown some great skills during the great Railway show."

Frieda: "Yes, even I thought their skills were impressive."

Axel then whispered something to Frieda.

Axel: "Frieda, didn't you only watch what happened during the shunting competition?"

Frieda then realized what Axel was talking about, then she found out that what she said wasn't very helpful.

Frieda: "I guess you may have a point."

Then even though Lightning was a few yards away from Thomas, he still looked directly at him.

Lightning: "Anyways…..You really think you're as advanced as us, I would always be more advanced than a tiny blue pip squeak."

Thomas: "Why you!...

Thomas tried charging full steam at Lightning, but Gordon and the flying Scotsman quickly moved over the switches in front of Thomas to try and hold him back.

The flying Scotsman: "Thomas, it's not worth it!"

After Thomas did a bit of slightly heavy breathing, he was able to calm down and back off.

Gordon: "Listen here. We can out-advance you punks any day!"

Lightning: "Really?...than how about we all take part in a big race across the mainland?"

Thomas and his friends (including the international engines) all gasped in disbelief, why would Lightning request such a thing?

Lightning: "Augustine, show them the map."

As Augustine pulled up, a small round hole opened up on the top of his head lamp. A thin brass arm contraption came out and hung over his head, and it looked like it was clutching a wide roll of paper. The paper opened up, and it revealed what looked like the map markings for an advanced stretch of track.

Lightning: "The course is a tiny bit on the extreme side, but It won't be that bad…...If you're not so much of a whimp."

Phillip shivered a little bit from his words.

Rebecca: "Come on, I always love a challenge."

Linoro: "Even when there's a section going through a slightly unstable canyon?"

Rebecca then realized that this sounded a little too extreme for her.

James: "No sweat, we'll take you in this race!"

Lightning: "Alright then. Meet us back here in 2 days, then we shall see who's the best."

After Augustine put the map away, Lightning and his entire group rolled away feeling quite triumphant. Thomas and ashima looked at each other nervously, then every other engine did the same to each other. They were all thinking the same thing, this was gonna be quite an extreme race for them.

To be continued.