Once they were restored back into their original coats and fixed from being nearly rusted, Stephanie was concerned for them, knowing that they did not have anywhere else to go.

But Sir Topham Hatt surprised her when she was in his office the next day after hearing the conversations he had over the phone.

For Ryland, the Virginia and Truckee 18 Dayton locomotive, he is working with an unknown company that Stephanie had not heard of before, called 'The Misty Island Logging Company.'

This seemed to pique Stephanie's curiosity about the company, wanting to know more about both it and the island called 'Misty Island.'

But, deciding to save the island for later, Stephanie only placed it on a sticky note and stuck it in her head, just to remind herself to see what the island is about with Sir Topham Hatt.

With Damian, Milwaukee Road's A2 class locomotive wearing a metal mask, Stephanie was worried at first when Sir Topham Hatt called the Ironworks, thinking he was going to scrap him, but relieved when they instead hired him.

But, when it came to Smudger, the missing Fletcher Jennings Class Bb locomotive, Stephanie's high hopes lingered a little, thinking no one would take Smudger since his cockiness and rudeness many years ago.

Sir Topham Hatt did not see Stephanie's worries on her face after he finished with Damian but called a station that seemed to surprise Stephanie.

He had called Mr. Percival, the owner of the Skarloey Railway that has Duke working at.

Why call the Skarloey Railway instead of the other railways just as she hoped would take him?

She bit her lips with her teeth nervously as she listened to the conversation between Sir Topham Hatt and Mr. Percival, remembering Duke's words as if he had met Smudger again.

'But if we did find him…' Duke once spoke to her as she listened to his stories about the relationship between him and Smudger.'I don't know about accepting him again since he was reckless in his past.'

Stephanie clenched her sweater in her hand, still feeling very nervous about Smudger encountering Duke one more time, not wanting to see an argument between the two.

So, after staying in the office with Sir Topham Hatt, Stephanie went to visit Smudger, worried about his reaction to the news of working at a railway with Duke.

But as she reached his shed and entered, Stephanie was about to gently wake him up from his sleep as he had a tarp draped over him like a blanket, a sudden feeling of sleepiness washed over her.

Blinking a few times with confusion, Stephanie yawned a couple of times as she covered her mouth with a hand, shaking her head a little.

But her unusual sleepiness seemed to make Stephanie drowsy.

So while being half-asleep and half-awake, she crawled underneath something that seemed to cover her body like a blanket and fell asleep.


Smudger slowly woke up after a few hours passed, blinking a few times with grogginess, before yawning widely.

While inhaling, something hair-like went into his mouth suddenly, causing him to cough and gag a little, spitting out what entered his mouth.

'Ew!' he groaned as he sputtered the hairy thing out of his mouth. 'What did I eat? A spider? Ew!'

Smudger shook his body with disgust a little after eating a 'spider' as some tarp draped over him moved slightly.

But to his confusion, he still could not see the light since the tarp was not covering his eyes.

Did he get tricked into another cave?

"Okay," he spoke, frowning with irritation. "If this is a prank, I swear, it's-it-it-is-ACHOO!"

He gave out a loud sneeze after calling out to whoever was in the shed, bringing up a cloud of soot from his funnel.

After sneezing, Smudger shook a little before noticing that he could see parts of the light through the boards of the shed in front of him.

But it looked like there was… hair in front of his face?

Smudger felt perplexed when he noticed the strands of hair in front of his face, thinking some magic must have made him human but sees that he was still himself, a locomotive.

…But whose hair was on his face then?

His driver soon came into the shed and saw a very confused Smudger, with hair dangling over his face, looking like he had grown some.

"What on earth happened?" his driver asked, picking up one of the strands.

"I don't know," Smudger answered. "I woke up like this."

The driver paused a little after Smudger answered, but before doing anything else, a manager came into the shed and said, "You need to go to the Skarloey Railway, there you'll meet Mr. Percival, your new manager."

Smudger instantly forgets about the mysterious hair covering his face and felt excited to work once more on his new wheels as his driver went to work with him, puffing out of the shed and towards the Skarloey Railway.

But along the way, Smudger was relieved that nothing had happened to him, nor been derailed as he thought he would be.

Except for the hair being in his face all the time as the wind blew against him.

It kept causing him to have to slow down a few times, shaking his body to get the hair away and keep going with his adventure.

It also kept tickling his nose and covering his eyes, which came to the point where Smudger almost went into things because of it.

He had no time to slow down or stop to get all the hair away from his face, eager to go to work, not wanting to make the same mistake again many years ago.

When he reached the Skarloey Railway, Smudger stopped at the right time at the right place… but a few feet away from where Mr. Percival was standing.

"Uh, I'm over here." Mr. Percival spoke as Smudger blew the hair from his face, blushing a little with slight embarrassment.

Smudger backed up to where Mr. Percival was, saying, "Sorry, Sir."

Mr. Percival noticed the long strands of hair on his face but did not seem to notice the tarp on him, which blended in with his paintwork.

"Where did you get all that hair?" Mr. Percival asked, sounding confused.

Smudger was about to make a sarcastic response about his 'hair' when he suddenly stopped to see Duke pulling coaches!

How on earth did he come here, and why was he not told about this?!

Deciding to come up with a lie not to be discovered by Duke to get his buffers chewed out by him after so many years have passed, Smudger allowed the hair to cover his face once more.

Luckily, the tarp also covered his nameplates to make things easier for him to be under disguise.

"Uh, it's a natural growth." Smudger lied, watching a blur of Duke's paintwork coming close, before passing by. "Some engines have hair like this."

Mr. Percival paused after Smudger lied, nodding his head slowly as he placed a hand on his chin thoughtfully.

"Okay," Mr. Percival spoke. "What is your name?"

"Uh, Forrest," Smudger lied, sweating a little nervously. "Forrest is my name."

"'Forrest?'" Mr. Percival mumbled softly to himself. "I thought we were going to get an engine named 'Smudger?'"

Smudger felt his mind scream when he heard him mumble his name, praying to the Lady of the Mountains to give him strength.

"Uh, I'm-I'm new here!" Smudger stammered as he lied more, sweating nervously. "I came from California!"

"Really?" Mr. Percival cocked an eyebrow as Smudger smiled nervously, hoping that he would take his lie. "Okay then, why don't you help sort out the trucks in the yard?"

Smudger nodded and puffed on, heading towards the yard where he was told to work.

Once he had reached there, he gave out a sigh of relief as the hair moved away from one of his eyes.

"Bust my buffers! That was a close one!" Smudger sighed in relief before looking at the trucks. "Okay, let's work on these trucks."

So, during the day, Smudger worked on the trucks as best he could, stopping a few times to get the hair from his face to see better, usually to hide from Duke as he passed around, not even noticing him in the yard.

After the last of the trucks were moved, Smudger stopped as he huffed, feeling a little overheated with all the hair covering his face.

'How can Steph move around with all this in her face?!' Smudger hissed to himself, looking cross-eyed at one of the strands of hair, annoyed about his new 'hairdo.'

"Excuse me?" Smudger nearly bolted off the tracks when he heard a voice, thinking it was Mr. Percival or Duke.

But when he looked in front of him, he was relieved when he noticed that it was a worker instead.

"Are you open to helping someone?" the worker asked.

"Sure, what is it?" Smudger responded, cocking his head to the side a little.

The worker pointed to a hill over to the side, saying, "Peter Sam is stuck trying to climb the hill with some goods trucks. Can you help him?"

Smudger smiled cheekily and said, "Sure, don't mind if I do."

So, Smudger went to see this 'Peter Sam,' not too annoyed about his hair covering his face and tickling his nose, mostly poking and covering his eyes a little.

As he was close to the destination, Smudger's boiler nearly jumped from his frame when he saw Duke coming towards where he was now pulling trucks behind him.

His mind went into cursing mode, screaming curses in his mind as he went to focus on the tracks, not daring himself to look at Duke.

Just as they passed by each other, Smudger felt his water go frozen for a quick second before picking up speed a little.

"Good afternoon!" Smudger felt a little confused when he heard Duke call a 'good afternoon' to him from behind but shook his mind.

When he reached the scene, Smudger paused a little when he encountered a strange engine with a funny-looking funnel.

"Who the heck are you?" the funny green engine asked, noticing Smudger and his hair. "And is that hair covering your face?"

Smudger only stayed silent after he mentioned his 'hair,' saying, "I woke up like this earlier, so I am not in the mood with all the questions. Now, do you, or do you not want help?"

The green engine huffed and said, "Of course I want help! All I need is a push from the other end."

Smudger nodded and went backwards, switching lines and coupled up to the back of the trucks, getting ready to push.

Luckily, there was a brake van at the end, so he would not have to be face-to-face with one of them, but painfully can hear the humiliations about his 'hair.'

"Hey, did you see that new engine with the stupid hairdo?" one of the trucks sneered.

"Yeah, he looked like Rapunzel!" another giggled.

"No, no! He looks like a girl!" chuckled another truck.

"An ugly girl!" another laughed before the whole line of trucks started laughing.

Smudger felt so embarrassed and very irritated, half wanting to hide back in his shed for having to be woken up with suddenly growing long hair and wanting to derail these trucks for making fun of it.

But remembering that it would eventually get him caught by Duke and get his buffers chewed out by him or get sent away by Mr. Percival, Smudger painfully helped the strange engine up the hill.

As usual, the trucks were being troublesome, rocking back and forth to shake the engines a little as they pushed them up the hill.

But then there was trouble.

The coupling link coupled to the green engine's buffers behind him started to give out, snapping, and the trucks tumbled into Smudger!

Smudger yelped when the trucks bashed into him, causing him to derail and skidded backwards, going down the hill!

"On, on, on!" the trucks laughed as Smudger hit the brakes as hard as he could. "Faster, faster, faster!"

The truck in front of Smudger had no luck since his 'hair' was getting into his face, causing it to grumble and spit out the strands as each of them fluttered against him.

Smudger grunted as he continued applying the brakes on, luckily only slowing the truck down a little as it went backwards, still feeling a bit twisted after being derailed a short minute later.

He passed by some station as he continued going down the hill, but eventually, Smudger applied enough strength into his brakes to make them come into a slow and gentle tap into what seemed to be another engine behind him.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked as Smudger sighed in relief. "Yeah, I'm fine! Just irritated with the trucks here! The coupling link must've snapped."

The green engine struggling with the trucks came over to see what happened after the close accident, seeing nothing had happened but noticing that half of the engine's hair was removed, showing an oddly familiar face.

"Hey, what's your name?" The green engine asked. "You look familiar from one of the stories Grandpuff used to tell us."

''Grandpuff?'' Smudger thought to himself. 'Who's… oh, wait. That's Duke's nickname, now?'

"Um, my name is Forrest," Smudger lied, gulping a little with worry. "You must've mistaken me for someone else."

The green engine looked a little confused after he shook the question off before waiting for the other behind him to move, so he could get out of the way.

Once he had moved out of his way, Smudger went back to the yard to work on the trucks.

He was still confused and worried about what Duke told them all these years while he was gone.

Did he use what he did to warn them not to become like him?

Half of Smudger felt more embarrassed by his past and warned other engines about being cocky and rude, but the other half of him felt… regret for being like that.

But Smudger's thoughts were cut off when he noticed a very stout man entering the station with a number one tank engine, who looked worried.

'He looked like he is the head honcho.' Smudger thought to himself as some hair was not covering one of his eyes. 'I wonder who he is.'

But instead of puffing over to the worrying number one tank engine, Smudger instead decided to take a small nap, considering a job's well done.

But it was not over.

A group of kids walked over to Smudger as he slept, seeing all the hair covering his face and reaching to his buffers.

"What's this engine with hair?" one of the kids asked, pointing to the hair.

"Can all engines have hair like this?" another asked, sounding confused.

"Shh, shh, don't wake him up." another giggled before thinking to herself. "How about we give him a makeover, so he wouldn't have trouble not seeing?"

"I like that idea!" a girl nodded in agreement.

So while Smudger slept, the kids went to braid the long hair, placing clips on it to keep strands of loose bangs out of his eyes.

They even place colorful rubber bands at the ends of the braided hair strands.

Soon, they completed their 'playdate' with the sleeping engine, seeing that he was still asleep.

After getting the last of the strands of hair from his face, Duke came over to notice the kids playing around with an engine, asking, "What are you young ones doing?"

The kids giggled after Duke asked, getting up from sitting close to Smudger and ran off.

Duke came over to see what they were doing after they had disappeared to the station with their parents.

He stopped when he saw that it was Smudger, but the most confusing thing is that he has long brown hair?

Smudger was sleeping in the yard as Duke stared at him with surprise, as his unusual hair was braided and clipped back, including braids that reached down to his buffers.

Duke had to shake himself to see that he was dreaming, but when he opened his eyes, sure enough, Smudger was still in front of him, sleeping and with his unusual hairstyle.

He paused a little after staring at Smudger for a few minutes before whistling his whistle, waking up the sleeping Smudger.

Smudger snorted awake after hearing Duke's whistle, half-asleep and half-awake as he blinked sleepily.

"Okay, okay," Smudger mumbled, blinking a few times. "I'm awake."

As he blinked, Smudger first saw a blur of an old maroon color before seeing Duke standing in front of him.

"Oh, hi, Dukey." Smudger greeted half-sleepily before his eyes popped wide after his mind did a double-take. "DUKE?!"

He nearly whistled out of surprise when he saw Duke in front of him, jolting backwards with surprise.

"Yes," Duke nodded. "It is me."

Smudger's boiler ran cold after Duke nodded, thinking he was about to get his buffers chewed out by him for good.

So, trying to cover his buffers from being chewed out, Smudger said, "W-We-Well, you look nice after a couple of years have passed."

Duke cocked an eyebrow after Smudger remarked as Smudger blushed nervously, feeling sweat dripped off his face.

"Indeed," Duke nodded slowly. "But that doesn't help with what are you doing here?"

The back of Smudger's cab shivered at the cold tone in Duke's voice, sounding like a hint he does not belong on the railway.

"Uh, Sir Topham Hatt brought me here," Smudger spoke, gulping once. "Stephanie found me with Ryland and the other engine back at the railway we both used to work at, restoring us back to what we used to look like."

Duke's expression changed after Smudger mentioned Stephanie, asking, "Stephanie found you and the others?"

"Yes, she did," Smudger nodded, gulping once. "An-And, I swear, I'm a changed engine! I promise not to do the same thing again. Besides,"

Smudger moved back and forth gently, showing him that his derailing problem had been fixed.

"I can't derail as easily as I used to," Smudger continued as Duke listened to him blabbering. "The workers fixed that issue!"

He instantly went silent when he noticed Duke's expression has not changed, causing Smudger to feel more of his boiler turn cold, worried that he might have spoken too much or too little to save his buffers.

"I see that you were fixed," Duke slowly nodded, as Smudger's face paled a little. "But, you sure were a hassle back then!"

Smudger slightly winced as he awaited his fate to be chewed out by him.

"But, you proved yourself that you did change." Smudger's mind stopped when he heard the last line from Duke, blinking a few times in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Smudger asked in confusion.

"Well, you helped Peter Sam with his trucks," Duke explained. "And you also stopped them from crashing into Sir Handel."

Smudger smiled a little after Duke explained, remembering a scene that had almost happened to Sir Handel if he was not strong enough to stop.

"Yeah, I couldn't let those trucks hurt another engine." Smudger shrugged. "Besides, I didn't want to repeat the same thing a long time ago."

"Yes," Duke nodded. "And I'm glad that you changed Smudger. I have been slightly missing you."

"What do you mean by slightly, Dukie?" Smudger asked, sounding confused with a hint of hurt in the tone of voice.

Duke chuckled after Smudger asked, answering, "I was still angry at you for your antics a long time ago, but since you proved yourself, I forgive you."

Smudger smiled after Duke answered, as he asked, "Although, when did you grow hair?"

'Oh, that.' Smudger huffed, pausing a little when he noticed that he could see, but felt the hair there.

"I woke up with it all of a sudden," Smudger answered, glancing back over at Duke. "It was like that when I got here too."

Duke paused a little after Smudger explained, saying, "But I thought hair grows on your face, not on your boiler."

That made Smudger pause a little, remembering some engines that have mustaches and stubbles but not actual hair like how humans have.

"You're right," Smudger nodded. "Then, who is on me?"

Duke's and Smudger's drivers stepped out of their cab and walked over to Smudger, noticing that there was a tarp on him.

"Oh, I forgot about the tarp." Smudger's driver chuckled. "I must've left it on when we came here."

"Not only that," Duke's driver smiled. "There is someone under it."

A surprised expression appeared on both Smudger's and Duke's faces as the tarp was carefully removed, revealing to be Stephanie!

"Well, would you look at that." chuckled Smudger's driver. "It's Stephanie's hair that was covering your face. She must've fallen asleep on you when you were still in your shed."

"And the whole time while I was working and through the crash?!" Smudger softly exclaimed. "She slept through all that?"

"Well, if you are tired, you have to sleep at one point." shrugged Duke's driver.

The number one tank engine soon came to the yard with the same expression on his face before seeing Stephanie sleeping on top of a locomotive he had seen once briefly.

"Cinders and ashes," he softly exclaimed. "Stephanie was with you?!"

"Yep," Smudger nodded. "And was asleep the whole time too."

A surprised expression appeared on his face when Smudger added, as Sir Handel and Peter Sam came over, seeing Smudger without hair covering his face and with the tarp covering his nameplates.

"You're Smudger?" Peter Sam asked, sounding confused. "I thought you were named 'Forrest?'"

"Who's 'Forrest?'" Duke asked, sounding confused.

Smudger groaned a little as he blushed sheepishly, saying, "Well, I was worried about getting my buffers chewed out by Duke, so I came up with a fake name."

"Adding with a new hairstyle with the tarp," giggled Sir Handel.

Smudger blushed more and said, "Very funny. It's Stephanie's hair, and if you want to know why she is sleeping on me."

A few chuckles emerged from the group before the same stout gentleman appeared, seeing Stephanie on top of Smudger.

"Oh, there she is!" he exclaimed before being gently shushed by Smudger.

"Not too loud, please." Smudger softly spoke as he glanced up at Stephanie. "She has been sleeping like this throughout the entire day."

The stout gentleman understood what Smudger said before nodding his head, and Mr. Percival appeared, noticing Smudger with his nameplates.

After explaining, Smudger paused a little at the thought of why he could see since Stephanie's hair was draped over his face.

"Hey, what happened while I was napping?" Smudger asked, turning his attention to one of the engines.

"Well," Duke softly chuckled. "The kids noticed you in the yard asleep, so they came over and,"

He paused as a worker picked up an engine-sized mirror and reflected it towards Smudger as Duke finished, "They put your hair up for you."

Instantly, Smudger's face turned as beet red as James' paintwork, feeling more embarrassed at the new hairstyle the kids gave him.

"Do you like that hairstyle?" Peter Sam joked.

"Well, the color of the hair is not my type," Smudger joked back. "Neither does the length, but I'm surprised at how stylish the bands were."

The group chuckled again after Smudger joked back as he blushed a little more but was glad that Duke had not chewed him out after meeting him again.

He glanced up at the sleeping Stephanie, half glad she fell asleep on him to change things around a little, but the other half of him was a little peeved at her for picking him out of everything in the shed.