Welcome to the 7th chapter of my Island of Sodor remake. In this chapter we will be introduced to not one new character but two, while also seeing the island through one of their perspectives. I hope you enjoy it and please review at the end to tell me what you thought about it.
Island of Sodor Remake
Chapter 7-The New Engine's Perspective
The engines on the North Western Railway were worried early the next morning. Sir Topham Hatt told them that two new engines would be coming to the railway today and it was a nerve-racking situation. While three of them had to deal with their numbers doubling months before, they got along easily and happily together. But they still had that thought in the back of their minds wondering if this time would be different.
"Do you think they will both be assigned to branch lines?" Nadir asked the others.
"I would hope Sir Topham would at least consider us for branch lines before just giving them to engines that haven't even been here yet." Atul said.
"I just would be thankful if we got another passenger engine. The passenger loads are starting to become more and more and having another engine to take them would be great." Lynge mentioned.
"What do you think Ellkan?" Guapo asked the engine at the far end of the sheds, but he didn't respond. The other engines noticed that since his incident at the harbor, Ellkan didn't speak one word to any of them and kept himself secluded from the other engines while looking depressed. The others were starting to get worried for him and tried to include him in conversations but he didn't even look at them. They didn't have to worry about him at this point because they heard the sound of two whistles in the distance and knew the new engines were arriving.
After a minute the two new engines pulled up to the sheds and Sir Topham Hatt stepped down from one of them. One of them was a violet colored tank engine and had 6 powered wheels and 2 trailing wheels. The other was a grey colored tank engine with 8 powered wheels and 4 trailing wheels. They both were impressive looking.
"Everyone," Sir Topham Hatt began. "these are the two newest members to the team. This is Mokei," he said gesturing to the violet colored engine. "and this is Walsh." He said, gesturing to the bigger engine. "Mokei, due to boiler issues, will be Knapford's permanent shunter. Walsh though will be the island's new Special Passenger Engine." The other engines looked confused at this. Sir Topham Hatt noticed the confusion and decided to explain himself. "Walsh will be taking any special passengers or groups to their destinations so that way they won't have to wait for the regular passenger trains or their connections." The engines were excited to know that the new engines had permanent jobs while theirs were safe.
"Sir, what about the situation here?" Guapo asked quietly. "There are 8 engines on the railway but only 7 spots in these sheds. Where does that one engine sleep for tonight?"
Sir Topham Hatt hummed in agreement "Well I was hoping you wouldn't worry about that but I do have a plan. Tonight Walsh will be taking a group to Callen Castle for an overnight stay. He will stay there for tonight. Tomorrow I will officially deal with that situation myself. Good day to you all." With that he turned to Walsh. "I am sorry to have to pull you away from meeting everyone but you will need to come to Knapford now so you can be told where you are going." With that Sir Topham Hatt climbed back into Walsh's cab and Walsh pulled away from the sheds.
Walsh enjoyed the activity at Knapford. The yards were busy with workmen and the station had plenty of passengers standing around on the platform waiting for their trains. He came from a large city so he was used to busyness and bustling. He pulled next to platform 4 and waited for Sir Topham Hatt to come out and talk to him.
"You will be bringing a group from the Sodor Historical Society to Callen Castle for an overnight stay. So, something I forgot to mention to the others is another part of your job." Sir Topham Hatt began, "Due to the fact that a lot of your jobs won't be constant runs, I am making it so that after you drop off your passengers you will be doing either local runs or branch line runs. Depending on where you are will depend on what you are doing. Today since you'll be dropping off the group at Callen Castle you'll be doing branch line runs for the Peel Godred branch line and the Misty Valley branch as well."
"That's wonderful sir. So, I won't be doing goods work?" Walsh asked. Sir Topham Hatt chuckled.
"Nope, you are a dedicated passenger engine while on this island. Of course, if you do good work that won't have to be changed at all. Now remember that you'll be leaving here at 7." He paused suddenly remembering something. "I almost forgot; you'll be stopping at Abbey station. They are going to have a quick stop in at a museum at the station there. It won't take more than half an hour so you'll have a quick break. You can go to that siding next to the station," he waved over to the edge of the station where an empty siding was located. "until your train is ready to go. Good luck and welcome to the island and railway." With that he walked off the platform and towards the office areas.
Walsh moved from the platform and headed to the siding he was directed to. He barely stopped before he saw the other new engine, Mokei, moving coaches into position at the platform. Walsh was surprised at how quick he was. Sir Topham Hatt mentioned he had issues with his boiler but looking at the way he was putting trains in position you never would have guessed it. Soon three engines came from where the yards were and coupled up to the trains. In less than a couple of minutes whistles blew and the engines headed off on their respective routes. With that he rested comfortably while watching a couple other engines pulling goods trains out from the station. After an hour his driver alerted him.
"Our train is getting ready now. We have to get to the platform." With that he puffed out from the siding and moved towards platform 2, where a single red coach was waiting for him. He pulled in front of it and was coupled up quickly. A group of twelve people got on the train in an immediate fashion. The guard blew his whistle and Walsh was off down the line.
Due to not having a specified route or timetable, Walsh went down on the express line. While the railway had a very open look to it and the towns had a nice close-knit feel to it, there was one thing that Walsh had a problem with. The cold. Walsh couldn't stand the chilly weather and the fact that the railway was on an island it always felt like he was passing by some coastline or going over a river and a breeze would pass him by that even made his fire feel cold. Soon he pulled into a station called Cronk, which had two platforms with a building on each platform, and had to stop. A blue engine was there with a few vans that were being unloaded onto the platform.
"You're Walsh correct? I'm Nadir, nice to meet you." Nadir said to him.
"Nice to meet you too. Any reason why I have been stopped?" Walsh asked the engine.
"It's Atul. He's running the local train today and he's just coming into the station so you have to be stopped before you can move onto the junction. It will only be a few minutes and then you'll be on your way." A silence lapsed over the two engines with Walsh deciding to break it.
"Just wondering, since I'll be here on a permeant basis. But is it cold here often? I don't exactly enjoy the cold." Walsh asked a bit on the embarrassed side.
"Actually, I don't know. I've never spent a winter here." The engine chuckled. "But today is quite a chilly day. Hopefully it will be a bit less breezy the further up the branch line you go, which will be coming now." He looked in the distance and Walsh could see a large tender engine pulling into the station on the other platform pulling four red express coaches. Before Walsh could say a word his signal dropped.
"Ahh, sorry to just run but I have to go. Nice meeting you both." With that he pulled out of the station.
It wasn't long before he got to the junction and pulled onto the branch line. Trees quickly took over some of the open spaces and soon enough he could see Abbey station ahead of him. The station reminded him of a station he had passed before on the main line but instead of the tracks being curved, they were straight. He stopped at platform 3 and let his passengers out so they could check out the railroad museum that was set up there. He was extremely impressed so far with the railroad. The stations were well-kept and the people he had seen had also been happy to use the trains. While there weren't as many passengers trains due to the low amount of engines it looked like everything ran well.
After close to half an hour his historical group left the museum that was next to the station and boarded his train once again. With a sharp blow of his whistle he was off down the branch line again. He was impressed with the line he was on, passing by stations, rivers and lakes, and even over a couple of viaducts. Soon his driver alerted them they were almost at their destination.
"Hang on, this isn't a castle." Walsh said. All he could see was a huge lake with an almost unreasonably tiny piece of land to divide the lake. His driver just laughed at him.
"No, this is Black Loch. The castle is on the other side of this lake. We have to cross the causeway to get to the castle." Walsh though looked uncertain about the causeway. It was a single line and the land didn't look all that strong.
"Well, off we go." Walsh said unenthusiastically. He moved onto the causeway slowly and easily. Before he knew it, he realized that the land was extremely strong and he was in no danger. The rest of the way was easy and soon they came upon a huge castle. Walsh stopped at the platform to let off his passengers. They all thanked him for the wonderful ride and he pulled away from the platform to go to the goods yard around the corner from the castle.
He backed into the yard that was simply a bunch of sidings, with two of them being connected to two platforms to unload goods from trains for the castle, and five other ones in a shed for trucks that are left there until collected later on. The shed is where Walsh would sleep that night. He deposited his coach in one of the shed sidings.
"Well it's time to go to Killdane to pick up my coaches for this run." Leaving Callen Castle, Walsh knew he would enjoy his new life on the Island of Sodor.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. This chapter was important since not only does it introduce two new characters, Walsh and Mokei, but also put them in the first two permanent jobs. It was also nice to see the island through the perspective of one engine that is brand new. Please review and tell me what you thought of not only the chapter, but the two new characters.