Welcome to the fourth chapter of my Island of Sodor Remake. In this chapter Atul takes a goods train and we see how he's dealing with the Elkan situation. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Island of Sodor Remake

Chapter 4-The Strength of a Leader

Atul was resting on a siding by Tidmouth station. He was waiting for his goods train to be ready for him to take to The Wharf. But above all he was thinking about Ellkan. Ellkan's bad mood only got worse that night and by the time all the engines were back in the sheds Ellkan was in a mood that couldn't be corrected by any of them and so they ended up just leaving him alone. Atul was worried that it would only get worse before it got better.

"Atul, we are ready to go." His fireman said while climbing into his cab.

"Good, I'm ready for a run."

He moved into the yard and coupled up to his goods train full of machine parts that was being sent to The Wharf. After a minute he set off down the line.

The trucks were quiet but Atul knew that could change in a heartbeat. But he wasn't worried, he was the strongest engine on the island and knew that four trucks filled with crates had no hope of controlling him.

He soon was moving towards Knapford Yard and could see Ellkan just on the edge of the yard fiercely bumping some trucks into place. He sounded like he was grumbling and yelling at the trucks who were just as unhappy to be roughed up so much.

"Hey, calm down and stop being so rough." He said as he passed Ellkan and made his way through the yard.

"I will not!" Ellkan yelled back.

It was hopeless. Ellkan was never going to change as long as he was constantly get goaded by the trucks. Ellkan acted more on his emotions rather than his smarts and it did get him into trouble more often than not. Atul knew that there was no punishment out there that could teach Ellkan to control his emotions.

He flew through Knapford Station and kept on the main line. The countryside was quiet and the day was beautiful. Even when he went through stations there wasn't a ton of activity that would create a lot of noise and commotion. The trucks were behaving, with a tiny bit of mumbling from them but he hadn't heard anything to worry him yet.

Soon enough they were flying through Wellsworth and right at the base of the big hill. Atul never had a problem on the hill. He was strong enough that most trains he pulled weren't even heavy for him. The hill added a tiny bit of pulling for him but nothing to great. He was halfway up the hill when he realized that the trucks were holding back, trying to stall the train on the hill. He chuckled at the attempt. He barely noticed a thing.

"You do know that four trucks add nothing on me. You are wasting your time and energy trying to delay me." With a bit of an extra tug he stopped their antics and pulled them over the hill. On the other side he was informed by his driver that they were to stop at Maron to test their brakes and make adjustments at the station. After a minute they pull into the station and successfully stopped. Atul was happy for the break. He wasn't tired but he was barely halfway through his journey. The station seemed oddly busy for when it was but that was answered after a few minutes.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to see you here. How's it going?" Atul looked up to see Lynge pulling into Platform One on the other side of the station from him. Lynge was doing the main line passenger run for the day.

"It's going good. Need to make adjustments to the train before setting off to The Wharf." Lynge hummed in agreement but seemed to mull over his next thought before expressing it.

"How is Ellkan doing?"

"Not better. If anything a lot worse." Atul might have been the leader of the group but Lynge was the engine you went to for advice or to talk through your thoughts. He was thoughtful, kind, and always willing to listen to problems someone was experiencing.

Lynge sighed softly to himself. "I'm afraid it's not going to get much better. He's lashing out because of the trucks."

"He's too emotionally charged and lets what they do to him get to him." Atul said remembering the way he was treating the trucks earlier. The whistle for Lynge's train blew and Lynge started to move out.

"Well, I hope he learns quickly. Otherwise it's going to end in disaster for him." With that Lynge moved out of the station.

Atul wasn't as hopeful. He knew Ellkan and Ellkan wasn't one to allow others to bully him into changing who he was or what he wanted. It would take something big to change his ways.

He was jostled out of his thoughts when the guard blew his whistle and he pulled out of Maron towards the end point of his journey. The journey was quiet but he noticed that the trucks were a bit more active. While he didn't know why, he just guessed that they were restless from the waiting period at the station.

He passed more stations on his journey and was just feeling comfortable being three quarters of his way to his destination when he heard a familiar word.

Push.

Suddenly he felt the lightest bit of pressure on his buffers and knew exactly what was happening.

"Driver, brakes immediately!" He commanded. His driver complied and his brakes were applied and he was brought to a rough stop, knocking the trucks back against each other. They yelped out in surprise. He looked around and noticed they were just a few minutes away from the Kirk Ronan Junction.

"What were you just doing?" He sternly asked the trucks. The trucks, suddenly realizing they were caught so easily, muttered a response.

"What was that?" He said a bit more sterner.

"Nothing. We weren't doing anything." The trucks said anxiously. Even Atul knew that they were frightened.

"You will not bump me and you will not push me. You won't hold me back at all. For the rest of this journey there will be no more delays. Do you understand? He said fiercely. He could feel the cars quivering in fear.

"Of course." They said fearfully. "Nothing is going to happen."

"Good. I hope not." With that they started off again.

Just because he was a leader amongst the engines didn't mean that he didn't know how to command respect at a certain time and place. He was the most imposing engine on the island and all the engines had respect for him so he knew when he had to get his point across and how to do it right. He just wished that an imposing nature could be used on Ellkan to make him listen. But even he knew that Ellkan didn't work well when pushed into a corner like he was now.

Thank you for reading and please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter. It was a bit of a filler chapter but we know now about Atul as a leader and just how bad Ellkan's situation has gotten. If you have any questions or just want to talk about any of my stories feel free to send me a message.