This will be the last episode for the year, im proud of this series so far and can't wait to write more episodes, as for my other series Sodor TUGS and Rails of Sodor, i know i said i would continue writing them at the end of this month, but i've lost motivation and interest for writing for both series, don't worry though, im not ending either series, i will come back to them, i don't know when but until i decided to continue them, both will be on hiatus, that aside, i hope you enjoy episode 6, see yous all next year! (:
It had been about a week since Gordon had gotten stuck on the hill or as everyone was calling it now, Gordon's Hill and alot had changed.
Gordon had been watching his attitude as of recent as he didn't want to get sent away, he did like Sodor and wanted to stay so he tried to be nice to other in hopes that the Director would buy him.While Alyssa and Edward had forgiven him, and Thomas and the twins were on mostly good terms with him, there was one engine who Gordon refused to get along with.
And that engine was James.
Gordon was still cross at the way James had tricked him into taking his goods, he would get even more cross whenever he saw James pulling his Express, seeing as he had lost the bet between them.
James in turn would tease Gordon at any chance he got, whenever he would pass by him, he would call out and say,"Mind you don't get stuck on your hill today Gordon".
As a result of this, James became rather pompus and he and Gordon formed a rivalry.
The other engines tried to get the two to get along but they got nowhere.
"What should we do?" asked Douglas,"We've tried everything".
"Maybe this could all blow over after a while" said Thomas.
"I don't think that's very likely to happen Thomas" Alyssa replied.
"Well what should we do then?" Thomas asked.
No one replied, they didn't know, But unbeknowst to the other engines, they wouldn't have to do anything.
The next day
James was enjoying his day, he had been pulling his trains to time and The Fat Director was congratulating him.
"Your a special mixed-traffic engine James" said The Fat Director,"You can pull both coaches and trucks quite easily, but your must be careful and learn from your mistakes".
James knew what The Fat Director ment, but he was feeling so full of himself, he had forgotten all about it and boasted to the other.
This would bite him back.
Any working railway always has coaches in different shapes and sizes, the oldest coaches on the mainline at the time were the Orange Coaches, they were kind coaches but they didn't take kind to being bumped.
James had unfortunately forgetten this one morning, Thomas was ill, so James had to shunt his coaches together for his stopping service, he was in a foul mood due to having to shunt.
"Shunting" James grumbled as he banged about the yards,"Do i look like a tank engine".
He bumped the orange coaches hard as he arranged them into a line.
"Don't be so ruff!, Don't be so ruff!" They yelped as James bumped into them.
James ignored them.
Soon he had 5 orange coaches at the platform, the Passengers could see that James was in a bad mood and didn't come near him.
James was cross at this, he looked over at the other platform to see Gordon talking to his passengers like good friends, this made James jealous.
"I'll show them that i can be as good as him, i don't need no Apple Green livery or some fancy LNER logo" James huffed as he pulled out of the station.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" he chuffed as he puffed along the line.
"Your going to fast!,Your going to fast!" the coaches wailed.
James laughed at this and began to go faster, the coaches were beginning to get fed up with James, so when they reached a long stretch of line, they called out and said,"We're going to stop,we're going to stop" they said sternly and sure enough they did.
With a sudden jolt, the train came to a stop.
The Driver got out and looked at the first coach,"The brakes are hard on, must have been a leak in the brakepipe".
"James banged the coaches enough to cause a leak in anything" said the Fireman.
Soon the Guard came up and was told about the situation,"How shall we mend it?" Said the Guard.
"With some newspaper and a leather bootlace of course" said The Driver.
"Well, where's the bootlace coming from?" asked the Guard.
"Ask the Passengers" replied the Driver.
James went red as his paintwork at the sound of that idea.
While the Fireman went to grab his newspaper from James's cab, The Guard went along the train asking the passengers for a bootlace.
"You have a leather bootlace i see Sir" said the Guard to a smartly dressed man,"Please give it to me".
"I won't" said the man.
"Well then" said the Guard,"I guess this means the train will go nowhere".
The passengers were very cross and began to say what a bad railway it was, then they told the man how bad he was instead.
At least the man handed over his bootlace, The driver wrapped the newspaper around the leak and tied it in place with the bootlace and James began to pull the train, he hoped the other engines wouldn't find out about this.
Unfortunately they did and when James returned to the sheds that night, the other engines talked of nothing but bootlaces, espically Gordon.
The Fat Director also found out and spoke to James the next day as the engines left for work.
"James, i know that deep down you must be sorry" he said Sternly.
"Yes Sir, i truely am Sir" said James sheepishly.
"Im glad to know you are, but you must understand the predicament you have put me in, people are laughing at my railway and i don't like that at all" said The Fat Director.
"Yes Sir" said James.
"It is clear you still have a lot to learn about coaches, you will be shunting in the yards with Thomas for the rest of the week until i can trust you again, is that clear?" said The Fat Director.
"Yes Sir" said James.
James went to the yards and met up with Thomas, the little blue engine saw the sad expression and his face and tried to cheer him up,"Don't be sad James, im sure the Director won't be mad at you forever".
James said nothing.
"Come on, why don't you helo me with these trucks" said Thomas.
The two engines soon got to work, While James hated trucks, he found shunting in the yards to be quite peaceful, thus he enjoyed his time and soon learned how to handle the coaches and treat them right.
The Coaches in return soon warmed up to him and repayed his kindness tenfold.
As the days went on James worked extra hard and everything ran like clockwork, The Fat Director began to think well of him again and so did the other engines.
All except Gordon, he still hadn't gotten over the trick James had helped play on him and when ever a chance came he would talk of nothing but bootlaces.
"Remember the time one had to be used to get you out of trouble James?" he would tease.
James tried to get his own back by talking about Engines who got stuck on hills, bit he wouldn't listen.
"You talk to much little James" said Gordon grandly in the sheds that night,"A fine strong engine like me has something to talk about, im the only engine who can pull the Express and when im not there they need two engines, think of that, i've pulled Expresses for years and jave never once lost my way, i seem to know the right line by instict".
Every wise engine knows of course that the Signalmen set the points to make engines run on the right line but Gordon was so proud of himself he had forgotten.
"Wake up little James!" he called out to him the next morning, startling the red engine,"What are you doing today?".
"Odd jobs" James mumbled.
"Ah well we all have to begin somewhere don't we, run along now and fetch my coaches, don't be late!" said Gordon in a teasing tone as James puffed away to arrange Gordon's coaches.
They were all looking lovely with shiny new paint, he was careful not to bump them as they followed him smoothly into the station,"We're going, we're away!" they sung together.
"I wish i was going with you" James beamed,"I would love to be pulling the Express and go flying along the line".
James shunted the coaches into the platform and went onto another line as Gordon backed onto his train, all sorts of important people boarded the coaches wearing lovely suits and dresses.
As all the passengers boarded the coaches, the guard blew his whistle and Gordon started.
"Look at me now, look at me now" Gordon said grandly as he puffed away,"Poop, poop!, goodbye little James, see you tomorrow!".
James hated being called little but decided not to let Gordon's teasing get to him and he went back to help Thomas with shunting.
About an hour later, James was shunting coaches into the station for Douglas's local service.
"Your early laddie" Douglas smiled as he backed down onto his train and James puffed off onto the line,"Maybe you should become the new pliot, your giving young Thomas a run for his money!" he chuckled.
"HEY!" Thomas butted in,"I'll have you know Douglas, these yards would be in chaos without me, although it would be nice to run on the mainline, i get tired of pushing coaches i want-".
"To see the world!" James and Douglas laughed, they had heard this talk before, the three engines chuckled but were stopped in their tracks by the sound of a strange wheezing noise.
"What on earth is that noise?" James asked.
Douglas was about to respond until Thomas spoke up,"That isn't Gordon is it?"
All three engines looked behind them and saw Gordon blushing red with embrassment, trying creaping into the station without being noticed.
"Hello Gordon, is it tomorrow?" James asked innocently.
Gordon didn't say anything, he just let off steam feebaly.
"Did you lose your way Gordon?" Thomas asked cheekly, catching onto to James's teasing.
"No it was lost for me, i was switched off the mainline and onto to loop, i had to go all round and back again" Gordon grumbled.
"Perhaps it was instict" said James as Douglas and Thomas laughed at this, remembering Gordon's words from the night before.
As this was happening all the Passengers got out of Gordon's coaches and hurried to the booking office,"WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK!" they shouted.
The Fat Director stopped the noise quickly by hopping on top of a luggage trolly and blew the guard's whistle, so louded they all stopped to look at him, he then promised them a new train at once.
He turned on his heel and walked over to James,"Gordon can't pull the train, can you do it for us James?" he asked.
"Yes sir i'll try sir!" James beamed.
Gordon was taken off the train and James quickly backed down onto the coaches.
"Do your best James!" The Fat Director called out.
The Guard's whistle blew and James set off, Douglas and Thomas wished him luck as he went and the coaches sang his praises as he puffed out of the station.
James enjoyed his run, stations and people flew by and the passengers cheered.
He reached his final stop as he came to a halt at Vicarstown, the passengers got out of the coaches and thanked James and his crew as they walked away.
After they had all left, The Fat Director strode up towards James,"Well done James" he smiled,"Im very please with run today as well as your work in the yards, as a result, you deserve to go back onto the mainline".
James beamed with joy,"Oh thank you sir!, i won't let you down Sir!".
"I know you won't, now would you like to pull the Express some time again?" asked The Fat Director.
"Oh yes please sir!" James whistled with excitment.
A few hours later James arrived back at Knapford and was greeted with a surpise.
The yard was looking very neat and tidy, all the trucks and coaches were in their proper sidings and the trains for the next few hours were all arranged.
"Whoa" said James,"Seems like Thomas has been busy".
"Ach aye he was" said Donald pulling up alongside James,"But he did get some help".
James looked over and saw another surpise, there was Gordon sitting in a siding with workmen all around him painting him in the same blue livery as Thomas and Alyssa and the painters also painted a large number 7 on his tender.
James puffed over towards the big blue engine and smirked.
"I thought you didn't like shunting" said James.
Gordon chuckled,"I like some quiet work for a change, The Fat Director heard of my work in the yard and decided to make me a permant member here, he also asked me to choose a colour".
"And you chose blue?" said James.
"Yes indeed, i always like the colour" Gordon replied.
There was a short silence for a moment before Gordon spoke.
"Listen, im sorry about teasing you over your bootlace incident" said Gordon.
"Im sorry too for playing that trick on you" James replied,"Can we be friends?".
Gordon smiled with joy,"Of course".
And from that day on Gordon and James became good friends, Although they could tease and argue with each other and others at the end of the day they are still friends.
Their new friendship isn't the only thing new, James sometimes takes the Express for Gordon if he needs a rest, Gordon often helps James out with his work if need be and both engines are quite agreed on the subject of trucks.
