The Founding Party
The next celebration of the Benally Railroad came along while the Christmas tree was still stood next to the Benally's house. Every year, on the third of January, the engines and the Benallys took the evening and as much of the afternoon as possible off to spend time with each other down in the yard, with Kojak threatening that since all twelve siblings were now together the family was going to do something special to celebrate.
Irenia had been assigned to Seacoal mine that day, alongside Bertam, Genny and Lizable, although the latter two getting on like a house on fire was no good for either Irenia or Bertam's patience and both had escaped as early as they could, even though they were now left waiting in the yard for a while before anyone else came down. Evelyn was still operating as control from the house, Oliver and Alexander had gone to help Edrick for a reason Irenia couldn't remember and Sophia was doing something else around the house with Kojak that Irenia couldn't see from where she was sat in the sheds. She and Bertam had been left to simmer while their crews chattered in Bertam's cab about something else Irenia couldn't work out. She got very bored very fast.
"Hey, Bertam, history is your kind of thing." Irenia spoke up, despite Bertam's barely audible groan when she did so. "What do you know about the history of this place?"
"Depends on what you mean." Bertam answered, doing his best to sound uninterested.
"Anything you can tell me!" Irenia grinned.
"Well, I know Evelyn was born up here and moved down to Oregon with her siblings to find work." Bertam started. "She's still got some relatives in Williamson I think, nieces and nephews and cousins and whatnot-"
"And Kojak?" Irenia asked.
"He was born in Oregon. Into a railroading family, as they're called." Bertam continued.
"What do you mean by that?" Irenia looked at him questioningly.
"Means his family have worked on railroads for multiple generations." Bertam explained. "For Kojak, I think it goes back to his great-great-grandfather, but Kojak was caring for some display engines when he met Evelyn."
"Display engines?" Irenia was only getting more confused. "As in engines on display?"
"Yes. In an amusement park." Bertam responded, giving the verbal equivalent of a shrug when Irenia looked at him in disbelief. "I don't know either, it's just what they've told me. Apparently the engines are in a museum now."
"And that's what inspired him to build this railroad and us?" Irenia asked.
"Not quite." Bertam answered, before rolling forward a little and shouting towards the house. "Kojak, do you have that picture?"
"What picture?" Kojak called back nervously after a moment.
"The one of Elgin and his crew." Bertam responded.
"Oh, that one!" Kojak responded, his nerves turning to excitement instantly and he was soon coming over. Irenia could hear that he was practically running over to them. When he got to the shed, he quickly opened his wallet and produced an old, tattered photograph and showed it to Bertam.
"Show Irenia, she was asking about the history of the railroad." Bertam responded a little flatly.
"Oh, of course." Kojak responded, soon making his way over to Irenia and showing the photo to her.
The photo was printed out on ordinary paper rather than glossy photograph paper and had been folded so many times down the same lines that the ink had worn away, leaving long white streaks up the centre and across the middle, but the image was clear. It featured a male steam engine sat on a wooden bridge against a forest backdrop, an old-american looking steam engine with dark paintwork that was mostly plain but had some lighter patterning on his cylinders, headlamp and domes as well as "46" on his cab sides. The engine's huge headlamp was overshadowed by the massive spark catcher stretching well above his cab even, hiding a bell on the engine's boiler as well as two broad domes, one sat neatly on the middle of the engine's boiler with it's pretty patterning and the other right in front of his cab with his safety valve on top, which in the photo was releasing a fair amount of steam. Like the siblings, he had four leading wheels and four driving wheels behind a large cowcatcher, although his was fixed on, and long railings along his side that stretched over all his wheels, including the small platforms or guards above his driving wheels. His numbering was just above these guards on the side of his cab, making it look like the engine's cab was truly that high up for just a moment, but what surprised Irenia the most was the fact that his cab had opening windows, the forward facing cab window was wide open and practically bouncing off the engine's boiler and the side window was open too as a sliding panel. The engine was also towing a train behind it, although only one closed box truck could be seen in the picture. There were several people in the picture too; a smartly dressed man with a bowler hat was leant against the engine's tender, a man in a more formal looking railroad uniform not too dissimilar to the ones the Benally Railroad used with a thick hat and an equally thick beard was stood by the engine's driving wheels, a man in overalls stood at the edge of the cab with an arm on the tender's side and another man sat on top of the boxcar in a similar uniform to the second.
"He looks like us!" Irenia commented. "Kind of, anyway."
"Of course, you're all modelled after him!" Kojak responded. "His name was Elgin, that picture was taken on his maiden trip with Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company-"
"Why him?" Irenia asked, starting to interrupt again in her curiosity.
"Because that's my great-great-grandfather there." Kojak responded, pointing to the man stood at the edge of Elgin's cab. "Elgin was his favourite and he managed to get his son's training, my great-grandfather's training, started on him before he was sold on."
"Sold onto where?" Irenia asked.
"Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railroad." Kojak answered. "Retired some years later."
"You mean scrapped." Bertam and Irenia retorted simultaneously, Bertam matter-of-factly and Irenia a little more sarcastically. Irenia had to give Bertam a second take, but Bertam was only looking at Kojak and his picture.
"Well, that's what we think." Kojak sounded defeated. "The line closed less than ten years after he was sold over and all the engines were scrapped as far as anyone knows. Which is a shame."
"Yes, it is." Bertam and Irenia responded at the same time again, Bertam almost emotionless and Irenia feeling as sad as Kojak was.
"How do you keep doing that?" Irenia asked her brother.
"I'm not doing it intentionally." Bertam responded.
"You don't even sound sad at the sound of your parent being scrapped." Irenia retorted.
"Please don't call him that." Bertam sighed. "We were designed after him, yes, but we've never met him and we're quite different under the paint you know."
"Isn't it the right term? A child design produced from a parent design?" Irenia argued.
"Ask the big twins, they're the ones in to all the design stuff." Bertam responded coolly.
Irenia went silent with an annoyed wheesh of steam for a total of ten seconds before another thought entered her smoke box.
"Hey, Kojak, who designed us?" Irenia asked.
She got no response for several moments as Kojak had gone.
"He went as soon as you started arguing with me." Bertam stated. "And he's just told you, he designed us."
"He has no eye for art." Irenia snorted. "And we were all painted before we came here, so it can't be Clara and Dani."
"How do you know that?" Bertam questioned.
"Ace said so when I got here." Irenia retorted.
"Of course he did." Bertam grumbled, but was largely ignored by Irenia.
"Well? Who designed all the paint schemes and our nameplates with all the symbols and stuff?" Irenia asked.
"Ask Ace when he gets in." Bertam replied. "I'm not having this conversation another year in a row."
"Every year?" Irenia asked.
"Every year." Bertam confirmed.
"That's what you get for knowing history." Irenia teased.
Bertam gave no reply as Genny and Lizable started asking him questions instead from her other side.
Eventually, the engines assigned to Hjelm mine came back to the yard. Ace was towing Edrick, whose fire had been dropped, and Fallon and Jacques followed. Edrick was being battered on three sides, Ace doing his big brotherly duties of telling Edrick exactly where he went wrong as he had done it before, Fallon fussing endlessly over him and Jacques outright mocking him. Surprisingly, Edrick was keeping a straight face over this, even as Ace shunted him into the shed. Lizable and Genny soon pulled Jacques and Fallon over to them respectively to give him some space, but Irenia couldn't suppress her curiosity and rolled back to Edrick, alongside Bertam.
"What happened to you?" Bertam asked.
"Blockage in the water pipe between my tender and my boiler." Edrick sighed. "Don't know how or why it happened, but, you know, protocol is protocol."
"Too right." Bertam replied. "Remember when it happened to Harlon when he was on his maintenance train?"
Irenia had already tuned out, not interested in Bertam and Edrick discussing the rules again. Obviously, Ace had the same train of thought and she could see him roll his eyes.
"Hey, Ace." Irenia rolled her way over to him. "Do you know who designed us?"
"Kojak." Ace responded. "Why?"
"You're trying to tell me Kojak designed our paint schemes?" Irenia asked, half laughing. "There's a reason Evelyn and Sophia do all the decorating, you know."
"Oh, right, Sophia did all that." Ace chuckled. "It was Kojak's way of saying welcome to the family I think."
"Why would he do that?" Irenia asked.
"Because it was about that time that she was adopted?" Ace replied slowly, although realisation promptly dawned on his face. "Oh, right, no one is meant to know that."
"Why not?" Irenia responded, a little louder than she should have as she could feel Bertam and Edrick's gazes on her like lasers.
"Kojak didn't want her to be treated differently from Alexander or Oliver by anyone else." Ace explained. "And I really shouldn't have said anything, so please don't tell."
"I won't, I won't, but I never would have guessed." Irenia responded, mildly stunned by the revelation. "She would have been like nine?"
"Sounds about right." Ace confirmed. "Alexander and Oliver thought he was mad, but it turned out alright."
"True." Irenia had to agree with that.
However, after a few moments, Irenia had to go and find Sophia and have several questions answered. She found the young woman with Kojak beside the house again, although the sounds of her approaching made both of them hurriedly throw a sheet over whatever it was they were working on.
"Ace said you did our paint schemes." Irenia called up to Sophia.
"Y-Yes?" Sophia stuttered back.
"Why?" Irenia asked.
"What do you mean why?" Kojak retorted tensely. "Because I let her."
"But why did you choose this?" Irenia responded.
"Oh." Sophia responded. The young woman was nudged by Kojak and she came down to Irenia, leaving Kojak to work on whatever he was working on. "Well, what do you want to know?"
"I get the black base, keeping it professional looking, and I get that we each have unique colours so it can all be colour coded and what not." Irenia began. "But why the gold, silver and bronze?"
"You were all ordered in three batches of four." Sophia responded, confused that Irenia didn't know this. "Ace, Bertam, Clara and Dani were the first batch with the gold lining, Edrick, Fallon, Genny and Harlon were the second batch with silver lining and-"
"I was in the third batch with the triplets and bronze, got it." Irenia responded. "How did you decide what colours to give us?"
"Dad was always in contact with the builders, telling him about you as you were built and showed what you were like. I based your colours and nameplate symbols from that." Sophia explained. "Did you know Clara was nearly forest green, like Edrick is now, with a leaf for her symbol?"
"There is no way she'd have that." Irenia laughed. "It suits most of us."
"Most?" Sophia asked.
"Well, Ace having Aces is self explanatory, Clara has a heart because she's so girly, Dani has a sun because she's always so bright, Edrick a shield because he's protective, Fallon a flower because she loves nature, a spark for Genny as that's what she is, a crescent for Harlon because he's a night owl, stars for Jacques and Ken but one extra point for Jacques as he's the boss and a snowflake for Lizable as she's so delicate." Irenia said. "But I don't understand why Bertam has a cloud and I have a wheel."
"Have you ever seen Bertam loose his temper?" Sophia responded. "I thought he was kind of cool and free flowing, like a cloud floating across the sky. And you never seemed to stop moving while you were being built."
Irenia couldn't argue with that because she had never stopped moving as soon as she was steamed up. She wanted to get out of that workshop very, very badly, fed up of being tided down while they worked on her.
"Is that all of your questions? I should really be getting back to dad." Sophia questioned.
"Yeah, sure." Irenia responded as she mulled over her experience in the builders' workshop.
Sophia wasted no time at all in getting back to Kojak as Irenia backed into the shed again, stopping wordlessly beside Ace.
"Did you see what they were working on up there?" Ace asked for most of the rest of the engines. Everyone in the shed except Bertam and Edrick in fact.
"No, they covered it as soon as I approached." Irenia responded, to a chorus of disappointment.
"We'll see it as soon as the others get back." Bertam spoke up, which let the chatter in the shed return to normal levels.
Irenia was starting to get frustrated when the others finally came back, Clara and Dani heading the fleet as they did when they worked together and Harlon and Ken keeping a mutual silence between each other. This was promptly broken when Ken and Jacques landed eyes on each other and rushed to each other like they hadn't seen each other in years.
The others settled in as Kojak walked across the yard to the newly constructed wooden arch over the entrance to the yard from the big line. When the man spotted them looking at him, he waved the engines to come after him, which is what they did. Kojak covered himself and a bit of the arch with the sheet from before as he affixed something to it, Evelyn and the kids coming to join the gathering.
"So, since all twelve of you are here together at a founding day for the first time, I went ahead and got something made." Kojak explained. "Are you ready to see this?"
"Yes!" Was the response from the crowd.
With a dramatic flourish, Kojak pulled away the sheet to reveal a shiny, brand new plaque on the side of the arch, covered in writing and drawings. The top left corner and lower right corner had a picture of an engine in full working steam, the latter Irenia recognised as Elgin and the former was in their spark-catcher-less, one domed, no belled, cowcatcher-converted-to-snowplowed and headlamp-less design. Beside their design was writing saying "Benally Railroad - Opened Monday 3rd January". Below that was more writing about the engines in their respective colours and their symbols either side of their respective lines.
"Ace - Built Wednesday 24th March 1999, Arrived Saturday 1st January 2000
Bertam - Built Wednesday 31st January 2001, Arrived Sunday 25th March 2001
Clarabelle - Built Saturday 22nd December 2001, Arrived Tuesday 1st January 2002
Danielle - Built Saturday 22nd December 2001, Arrived Tuesday 1st January 2002
Edrick - Built Thursday 30th October 2003, Arrived Wednesday 3rd December 2003
Fallon - Built Saturday 10th July 2004, Arrived Sunday 15th August 2004
Genny - Built Thursday 14th April 2005, Arrived Tuesday 31st May 2005
Harlon - Built Thursday 2nd February 2006, Arrived Saturday 25th March 2006
Irenia - Built Tuesday 25th November 2008, Arrived Thursday 25th December 2008
Jacques - Built Tuesday 1st September 2009, Arrived Sunday 1st November 2009
Ken - Built Tuesday 1st September 2009, Arrived Sunday 1st November 2009
Lizable - Built Tuesday 1st September 2009, Arrived Sunday 1st November 2009"
Irenia looked over at a very smug Kojak as Bertam commented on it.
"Very nice." Bertam said. "Did you do it yourself?"
"I did!" Kojak responded with a big grin, until Evelyn gently elbowed him. "Well, Sophia helped."
"Sure, just helped." Alexander chuckled.
"Well, I think it and the arch are very nice." Fallon told Kojak as Jacques and Ken started snickering too. "It's nice to have something to commemorate all twelve of us being on the railroad together."
"Oh, you think that's the end of it?" Kojak chuckled. "Wait until it gets a bit darker, you'll want to be over looking the arch for this one."
It wasn't too long until it was what Kojak considered dark enough and all the engines were fanned out in the yard, facing the arch as requested, and Evelyn and Sophia were sat among the engines too. Irenia was sat between Harlon and Jacques, the latter chattering away to Ken and Harlon as quiet as ever as Kojak, Oliver and Alexander went out beyond the entrance with boxes.
Before Irenia was quite ready, there was a whistling sound as a jet of light shot into the sky before bursting into bright sparkles with a bang and crackles. This red light was followed by blue, pink, yellow, green, purple, white and orange lights at an ever increasing rate, lighting up the sky like thousands of stars.
As Irenia watched the fireworks, she knew that this was home.
