His view blocked by the trucks ahead, Robbie slid out of the cab window and pulled himself up by the roof. Gordon's train stood motionless beyond the station platform. "What are they waiting for?"

"I'm sure I don't know," replied Duck.

The hold up which they could not see was Stationmaster Lopez running the entire length of Gordon's train to the brake van at the lead end. Robbie understood when he saw the guard climbing down from his post and walking back toward the station with Lopez.

"Oh. I see." Robbie ducked his head back through the cab window. "They were telling the guard to get out."

"Probably a good idea," said Justin. "Those waves look like they're only getting rougher, and the brake van is definitely the lightest thing on that train."

"Yeah. And the wind is picking up."

"It probably would have been a good idea to set it out on the other station track," said Duck.

Two blasts from Gordon's whistle told them the time for that had passed.

"Too late now," said Robbie, releasing the brakes. The weight of the ballast trucks immediately beginning to pull Duck forward toward the water. "Here we go."

On the other side of the flood waters, Lopez had made it back to Gordon's cab, and Chris wasn't waiting any longer. During the time it had taken for Lopez to walk to the brake van and back, the wind had grown stronger and the waves sweeping across the flood waters were becoming larger.

"We don't have any time to waste," Chris said, yanking twice on Gordon's whistle chord. "It's getting worse out there. If we're gonna make this crazy plan work, we gotta do it now."

"Let's do it!" said Gordon. "I'm ready for anything!"

Chris released the brakes. Despite the very long and heavy train on his buffers, Gordon didn't need much steam to start the consist rolling. Like Duck on the opposite side, the rails sloped gently down toward the flood waters.

The brake van broke the water first, it's wheels disappearing below the water as it crept in. The first wave that struck it caused it to rock violently. As the train now sloped down before him, Gordon could just barely see the brake van over the trucks. "Bust my buffers!" he exclaimed. "It's a good thing you told the guard to get out! The brake van nearly flipped over!"

The supply vans came next, the icy sea water surging around their axles and frames. "Oh! Oh! Oh!" they shrieked. "It's so cold! It's so cold!"

"Shut it!" Gordon snapped.

On the opposite side, Duck had already pushed his ballast trucks into the water as far as he dared. The water's edge lapped at his front wheels. He and his crew watched as Gordon's train slowly drew closer. The brake van shuttered with each incoming wave, threatening to be flipped off the rails.

The steel-girder laden flatbed reached the water, leaving only the ballast trucks still to enter the water. "Ohhhh, dear…" said Duck. "I'm not sure Gordon's train is long enough to reach us."

Chris was thinking the same thing. Two ballast trucks were now in the water, and they had yet to reach Duck's. "Gordon! Can you see how close we are?"

"I can't really see anymore!" the big blue engine replied. "Maybe Duck can!" Taking a deep breath, Gordon yelled as loudly as he could. "Duck! How close are we to meeting?"

Duck could only just hear Gordon over the wind and waves. "You're close, but I don't think you're going to make it!"

"He says he doesn't think we'll make it!" Gordon reported.

Chris cursed under his breath. Only one ballast truck remained above the water. He shut off steam and held onto the brake lever, ready to stop the train. He let Gordon roll until his pony truck touched the water. They hadn't reached the end of Duck's train.

Duck winced as Gordon braked his long train to a halt. The brake van had come up over a truck-length shy of meeting his ballast train. "Gordon!" he called. "You need nearly two more trucks to reach me!"

"What did he say?" Lopez asked Gordon.

"He says we need two more trucks."

Chris cursed again. And again…And again.

"You can't go any further?" Duck called.

"Im right on the edge of the water!" Gordon replied.

"So am I! But I could probably go another few yards!"

"…I suppose I could, too!"

"Are you sure, Duck?" Justin asked.

"As long as we don't go deep enough for water to get up through my firebars, I'll be fine."

"Yeah, but will you be able to pull all that weight with you wheels…you know…underwater?" Robbie asked.

"Errr…" That, Duck could not be sure of. "Let's try anyway."

Robbie took a deep breath and let it out through his teeth. "It's risky for sure," he said. "But I guess we'd better give it a shot."

"I'll go first!" Duck called to Gordon. "As far as I possibly can! Then it's up to you to close the gap!"

"Go on, then!"

So Duck crept forward, the weight of the ballast trucks on his buffers even heavier with the added resistance of the sea water. The frigid water surged against his axles and undercarriage, and he grit his teeth as the water lapped over his buffer beam and over his splashers. He stopped when his rear axle was just barely in the water. Robbie didn't dare let him advance any further.

Duck whistled to Gordon. "That's as far as I can go! I think you can make it!"

"Okay! Here I come!"

Gordon braced himself as he edged forward. His pony truck and buffers disappeared beneath the waves as his big drive wheels plunged into the dark water.

"Keep going!" Duck cheered as he watched the battered brake van approach. "Go on, Gordon! You're almost there!"

Chris applied the brakes. Gordon's drive wheels were now completely submerged. "We can't go any further. Any deeper and the firebox will start flooding."

"Gordon!" Duck called. "You're still about six yards short!"

"We have to go further," the big engine told his crew.

"But your fire-!" Lopez began.

"All that matters," said Gordon, "is getting these trucks to Arlesburgh. We have to go further in."

Chris shook his head. "If you say so."

Gordon edged slowly forward. After only a few feet, there was a tremendous hissing noise as the cold water contacted his super-heated firebox, accompanied by a huge cloud of steam. The big engine shivered as the water sloshed over the firebars and in and instant his fire went out. But he still had plenty of steam, and he puffed bravely on.

"That's it!" Duck called. "You're nearly there! Almost…almost…you've got it!"

Gordon braked to a halt, feeling the trucks shudder against his buffers as they connected with Duck's train.

"Alright!" Robbie exclaimed. "We've got the supply train! Now we just have to-" He abruptly cut himself off. After a moment of staring blankly at the bulkhead, he pinched his forehead as if in great pain.

"What's wrong?" Justin asked.

Robbie let out a long sigh. "Duck. Your plan has a huge flaw."

"What? I don't understand. We've got the trucks."

"And how do you suppose we couple them on to our side and uncouple them from Gordon's side?"

Duck blinked. He felt rather foolish. "Oh, dear. I must admit…I hadn't thought of that."

Robbie rubbed his eyes. "Now what do we do?"

"I'll do it." Justin was already shrugging back into the sleeves of his rain coat.

"You'll do it? What do you mean, you'll do it?"

Justin grabbed the shunter's pole from the back of the cab. "I'll go couple us on and make the cut from Gordon's side."

"Justin, I don't care how strong a swimmer you are-"

"I'm not gonna swim! I'm gonna run on top of the trucks."

"…This still seems…ill-advised."

"You got a better idea?"

"…No."

"Well, then, here I go," Justin said, already turning to climb down from Duck's cab. "We've already wasted a lot of time on this plan, we don't have a lot more to spend."

"Just be careful, please!" Robbie said, his tone more annoyed than concerned.

"Aren't I always?" Justin called as his feet crunched down on the ballast.

"I genuinely do not know how to answer that!"

As Duck's drive wheels were submerged in water, Justin hoisted himself up onto the tank engine's left-hand running board and carefully shimmied alongside the boiler until he stood face-to-face with Duck upon his buffer beam.

"Take care, please, Mr. Justin."

Justin tossed the shunter's pole atop the load in the first ballast truck. "I will." Then he grabbed the top of the truck's end and pulled himself up.

The rain-soaked ballast load was a surprisingly slippery surface on which to walk. Justin was glad to have the shunter's pole to steady himself with. He crossed the first truck and carefully jumped the gap to the second. His boots slipped on the wet rock, but he caught himself by abruptly ramming the pole into the ballast, and remained upright. He crossed to the next car, and then the next, and finally, he reached the gap between what had been the lead ballast truck and the brake van which had headed Gordon's train.

The couplings were situated between the buffers, which were well submerged beneath the waves as they sloshed past. Justin could not even see the heavy chains through the dark water, and even if he could, despite the extra reach of the shunter's pole, he would never be able to make the connection.

The brake van gave him an idea. From a kneeling position on very edge of the truck, Justin leaned forward and grasped the end of the brake van's roof, which hung out over the platform at each end. He tossed the shunter's pole down inside, then swung his legs forward over the bulkhead and splashed down in roughly six inches of water which covered the platform. The icy sea sloshed into his boots.

Before he even had a chance to curse loudly at the shock, a wave slammed into the brake van. The van shuttered hard enough to knock Justin off his feet, but he caught himself on the roof support before he could be thrown out the side. Another wave struck, and then another. Justin hauled himself back to his feet and carefully retrieved the shunter's pole, desperately clinging to the bulkhead to keep himself upright as the brake van rocked violently with each passing wave.

Now, leaning over the platform bulkhead of the brake van, he could just make out the coupler chains in the water below. He fished pole into the water and managed to snag the hooked end around the coupler chain. The heavy chain was very awkward to lift from directly overhead, and the periodic shuddering of the van and Justin's wet hands on the slick shunter's pole only made matters worse. But at last, he was able to drape the coupler chain onto the hook on the ballast truck.

But the job wasn't done yet. Justin passed through the brake van to the platform at the other end. He clambered over the bulkhead and stepped onto the flatbed, the deck of which was only barely above the water. Waves would periodically roll across it, but the steel girders it carried blocked their ferocity, giving Justin a safe pathway on the opposite side.

Clambering up the end of the first van was a challenge, and Justin nearly lost his footing twice, but at last he found himself safely on the roof. The vans were easy to cross; they were heavy, so the waves did not cause them to move much, and the curved wooden roofs were much easier terrain than trudging through ballast. He hopped the gaps as quickly as he dared.

When he reached the last van, Justin shook his head in disgust. "Ugh. What am I supposed to do with this?"

He had to uncouple the supply train from Gordon's ballast trucks. Unfortunately, this coupling was between a tall van and a ballast truck, and there was no where he could stand that would allow him to reach.

Justin hopped across one last gap to the ballast truck. Holding onto the top of the truck's end, he lowered himself down, catching his feet on the buffer beams of the two trucks, legs straddling the gap over the coupling. Still hanging onto the ballast truck with his left hand to brace himself as waves washed past his feet, Justin once again blindly fished the shunter's pole into the water. He could just make out the coupler chain between the frothy waves, slipped the crook of the pole beneath it, and heaved it off the hook on the van's buffer beam.

Justin tossed the shunter's pole up atop the ballast load and hauled himself up after it, thankful to be out of the freezing water. He waved the pole back and forth, signaling to Duck that the train was ready to pull back.

"Peep! Peep!" he heard Duck whistle in reply.

And then, realizing he was on the wrong side of the cut, Justin quickly jumped across the gap to the roof of the van ahead.

Robbie hauled the reverser full-over. "Ready, Duck?"

Through the sea spray and rain, Duck could barely even make out Justin standing astride the van in the middle of the flood, and knew that his fireman stood at the what was now the bottom end of the train. It was so much longer than he had imagined it would be. "Too be honest, Driver, I am actually feeling quite a bit worse about this."

"Oh, come now," Robbie said jokingly as he released the brakes and gently opened the regulator. "Where's that can-do Great Western spirit?"

"At the moment, it's underwater…" said Duck, but he said it to himself. He eased slowly backwards, taking up the slack in his front coupling and watching as the first ballast truck began to move. When he "picked up" the second truck, Robbie increased steam, and Duck responded with a will, pulling back as hard as he could.

And then his wheels began to slip. His side rods churned the sea to foam, unable to grip the rails. Robbie reduced steam to check the wheelslip, but then Duck lacked the power to pull. Robbie eased the regulator open, but Duck's drivers instantly lost traction once more.

The train was too heavy for the pannier tank to pull. They were stuck.