September 6th, 1963
It took a few days and a lot of prodding, but I finally got Toad to talk.
It looks like I was right, Jinty was on his way to the Island of Sodor, but not just because he wanted to be free. He apparently has a friend there, a little green engine named Percy.
He told Toad a lot about their adventures with another engine named Pug before Jinty was shall we say, taken away?
Whoever this Percy is, he sounds like great fun! And I bet Pug is just grand as well!
I wish I could meet them both someday.
But this brings something else up, I wonder what made Jinty just decide to leave?
Manager said that Control said there was an engine sneaking his way across the country from Euston. I know that engine was Jinty, but why did he want to leave?
Of course, Jinty might as well have just been doing whatever he wanted to do, but that means he wanted to leave. Which brings up another matter.
Does this mean that any engine could just run away?
As in, leave their railway and company?
Forever?
I didn't think that was possible.
But then considering what Toad's told me already, I guess I'm not really surprised.
Toad told me Jinty said that bigger diesels had taken over most of the Mainline engines' work in Euston; and since Boxy arrived here a few days ago, there may be more of those his size on Jinty's old line.
That leads me to think that Jinty might have been replaced. But when I mentioned it to Toad, he didn't seem to know. Just as well, I suppose. Jinty never really talked about himself, he just focused on the work he had to do.
I also got to confirm something else. If Jinty was going to Sodor, and he came through here, then the island must be close. At least, that's what I thought, but turns out it isn't. I got the chance to look at a map this afternoon; Sodor is miles and miles away from here, very far away.
I asked Amy about it a few days ago. Apparently, one of her Mainline friends went there a few years back – the end station called Barrow-in-Furness, and a drawbridge connects it to the Mainland. I've never seen one. It sounds ever so impressive.
Now, from what I remember of the map, Euston has to be more than a hundred miles away from us, so it would've taken Jinty at least a few weeks to get here. And it'd take even longer to get to Sodor from our line. In fact, he would have to go through Wales if he was to reach the island at all.
I ought to mention, our branch goes to The Royal Portbury Docks, which is a couple of miles away from the Bottom Station here at the sheds, which is called Portishead; and our line terminates at the Bristol-Exeter Mainline. Taking the most direct path, Sodor seems to be somewhere over two-hundred miles up north.
Toad also told me a little more about himself. He came from the Reading Railway Station in Berkshire, but after the Nationalization, he and Jinty often saw each other around between there and Euston, and that's how they met. While he was escaping, Jinty 'borrowed' a few coal trucks to take with him on the journey. He saw Toad had been left on a goods siding at his old station, and he offered to bring him along.
It seems strange to me that a good brake van like Toad would be left out like he was.
But that's why they started travelling together.
I think Toad mentioned something about brake vans soon becoming surplus to requirement, which doesn't really make any sense to me. Since brake vans are so essential, according to Andy.
Of course, Andy was right about one thing, I don't really know much about trucks.
All the same, I do feel sorry for poor Toad.
He explained why Jinty decided to come through here; something about Control trying to track down a 'Missing Engine', and that's why they would travel about at night. But because they were being tracked, Jinty figured he could throw them off by going to almost every station along the way as he could manage. They'd stop at each station for a few days before heading out again.
Toad doesn't know where Jinty went first to avoid control, but he did say they took their time after meeting up to get here, and he remembers all the stations they stopped at on their way.
First, they went to Basingstoke, then to Fawley in Wantage, after there to Marlborough, nearly to Swindon by mistake, then they nearly backtracked all the way to Wantage. But when they got there, they saw that the station had closed, so they went to Faringdon instead, and then they went up to Cirencester Town and rested between the three stations there for a week before setting out again.
After that, they went to Malmesbury, where they had to leave the coal trucks, then they went to Chippenham, and then to Bath Green Park before making a beeline through Bristol and to our sheds here at Portishead.
It must've been a great adventure!
I wonder how Jinty wove his way from Euston to Reading then?
And that's another point!
If Jinty was 'weaving' his way away from Euston, then how long would it have taken for him to cross the country between coal and water stops? That is to say, if he and toad only stayed at every station for a few hours to top up, would he have made it here sooner?
I don't know.
At least not yet.
