Hello there, My name is Gaige, I am a Non-faceless female 2-8-2 Heavy Mikado class locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive works in 1923 based on the USRA design. Originally I was built for the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad. However, for a couple of reasons, I never actually ran for the railroad that I was built for. Reason number one is that the CB&Q overestimated their need for locomotives, and I was Deemed redundant before I was even finished. Secondly the much darker of the reasons I turned out to be a Non-faceless Locomotive. I will explain more about that in a bit.

My time on the island of Empresa began shortly after my First firing at the Baldwin locomotive works. Luckily for me, the head of the Baldwin works had someone who was looking for another locomotive at the moment of my first firing. Mr. Alexander Shepard the second, the owner of the (At the time) Balderston and Fitzgerald railway located on the Island of Empresa. he bought me because the trains had been getting too heavy for his other locomotives. The line ran from the port of Balderston to the town of Fitzgerald at the base of the Angus mountains. There were six of us on the railway, once I arrived at my new home. There was Kidd our switcher who organized the trains about the Balderston Harbor, our Number 1 was built by HK Porter and to barrow another more famous description, He has six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and three short stumpy domes! Our Number 2 is named Stubbs, he is a 4-6-0 from the Rogers locomotive works, he helps around the shops and takes the maintenance of way trains. Abigail a 4-4-0 American class built for the railway by its original chief engineer, and named after his beloved wife, who sadly passed away shortly before our Number 3 had been completed. Nowadays Abi only pulls special passenger trains and light commuter trains. then there was Number 4 Sierra, He came from a railway in Arizona. he was also a Rogers-built 4-6-0 and usually took the lighter trains. next was our number 5, a 2-8-0 Consolidation class his name was Holliday, and...to be honest, he does not like to talk about his past much. so I don't know that much about him other than he says he shares his name with the legendary wild west figure John Henry "Doc" Holliday. I am sorry to say, this made him Very VERY puffed up in the smokebox. However, on the flip side of that coin, he was doggedly loyal, always volunteering to help any of his Stablemates. Should someone get on his bad side, he was quick to give them a good tongue-lashing. This, of course, got him into trouble at times, however, he means well and I could not ask for a better friend! Along with myself, we did what we could to run our little line, While around us on the Island, three Class 1 Railways took all the large profitable jobs any non-faceless Locomotives envied us through for we were safe and had a happy home!

You might have noticed earlier, I stated that partially because I was a Non-faceless vehicle, I never went to the railway that had ordered my construction. Well unfortunately The United States treated its Non-Faceless vehicles very, VERY different from the United Kingdom. However, that also depended on where the owner of the railway came from. We non Faceless vehicles don't have any rights because we are, "Objects" or "Property" Or even worse, "Freaks of Nature"! those who are nice to us, are powerless to help us. They end up also being treated just as badly. There is one place our kind can go if they are lucky, getting here was the hard part. The Island of Empresa is Located off the coast of Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico. Luckily the owner of our railway, Alexander Shepard, and his family, as well as the President of the Island Colin Balderston, and his family were much more fair and kind to us!

My Story begins in 1933, I had only been on the Island for ten years at this point. though, I was quite familiar with the whole island by that point. one of the main events of the time in the US was Prohibition. the United States government through a Constitutional Amendment, outlawing the production, importation, transportation, sale, and in some places consumption of Alcohol! The Island of Empresa was considered a sovereign nation unto its own. However, it relied heavily on the Protection and trade of the United States, so The Balderston family did their best to find a balance of keeping things as they have been for the people of Empresa, while at the same time making a good show of "Looking up to the United States as an Example". To this end, we had our own Prohibition of sorts though it was generally understood that this was only symbolic. Even still the Islands police force was hard-pressed to locate and stop moonshiners who would produce alcohol and smuggle it however they could to the mainland. Which made the US government was not happy with us at all! Sometimes these smuggling attempts included us! which of course landed us in trouble as well. so we were constantly keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

I was bringing an ore train from Fitzgerald one bright and beautiful day when I was approaching a Crossing, I was already blowing my Whistle to signal I was coming through when suddenly a black Dodge four-door cut me off! I slammed on my brakes luckily for me the ore cars of my train all being non-faceless as well followed suit. It was just enough to stop me from running him over! "Watch out, you're supposed to stop you Mook!" I yelled at the car. which was also non-faceless. "Go Rust, you Ditzy Dame!" he shouted back as he raced up into the mountains. I tried to start my train again, however, the cars of my train soon informed me their brakes were stuck. and they could not release them so my crew had to go back and fix the issue. Unfortunately, where we were stuck was a section of line that was single track and thus I was blocking the line! Poor Holliday was behind me with a passenger train! and was thus also delayed it took half an hour to get the breaks released once they were, I tore down the line to get back on track.

Mr. Shepard was waiting of course when I got to the docks and started shoving the ore cars up onto the transfer dock to unload into the waiting cargo ship.

"Gaige, why are you half an hour late?" He asked coming up to me he was stern especially when it came to our timetables, but that did not mean he was unreasonable.

"I got cut off by a non-faceless road vehicle, we stopped in time to avoid the accident, however, the Breaks locked up on these rascals! my crew had to try and get them released enough so we could get moving again!" I replied.

"Are you kidding me? Rotten moonshiners!" he growled having a guess at the purpose of the strange vehicle. "I want you to take this group once they are unloaded to the Bad order track. Then head to the shops and tell them they are to go through these cars with a fine-toothed comb! and get them back into top shape. we need all the rolling stock to be fully operational and can't afford to have issues like today! After that get a drink and coal up and wait for new orders." he said.

For those of us on the Balderston and Fitzgerald, we only had one small line linking the port city of Balderston to the mountain town of Fitzgerald. However, there was a mainline that ran north along the eastern side of the Island, starting in Balderston and ending in Pine! Where trains were transferred to massive Railway Farries that then delivered them to the Port town of Corpus Christi Texas! The mainline, of course, was shared by the Big three Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and The Southern Pacific. though we referred to them as the Fe(fae), UP, and SP they, in turn, called us the Baldi's! Only two had branch lines on the Island the Santa Fe managed the De Pineda Fishing Village line, while the Union Pacific managed the Oakheart line! which branched off our own mainline. furthermore, there was a private rail line that ran from Balderston to Mctavish castle on the Southwestern corner of the island. McTavish castle belongs to the Balderston Family, it was designed and built by a friend of the Balderston Family Douglass McTavish. The private rail line also belonged to the Bladerstons, and they had their own locomotive for that line, her name was Sharlot! An 0-4-0 Saddle tank engine built for tram duties. Sharlot was bought by the Balderston family and saved from scrapping. Her line, however, was recently upgraded so that bigger locomotives such as myself can travel down it if necessary! though usually, we try to let her have that line all to herself and give her as much to do as we can because She gets so little work.

Anyway, after the ore cars were unloaded I took them to the bad order track. Then I went to the shops, which were located near our roundhouse. the thing was our shops were small, I was the biggest thing they had to work on to date, and they were only barely able to really do proper maintenance on myself! luckily though, I had not needed any major repairs as of yet. it was there I ran into Abigail or Abi for short. She was the non-faceless locomotive that was built here on Empresa right in the shops by the Chief Mechanical engineer of the time. and named after his wife however, his wife passed away shortly before Abigail was completed. "Hello Gaige, dear how was the ore run?" she asked kindly. She was always such a kind caring locomotive almost a mother to the rest of us in a way.

"It was fine until I got cut off by one of those bootleggers! the breaks locked up on the cars held poor Holliday up." I replied pulling up first to the coal tipple to refill my tender. At that moment Holliday came rolling up after dropping off his passengers. "Gaige next tahm would yawl be so kind as to have an argument with a Moonshiner AFTER you get to the double track section!" he growled as he rolled up to the Water tower behind me.

"Oh don't let it bother you, deary, I am just glad you and that car did not actually damage each other!" Abi replied before giving Holliday a withering glare "You should be Kinder Holliday!" she snapped

"Oh and as for yawl Abi darling' I stand by what I said earlier, it would probably be for the best especially if yawl can't even pull off a simple Commuter train!" he added returning her glare, earlier on he had to rescue her because she had broken down and could not pull her commuter run.

"Holliday!" I snapped, "What has you in such a Foul mood?" Abi did not run as much as she used to, having gone into a semi-retirement she had her special Wild West days train, she used coaches that were what her kind originally pulled back in the 1850s. And thus were easier on her. otherwise, she would spend her days snoozing in the shed, sometimes she would help out with the light commuter trains. though the newer cars were hard on her being so much heavier. "Maybe it's just that I grow tired of rescuing darlin Abigail, and I worry about her health if she keeps breaking down maybe even the Wild West trains are too much for the poor dear." he replied quite sharply, "Not to mention you and that motor vehicle having that there argument made me late as well!"

"What Argument I called him a mook he told me to go rust that was it What held me up was the fact the Breaks on the ore cars locked up you idiot!" I retorted clearly getting a little irritated he ignored me and went back to worrying about refueling. Turning back to Abigail I added, "Are you doing better by the way?"

"Oh, I am fine! Right now this is nothing more than routine maintenance honey! as I get older I need more of it! they are just making sure, I am still good to go for my Wild West days special this weekend! And don't pay him any mind Gaige, he is probably just mad he had to come to rescue me earlier." she replied leaving Holliday to roll his eyes in irritation.

"Ya should just go inta Retirement fully darlin, pulling trains is for the young not the ancient." Holliday butted in again. But before either I or Abi could reply to his snark, our current Chief Mechanical Engineer Mr. Bones walked up looking at a Clipboard. "Ok Abi your good to go, you can head back to the sheds. I already talked to Mr. Shepard and he has taken you off the rest of your trains today, I want you to take it easy!"

"Yes sir," she said as her crew started moving her through the Shop tracks and back towards the shed, that was when Mr. Bones turned to me. "Gaige, once you finish your topping up Mr. Shepard, says he needs you to make a run up the mainline to Pine. it's a passenger train, The Santa Fe Locomotive has derailed and we are being asked to handle it for them! "Right away sir!" I said pulling forward and waiting for Abi to finish with the Turntable so I could turn around. "Holliday Please go help Kidd in the Yard until your scheduled to take that supply train to Fitzgerald, as soon as you finish your servicing." he said that of course irritated Holliday even more, who began to mutter under his breath. "Now don't you start with that, you know things go wrong when you begin to grumble!" Mr. Bones snapped pointing a finger right at Holliday's face which shut the Consolidation right up.

Meanwhile, in the port our Shunter Kidd was organizing the Passenger train I was to take. he was a professional while on duty, but that did not mean you could let your guard down because he was a pranking master. standing nearby snoozing was Stubbs, Kidd after finishing getting the last of the coaches spotted, came up quietly and let off his Whistle. "WHA WHA WHAT!" Stubbs shouted, "grraaahhhh! Kidd! You Little nuisance!" the ten-wheeler growled.

"Wake up sleepy head all you ever do is sleep!" the switcher chuckled.

"Some of us actually do hard work every now and then!" the Maintenance engine retorted as Holliday and I came into the Yard. "Hey, Kidd is that Passenger train ready yet?" I asked kindly. "Yeah, it's over at the Depot, Track 1…You should have heard that Fe Bruno!" he said looking over at the Santa Fe Steam locomotive sitting over a switch most of his wheels on the ground looking very annoyed. he was a 4-8-4 northern number 3754 "He was going on and on about how he was a proper engine and that all of us should be glad to be in his presence right before he neglected a switch set against him and knocked himself off the tracks!" he continued, I just chuckled and headed for the platform. "Kidd let's get back to work." Holliday grumbled moving towards the piers.

"What's got you in a twist Daddyo?" Kidd asked, but only got a face full of Holliday's steam as an Answer "what in the name of Angus's Saggy Undergarments was that for!?" Kidd Spluttered and coughed before moving to join the Consolidation readying the next Freight train.

Meanwhile back at the sheds, there was trouble Abi's crew had just parked her in her bay. and was about to drop her fire, when suddenly three men ran up and jumped into her cab with them. they pulled guns and aimed them at her crew. "What is this!?" her driver shouted,

"This is how it's going to go see, You are going to take this locomotive to the town of Willows Rest, there you're going to find a line of Box Cars see, then you're going to take that line of cars to the ferries! if you don't, or you give any trouble, You'll be sleeping with the fishes and your locomotive is going to have a tummyache See!" the leader ordered holding up a bundle of Dynamite! the crew had no choice, and began to move out Abi was, of course, scared out of her mind. she was being stolen by gangsters!