Two days after James's accident
"He's got a what?" Thomas asked Edward in the sheds that night.
"An A0 Thomas" Edward replied,"It's the prototype for the A1 express engine".
"How on earth did the Director get his hands on a prototype anyway?" asked Donald.
"Sir Gresley gave him to The Director for a trial run, from what i heard apperantly he was deemed to be not needed in his region as he was just a prototype" Edward replied.
"At least we'll have someone here to help us with all the passenger work" said Alyssa,"It'll be nice to have another express engine around".
The engines chatted for a little bit longer, until they all soon fell asleep, all except for Alyssa.She was excited, she had always wanted to meet an LNER express engine, she had heard how fast they were and she didn't really care about the rivalry between the big four, i mean at the end of the day they were all engines, weren't they?.
Sure enough, she eventually fell asleep.
The next morning, Alyssa woke up to a loud voice booming from outside the shed, i didn't sound like anyone she knew and she wanted to investigate.
Sure enough, her Driver and Firemen arrived and once they steamed her up, she headed outside.
The sight that lay before her was a suprise.
There sitting on the turntable, was a big 4-6-2 tender engine.He was painted in LNER apple green and he was spinning around on the turntable shouting and greeting people who were standing by the tracks admiring him and taking his photograph.
Alyssa looked to her left to see Donald in the berth two rows from her,"Morning Donald" she said with a yawn.
Donald smiled,"Morning".
"Is that the new engine?" Alyssa asked.
"Oh Gordon, yep that's him".
"Why is he just sitting on the turntable?" asked Alysaa.
"It's not everyday you see an engine as big as him around here" Donald replied,"I guess aload of people got up early to see him before he starts work, he's been doing this for the last 40 minutes, good thing Dougie and Edward got out of the sheds before he arrived".
"Im sure he'll be kind once we get to know him" Alyssa said positively.
Just then Thomas puffed into the yards to find some trucks for a train, Gordon noticed this and blew his whistle loudly to get Thomas's attention.
"You there, tank engine!" Gordon bellowed.
Thomas glared back at him,"There's no need to shout you know!" he called back to him.
Gordon ignored this,"Fetch my coaches will you, i musten be kept waiting".
"Fetch them yourself" Thomas replied cheekily,"You could use some excrise".
Thomas ran off laughing while Gordon scoffed indignately, Donald and Alyssa chuckled to themself.
Gordon turned to Alyssa,"You there!".
"Yes?".
"Fetch my express coaches, will you?" He barked rudely.
Donald was about to call the big engine out on his rudeness, but Alyssa spoke with a grin.
"Well, maybe if you get off the turntable i will?" she said confindently.
Donald laughed at this while Gordon trundled away with a huff.
Soon Gordon was waiting at the platform with the Express, Alyssa was waiting at the platform next to him with the local, she decided to try and get to know Gordon.
"So your from the LNER,huh?" Alyssa asked.
Gordon mumbled a yes.
"If i may ask,What's it like there?, i've always wanted to see what it's like-".
"Your an LMS engine, yes?" said Gordon, cutting her off.
"W-well formerly, why do you a-".
"I am the pride of the LNER Express services and i do not spend time chatting to engines owned by the rivals" Gordon said pompusly.
Alyssa was suprised,"But your a Sodor engine now, we're all work for the same company so is there really any need to continue having that rivalry".
Gordon didn't respond to this, he had work on the LNER for most of his life until he came here and almost all the engines there had a hatred for the LMS and to his luck, the majority of the engines here were from the LMS.
At that moment the guard's whistle blew and Gordon set off without another word, leaving a very confused Alyssa behind.
Gordon's first day left the engines with mixed results, on one hand, he did do his job well and pulled the Express to his best effot.But on the other hand, he was rude to the other engines, he didn't speak to Alyssa, he said Edward was too old, he said Thomas was too small and he would make fun of the scottish twins and their whistles, well he did make fun of their whistles.
"They sound like ships" Gordon laughed as he spoke to Thomas.
Thomas didn't reply, he liked the twins and didn't want to make fun of them.
Gordon continued to make fun of the twin's whistles, as he did, he didn't notice Donald and Douglas puffing up along side him.
"You wouldn'a be making fun of us, would ya?" said Douglas said coldly.
Gordon jumped,"N-no no, of c-course not" he spluttered.
"That's fine" Donald replied,"Now just mind yourself laddie and keep it that way".
That was the way Gordon kept it with the twins.
The other engines began to complain about him in the sheds that night while he was pulling the midnight express.
"He's says im too small!" Thomas peeped.
"He won't even talk to me" said Alyssa,"He says he doesn't chat with rivals".
"At least he does his job" said Douglas.
"Yes but that's thing Douglas, he only pulls the express" Thomas grumbled,"He just starts wailing and moaning whenever he hears the word trucks, he can't cherry pick his way through his work".
All the engines agreed that something had to be done, but none knew what.
"Well" said Thomas,"At least James will be back from works soon".
Alyssa stared at Thomas and then she laughed.
"What's up" asked Thomas.
"You've just given me an amazing idea" Alyssa laughed.
The next day Gordon had just gotten back from pulling the Express and was resting in a siding feeling very tired.
He yawned and sighed,"This is what i like, piece and quiet, no more old or rival engines needed, just me and-".
He was interupted by the sound of a whistle he hadn't heard before, he opened his eyes to see a red tender engine backing down next to him, he was smaller than him and had a number five on his side.
"Who may i dare ask, are you?" Gordon grumbled.
The engine stared back at him,"Im James and your Gordon, yes i've heard of you".
"Have you?" Gordon asked.
"Yes, the other engines say your a pompus prick" said James said bluntly.
Gordon spluttered angerly,"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT LITTLE JAMES!, I AM THE PRIDE OF THE-".
"LNER?, yeah i've heard, at least im not scared of trucks".
"Excuse me?!".
"You heard me, i hate goods trains myself, but at least i have the guts to pull them" James said snobbishly.
Gordon was cross, it was bad enough that a common goods engine was distrubing his rest, but to have an LMS engine of all engines mock him about being scared of something as simple as trucks, offended him to his frames.
James saw through this and saw his chance to put the other engines plan into action,"You know you can prove me wrong, that is if your up for a little challenge".
Gordon stared at James blankly before speaking again,"Go on".
"If you take my next goods train up to Crovan's Gate without crashing, breaking down or getting stuck, i'll shut your coaches for the next 2 weeks" James replied.
Gordon perked up at this but than stopped,"What if i fail?" he asked.
James grinned,"Than i get to pull your Express for the next 2 weeks".
Gordon thought long and hard before looking at James with a cocky grin and saying,"Alright then deal".
Soon the arrangements were made and Gordon was to take James's goods, he grumbled dreadfully as he banged and bumped them into a line.
"OW, OW, OW" The Trucks yelped.
"Shut up" Gordon snapped.
Soon he had all the trucks arranged and once the guard blew his whistle, he snorted off.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry" he chuffed.
"Don't go so fast, don't go so fast" the trucks groaned.
Soon Gordon was thundering along the mainline, trying to go fast, but his driver wouldn't let him.
"Slow down old boy, we aren't in a rush" said his Driver.
Gordon scoffed, and began continued to speed up.
Unfortunately, he had forgetten about saving his strength for the hill.
With the weight of train and the amount of energy Gordon had used rushing along the mainline, he struggled greatly as he began to climb the hill.
The trucks noticed this and began to yell,"HOLD BACK!, HOLD BACK!" they squeaked.
Gordon couldn't go any furthur, so with one last huff, he came to a stand still on the hill.
His driver scoled him serverally,"You silly engine, if you had just saved your strength and not rushed, we wouldn't be stuck here".
Gordon didn't reply, he just grumbled to himself as the Guard went back down the line for help.
Alyssa was in the yards filling up on water when the Yard Manager ran up towards her.
"What's matter Andy?" asked her Driver.
"Gordon's stuck on the hill, can you give him a push?" he asked.
The Driver agreed and soon Alyssa was off.
As she left she looked over at James, who was sitting on a siding across the yard.
He just grinned at her as she set off,"Looks like her plan did work" James chuckled.
Soon Alyssa arrived at the hill and buffered up behind Gordon's train, her Fireman went up to Gordon to tell his crew what to do, his driver was arguing with him.
"Your not trying" his Driver said crossly.
"I can't do it" said Gordon,"The noisey trucks hold an engine back so"
Alyssa's Fireman came up to Gordon,"We've come to push".
"No good at all" Gordon said pompusly.
"You wait and see" replied Alyssa's driver.
They brought the train to the bottom of the hill and Edward began to push.
"I can't do it, i can't do it" Gordon huffed.
"I will do it, i will do it" Alyssa puffed.
Finally after a long and hard effot, The train made it up the hill, Alyssa began to ease off as Gordon began to coast down the hill, without even whistling a thank you.
Alyssa, tired and worn out, stopped at the station at the bottom of the hill, her Firemen gave her a nice long drink of water from the water tower, she felt sad that Gordon still wouldn't talk to her.
Her Driver noticed his engine's downcast expression and spoke to her kindly,"I'll get out my paint tomorrow and give a fresh coat of blue paint with red stripes" he smiled,"And than you'll be the smartest looking engine in the shed".
Alyssa just smiled and once her tender was full, she rested for a bit until she set off for home.
It was dark when she got back to the sheds, Gordon was sitting in his shed, looking down at his buffers in shame.
He was given out to by The Fat Director due to being late with his goods and for his behaviour towards the other engines, he was told to improve his attitude or else he would be sent back to Sir Gresley.
"Still the pride of the LNER, huh Gordon?" said a voice.
Gordon said nothing as the other engines chuckled and went to sleep.
