Okay, so this chapter is gonna be a bit of a "patchwork" adaptation of several different stories/episodes (five, specifically). Though, there will first be a prelude here to the eventual entrance of another character onto the island from 'across the pond'...the Atlantic 'pond', that is. And I will say that such a prelude is also rather dark. The chapter itself may also be rather long.

Thomas And The Trucks

Based on "Thomas and the Trucks", "Thomas' Train", and "Thomas and the Breakdown Train" by Wilbert Vere Awdry, and "Trust Thomas" by Andrew Brenner, with additional featuring of the real-life events of the 1925 Tri-State Tornado.

March 18, 1925

It had been nearly two years since that horrible incident on the River Ab Viaduct. The aforementioned viaduct had been fully rebuilt in its new form nearly a year ago by this point, and the NWR's newest engines, both 'cousins' and from what was now the LMS, had made themselves at home on the railway. Roy Hughes, #11114, was a year-old L&YR 4-6-4T "Dreadnought" Tank Engine adorned in an LMS Crimson Lake livery, while James Hughes, #5, was a 13-year-old L&YR Class 29 2-6-0 Mixed Traffic Engine adorned in a L&YR Goods Black-And-Red Livery. Roy aided Thomas in the shunting and also occasionally pulled goods trains, while James also aided in the goods work...and the occasional passenger train. Roy was an even-tempered, well-grounded sort who focused on his work and rarely complained unless it was a safety complaint, while James was an insecure, self-conscious, short-tempered sort who wasn't fond of freight trains and wished he could pull passenger trains more often.

Things were mostly quiet on the NWR now, the whole matter of the viaduct disaster being but a memory. However, the same couldn't be said for a place 4000 miles away, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Jackson County, Southern Illinois, United States of America

Katherine Jones knew the weather was going to be bad...but she never anticipated it would be anything like this.

An Illinois Central Railroad Rogers 4-6-0, presently numbered #5012, but previously numbered #382 (her first, original number), then #212 and #2012, Katherine was an older engine, nearly 30 years old, who had been through quite a lot even for an engine her age. Built in 1898, one of her first drivers was a man by the name of John Luther Jones, commonly referred to as "Casey" Jones. A young Katherine dearly loved having Casey as her engineer, as while he could be somewhat reckless at times, he was otherwise nothing but kind to her and, already a married father of three, treated her like she was another daughter of his, having even been the one to give her the name that she had, and even lending her his last name so that she could have one.

Sadly, their time together as engine and engineer was cut short, as in the early morning hours of April 30, 1900, while they were trying to be on time and make up a 75-minute delay, they became involved in a rear-end collision with a waiting train. Casey, having seen the danger at the last minute as they were approaching at high speed, had told the fireman to jump and managed to brake Katherine hard enough for the collision to instead happen at a lower speed, and as a result, everyone survived...except for Casey, who was slain by flying debris, having saved many other lives at the cost of his own.

Ever since then, the happy times were thoroughly at an end, and Katherine was involved in incident after incident. None were her fault, being more attributed to either bad luck, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or whatever crew she had being incompetent, but one of them had resulted in a dead fireman and a permanently-crippled engineer, as well as her needing a rebuild, and then another resulted in four railroad workers being killed and several others being injured. Thanks to instances like these, she'd picked up a reputation for being 'cursed', leading to her being referred to as "Casey's Cursed Engine".

As would be expected, she was not fond of her acquired reputation, badly wanting to instead show that she was a hard-working engine just like any of the other ones on the ICRR. Other than these incidents, she was a relatively orderly sort who wanted whatever crew she had to keep time, and she also didn't want that crew acting recklessly with her. With time, those who worked as her cab crew and could get past the involuntarily-gained reputation would usually come to regard her well, thankfully, but even then, the comments and rumors hadn't truly stopped since that fateful night nearly 25 years ago.

Today had been a warm, balmy day so far. While Katherine had definitely felt hotter early-spring days, today was still unusually warm and muggy, beyond anything she'd felt before at this time of year. And she heard that there was going to be a storm coming through. Storms that were preceded by warm and balmy days like this were often the worst, as she'd learned by experience, so Katherine was worried that it would be bad.

But even then, she wasn't at all mentally prepared for what would happen today.

She had just departed the decently-sized town of Carbondale, heading north towards, pulling a stopping passenger train. As she was running along, she couldn't help but feel that there was something...funny about this storm, and not the 'ha-ha' kind of funny. For some reason, despite the storm clouds looking utterly nasty, and thunder booming and lightning flashing, the rain had let up, and the winds didn't feel as strong as they previously had been. That wasn't normal. That wasn't normal at all.

Something was wrong, and Katherine didn't know what, but she didn't like it at all.

Then, she started hearing something that one wouldn't usually hear, even from a storm like this. It started off sounding like the rumble of thunder, but thunder usually let up after a few seconds...and this 'thunder' wasn't letting up. Then, for some reason, as Katherine got closer to De Soto, the rumble got louder, and louder, and louder, until it eventually became a roar.

And then, once she reached a brief clearing in the trees surrounding the rails, she saw what initially appeared to be a rain shaft up ahead that seemed to be moving over De Soto...albeit one with flying trees...

...flying trees. And what seemed to be other things flying in and around it as well. And the 'rain shaft' seemed to be moving absurdly quickly and also seemed to be spinning. And the wind was not only picking up again, but blowing left-to-right and getting stronger and stronger the closer she got to it. This made her realize something horrifying. She'd previously had a close call with one of these monsters from the skies, so she knew exactly what it was.

"Dave! Stop! It's a tornado up ahead!"

"Tornado?" Her engineer (the "Dave" in question) and fireman were initially confused as to why she was saying such...until they looked up ahead as well and saw what she saw. "Oh my god, it is a tornado!"

Right after she heard that, she felt her brakes come on. Given that she'd been moving at a fair speed, and had a full train behind her, it took her a while to stop, and she realized that while she was slowing down, she was still skidding closer and closer to the monster just up ahead. At this point, she was close enough to be into the next clearing that led to the town, and close enough to see the monster in all of its hideous 'glory'.

It was practically right in front of her, perhaps only a quarter of a mile away, and it was huge. Colored somewhere between brown and dark grey, perhaps a mile wide, and moving and spinning rapidly for something that large, and the roar was becoming near-deafening and still getting louder. She could clearly see the veritable cloud of mostly-brownish debris swirling in and around it, as well as various dark tendrils dancing about as well; it must have hit a town or several before it came here, given the amount of that debris, and given that the monster was coming from the west/southwest, Katherine could only assume that Murphysboro, a fairly large town to the west-southwest of De Soto, had been the most recent victim to this thing. And now De Soto was next.

Katherine and her crew couldn't do much but watch as the town of De Soto was all but completely destroyed before their eyes by this roaring monster of a swirling tempest. If this thing fed off of death and destruction, it was starvingly hungry for it, which it made apparent as it mercilessly obliterated building after building after building. Be it a home, a business, or a public institution, nearly every single structure in town was ripped apart as if made of mere paper. Some buildings lasted long enough to be put through a brutal method of violent disassembly; first the roof was torn off, then the walls were flattened, and then anything and everything had been under that roof and within those walls, as well as the remains of what was the structure, was blown out and utterly away. Other, smaller/weaker buildings were simply swept to oblivion and then disintegrated midair, often seemingly being turned into what was more or less blowing dust. Only the very sturdiest of buildings managed to avoid complete destruction...though they nonetheless were heavily damaged to the point where they likely wouldn't be considered 'habitable'.

As the thing ripped and tore its way through town like an emaciated lion out for blood, Katherine felt herself being buffeted by wind and pelted by an increasing amount of debris, which rained down and at her from above and from her left side. This terrified her, as she feared that the tornado would turning in her direction, and that if it did, she would be done for. However, while the tornado got very, very, VERY close...it ultimately missed her, albeit not by much.

But it came at the cost of De Soto's destruction.

As became apparent when the tornado finally left, the town now looked like a bombed out no-mans-land warzone from Europe. Barring a few exceptions, the whole town was basically completely destroyed. Katherine had never seen such destruction in her life. There was a long period of silence, where the sounds of Katherine's inner workings were the only things she could hear. Then came the wailing. The wailing of those who were in great pain and/or dying from their injuries, and that of those who had lost everything they had, family members included.

As this wailing began, Katherine looked down around her to see what had been raining down and pelting her from the side. It was then that she saw things that were...not supposed to rain from the skies. Pieces of wood and rock and rubble. A broken picture frame with the photo within having been torn out. A furniture leg, either from a chair, a table, or a sofa. A piece of porcelain, probably from some household decoration or dinner plate, that was now in countless little bits scattered all around. A piece of a rooster-shaped weathervane. And...most distressingly...

...a little hand-made doll. It probably belonged to some little girl who was likely now dead.

The sight of that doll only ensured that this day's events would be burned into her mind for what would likely be forever. Now, it was clear what event had topped Casey's death for the inglorious title of 'worst day of her life'. As horrible as losing Casey was, in that incident, thanks to his willingness to sacrifice his life for those of others, Casey was the only death. But here, given how destroyed this town was, as well as, in all likelihood, other towns? Katherine feared that there would be many deaths from this day at the windy claws of this horrific monster from the skies.

Oh how right she was to fear.

Vicarstown, Sodor

"I'm tired of doing nothing but pushing coaches! I want to see the world again!"

Much to the consternation of the other engines, Thomas was effectively going stir-mad. He'd been a lot more orderly and less impudent from the shock of the now-infamous Ab River Disaster, but that had been almost two years ago now, and such shock had worn off, and he was back to his cheekier, naughtier self, as the other engines found out the hard way. Edward, Emily, Allison, and Hailey were away running branchlines on the western side of the island, so that left Thomas with the bigger engines. Kirk and Roy ignored him, but Gordon, Henry, and James couldn't quite do that, especially since Thomas had taken to playing tricks on them during the day, like sneaking up on one of them while they were napping and then whistling loudly to wake them up and then running off before they knew what had happened.

"Give it up, you're a tank engine!" Gordon remarked. "You're just a shunter for our trains and you know it! I doubt you could even pull one well that wasn't the breakdown train!"

"I pulled Henry's train last week, don't you remember?" Thomas countered. "They said I pulled it just fine!"

"You only got to pull it in the first place because I was ill that day!" Henry sniffed. He'd always had something of a bone to pick with Thomas because of the latter's attitude and penchant for playing pranks on him, so it was no wonder he'd grown closer to Gordon as a result. "It was just a fluke! You're otherwise only pulling trains in emergencies and you know it!"

Thomas and the two big engines went on arguing for a while until, thanks to exhaustion, the latter two gradually settled down for the night. Thomas was still up, though.

"What do they think?!" Thomas grumbled. "I can pull trains just fine! So what if I'm a tank engine?"

Hearing Thomas' fussing gave James an idea. While was a mixed-traffic engine, which meant that he was capable of pulling either freight trains or passenger trains, he, again, didn't like pulling freight trains, as he felt it was dirty, thankless work. So he saw an opportunity to get out of such work. "Hey, Thomas, I have a freight train that I have to take to Wellsworth tomorrow. I don't really like pulling freight trains, so...uh...mind if you do it for me?"

"Really? You mean I can pull a train again?" Thomas was excited to hear this. "Of course I'll do it!"

"Thanks!" James actually didn't really like Thomas. He found the blue tank engine to be annoying, in reality. Thomas didn't realize that the larger engine was just using him to get out of doing work he didn't like.

The next morning, Thomas' and James' crews reluctantly made arrangements for their engines' plan (which was really James' plan; Thomas was just a pawn). So Thomas set off to find the freight train, while James waited back at the sheds. Realizing that someone would have to do Thomas' usual work until Thomas came back, James decided to ask his driver what it was.

"So, uh...what's Thomas' usual work?"

"He's usually a station pilot for the passenger trains." His driver replied. "Or don't tell me you just wanted to get out of doing work."

This made James nervous "Huh? No! No no no no no, shunting coaches is just fine! I'll take it over shunting trucks any day!"

So James scuttled off to find the coaches. He hoped that he wouldn't get caught, though he was worried that it would happen anyways.

Roy, who had just finished putting together James' train and was going back to line up another one, and was understandably confused to see Thomas running up alongside the train instead.

"Thomas, what are you doing?" Roy asked, not sure what was going on at first. "That's James' train!"

"James told me I could pull his train today!" Thomas replied, eager. "He didn't want to pull it, and I wanted to pull a train, so I'm doing it for him!"

Roy was shocked to hear this. "James...you...WHAT?"

But Thomas had already coupled up to the train from the front. "It should be fine, right? It's probably just like the breakdown train! That one wasn't so hard to pull!"

"Thomas, do you realize what you're getting into? You're just going to get yourself in-"

Roy's attempt to warn him was cut off again. "Like I said, it'll be fine! If James can do it, so can I!" And Roy was horrified by the sight and sound of the brake van guard leaning out, waving his green flag, and blowing his whistle.

Roy wanted to stop him, but he was already on another line, and Thomas was setting off quickly as he steamed out of the station.

At this sight, Roy felt a sense of dread inside. "That's not going to end well...that's not going to end well at all." He was fully aware that Thomas wasn't exactly that experienced with trucks, and he was worried that the naïve blue tank engine was going to end up in a horrible situation.

"All we can do is hope he doesn't become a runaway down that hill." Roy's driver shared his engine's worries.

The 'hill' in question was one that was nicknamed "Gordon's Hill" because of that one time that Gordon stuck on it on the way back to Vicarstown in 1923 (which had happened shortly before the whole calamity with the Ab River Viaduct) and had to have Edward bank for him. While passenger trains and light freight trains could pass over the hill just fine if they were going at speed, heavier freight trains (whether in general or relative to the engine pulling them) would need assistance from a banker going up the hill's west side, and great care going down that side from the east. The reason for this was that while the East side was more than manageable (provided that trains going over them were properly managed), the West side was quite a bit steeper, to the point where it was even steeper than the infamous "Lickey Incline" of what was now the LMS, in fact.

On top of that, Roy was worried that Thomas wasn't aware that the trucks he was pulling had a mind of their own. Many trucks on the island couldn't speak or intentionally cause trouble no matter how roughly the engines treated them. However, there were those that could on both. Some would intentionally cause that trouble at any opportunity they got (especially against an unaware engine), while others would behave if treated well...key term 'treated well'. Roy had his doubts that Thomas had that understanding, fearing that the naïve blue tank engine thought that he could be as rough as he wanted with trucks since they were, well, trucks, not coaches full of people.

Roy was right to worry.

Thomas was completely unaware of the danger. While on his way to Wellsworth, he was having the time of his life.

"Alright, already, easy, easy." His driver cautioned. "We don't want to run this train into the ground, now, do we?"

"Oh come on, driver, can't I enjoy pulling a train for once? I never get to do this!"

"You just did last week." His fireman remarked.

"But what if I never got to pull one again after that?"

Thomas' driver and fireman realized that Thomas just wouldn't listen. They were worried that things were going to go wrong if he kept going like this.

Much like with Roy, they, too, were right to worry. In all of his excitement, he'd been rough with the trucks and had banged them about constantly. This steadily angered them more and more as the journey went on. For all of how James could have a temper, he usually wasn't very rough when he wasn't angry. But here was this blue tank engine who was bashing them just as much as when James WAS angry, and constantly too. They grew tired of this, and so sought to get back at him.

"Run him down the hill!" One whispered to another. "Pass the word!"

So the trucks plotted and planned to pay him out when he got to the hill. Soon enough, the train did come to the hill, and initially, Thomas didn't have THAT difficult of a time, though his driver and fireman saw the trouble coming.

"Wait, Thomas, wait!" His driver practically begged him. "At least slow down for the top!"

"Alright, fine!" Annoyed that his good run was being seemingly interrupted, Thomas finally slowed down for the top of the hill. "I'll slow down just this once, I guess."

It was then that the incensed trucks saw their chance. "No! No! No! Go on! Keep going!"

And with seemingly little warning, the trucks shoved the whole train forward, suddenly causing Thomas to speed up again...right when he was trying to slow down.

"Wah! Wha...what's going on?!" Thomas was caught off guard by the trucks' sudden action.

"We warned you not to run the train into the ground!" His annoyed fireman replied. "Now we've got a runaway on our hands!"

Runaway indeed, for the train was going faster and faster down the hill, faster than Thomas had ever gone before. He wasn't enjoying things anymore.

"Driver! Please! Stop me!" Thomas begged his driver. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you!"

"Well, I don't know if this will work, but..." Grumbling, his driver pulled Thomas' brakes on.

Thomas groaned as he felt the brakes come on. Given that the train was still going at a high speed, and thanks to basic physics, Thomas merely only began to slow down, and only gradually, at that. As Wellsworth came into view, he was still going rather fast, and he saw that he was being diverted into a siding.

"I have to stop...I have to stop!" Thomas closed his eyes, thinking that he was going to derail for sure.

Thankfully, the train lost more and more momentum, and slowed down by ever so much than before until, at last, Thomas felt himself tap the buffers at a very low speed. That was when he finally opened his eyes, and he saw himself stopped and still on the rails.

"I...I've stopped!" Thomas was initially relieved to find that he was no longer a runaway.

Then, though, he heard footsteps getting closer and closer, until he saw a sight that just about chilled his boiler cold. Walking around to his front was none other than a very confused Sir Kastrioti.

"Thomas? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be shunting coaches in Vicarstown."

It was then that his crew reluctantly explained everything that had happened. From Thomas agreeing to take James' train, to Thomas' reckless behavior with the train, to how they'd all gone runaway down the hill because of it.

"I see." Sir Kastrioti then rubbed his forehead as he turned back to Thomas. "So, Thomas, do you realize why I have you as a shunter?"

"...no, sir..." Thomas responded, his voice feeble from being afraid of the consequences of his actions.

"The reasons why I have you working as a shunter," Sir Kastrioti explained, "are because it's a very important job, for one, and because shunting is also the task where the majority of your skill and experience you have so far has been in, for another. Putting a train together is very different from actually pulling it, and you have proven that the reason why I don't have you pulling trains very often is because that is not where you're experienced in."

Sir Kastrioti paused, and then continued. "You're a very naïve engine on top of that, Thomas. James may have sounded to you like he was doing you a kindness by 'letting' you pull his train, but it's more likely that he was just using you as a tool to get out of work he didn't like doing. Not to mention that you have proven that you have little understanding of trucks, which are very different than coaches in practically every way possible, and require a different set of skills to handle compared to coaches. This lack of understanding is what could have caused a serious derailment or collision."

Thomas was ashamed now, and felt very, very, very stupid. "...what will you have me do now, sir?"

"First, you will go to have your brakes checked, because I believe that you have put a lot of excess wear and tear on them from braking so hard. Then, once that is done, I will reassign you here to Wellsworth, where you will actively be shunting and pulling trucks instead. Hopefully, by the end of, say, next month, you will have an understanding of trucks just as much as you have an understanding of coaches. While I am not going to punish you for this incident, as it was clearly James' doing instead, I still would rather that an incident like this never happens again."

"Yes sir..."

So, for the next six weeks after getting his brakes checked, Thomas was handling trucks in Wellsworth. Initially, he wasn't very enthused about this, but lightened up to the idea when he saw that Edward, Emily, Allison, and Hailey were here. It was from them that he learned that they had been reassigned here for two reasons. Edward and Emily were here to both fill in for some aging engines that had been inherited from the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway, one of the various railways that the North Western Railway had formed from and were currently undergoing overhaul, and also expand the now-branchline all the way to a little town called Brendam. Those older engines had been Amelia, a small Sharp Stewart 0-6-0 tender engine, and Billy and Charlie, a pair of twin Manning-Wardle "L" Class 0-6-0T tank engines. Allison and Hailey, meanwhile, were helping in the building of a large roundhouse in Tidmouth that could house many engines within.

With them present, Thomas found himself more willing to handle his task. There were many different trucks that came through each day, so Thomas had to figure out how to handle certain types, and also which ones to treat kindly and which ones to treat firmly. While it was difficult at first, as the weeks went on, Thomas got better and better.

Sir Kastrioti would come by on a weekly basis to check up on how Thomas was doing. While it was clear that he wasn't entirely happy with what had happened on that day, he nonetheless was supportive of Thomas learning and growing, promising that, if Thomas knew well enough, then one day, he'd be pulling trains on a branchline. Thomas loved hearing that, as that was what he'd been built for: branchline duty. So, wanting to get to such a new job at some point, he worked diligently.

James, on the other hand...he'd had the privilege of pulling passenger trains taken away from him for quite a while, and was made to either shunt or pull only freight trains. He was miserable, but he knew that this was his own fault.

Eventually, six weeks later...

April 29

Thomas was going about his shunting work at what had become a normal thing for him at this point. Then, presently, he heard an odd racket coming from behind him. It was James, whistling frantically as he was pushed along much too fast by a heavy freight train. Thomas would have felt bad for James if it wasn't for the fact that the black-and-red tender engine had suckered him into doing his work those weeks back. In the still-miffed Thomas' point of view, James was now experiencing what he had, nothing more, nothing less. Of course, Thomas wasn't acknowledging his own part in causing the trucks to have pushed him on that day.

"How does it feel, James?!" Thomas called out almost jeeringly to James as the other engine soon disappeared out of sight.

Though, his driver had noticed an odd sight. "Hmm...don't usually see black smoke pouring out of an engine's wheels."

"You think something might have been on fire?" The fireman queried.

"Possibly."

A few minutes later, an alarm sounded. The yardmaster came running out, shouting orders to the workmen present.

"James is off the line! Get to the breakdown train! Quickly now!"

While Thomas was still upset at James, it didn't stop him from understanding that derailments and accidents and incidents and such needed to be dealt with, so, for the second time, he coupled up to the breakdown train and went off towards the site of James' derailment, intending to do so to show him up.

When Thomas got there with the breakdown train, it was definitely a mess, though, thankfully, it was nowhere near as horrific as the whole deal with Alfred and Cecil's incident on the old viaduct had been. The brakevan and the last few trucks were still on the line, but all of the other trucks were piled up and often in pieces. James was derailed with a cow in the field looking at him in confusion, and his tender was on its side, its contents spilled out into the field, but he looked more embarrassed than actually hurt.

"Never mind, James." Thomas heard one of James' crew tell him. "It was those wooden brake blocks they gave you. We always knew those were no good! Those things were bound to burn up eventually!"

"Wooden brake blocks?" Thomas laughed as the workers on the breakdown train got to work. "No proper engine would be caught with those!"

The trucks that were destroyed or damaged beyond repair were cleared off the line and put to the side to be taken away later, while the trucks that weren't damaged beyond repair were taken away by Thomas. For the next few hours, Thomas took the trucks, intact or not, back to Wellsworth where they would be further dealt with there.

Eventually, enough trucks had been cleared away so that James could be lifted back onto the line. Thomas watched with curiosity as the crane's chains were fitted around James, and then, gradually, James was lifted off the ground, then around, and then back onto the rails. And then, soon after that, his tender was also lifted onto the rails as well.

Once everything had been cleared away, Thomas coupled James up to the breakdown train and took everyone and everything left back to Wellsworth. James was silent the whole way back, either in shame or in embarrassment...or both.

When Thomas got back with the train, Sir Kastrioti was waiting for him. He was fairly impressed with Thomas' efforts.

"Ah, hello, Thomas. Cleaning up more messes, I see."

"I am, sir." Thomas replied. "Though why an engine would have wooden brake blocks like James does, I don't know."

"Wooden brake blocks? So I've heard." Sir Kastrioti seemed as bemused as James' crew was about that. "There's a reason we have brake blocks made of steel. Wood catches fire when something rubs against it too much and too hard for too long. Nevermind that, I'll make sure he's fitted with proper brakes when he's being repaired." Then, he motioned to a siding. "For now, though, Thomas, I'd like you to leave him and the breakdown train in that siding over there. Edward will deal with that matter."

So, Thomas did as Sir Kastrioti asked him, and left James and the breakdown train in that particular siding, and then came back to Sir Kastrioti.

"Thank you. Now then..." With that out of the way, Sir Kastrioti begin. "So, Thomas, I've heard that you've been hard at work this past month and a half or so in this yard. While you've had a few slip-ups here and there, I personally believe that you've become a more experienced engine when it comes to trucks and freight trains. So, I've made a decision."

"What decision, sir?"

"Well, Thomas, there is a branchline that runs from Tidmouth through Knapford, Elsbridge, and into Ffarquhar. Engines commonly called 'Coffee Pots' have been running that branchline for a long time. However, those engines have gotten old, so they shall be taken to the Vicarstown Railway Museum, where they will be preserved. In their place, I need new engines running the line. Thanks to your hard work, I've decided that you will be one of those engines, Thomas."

Thomas was ecstatic to hear this. "Really? Oh, thank you, sir! At last, a branchline for me!" Then, though his curiosity. "But...who will be the other engine? Or engines?"

Sir Kastrioti chuckled as he went to explain. "Well, there's two new engines that I've brought here for that purpose. One of them is from the Southern Railway. He's from the former London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, which, yes, was your old railway. His name is 'Tyson', and he's a younger cousin of yours who was built after you left for this railway. Then there's Ryan, who's from the London and North Eastern Railway and is actually one of Gordon's younger cousins, though I assure you that he's nothing like Gordon in personality. They're both fine engines and hard workers, so I hope that you get along with them alright."

"I'll try, sir." In truth, Thomas wished he'd had the branchline to himself, but he understood that Sir Kastrioti's orders were, well, orders. He wasn't going to let his now-controller down if he wanted to be able to run a branchline at all. "When will they come, though?"

Then, a pair of whistles sounded out, and Thomas looked over to see two unfamiliar engines pulling three brown coaches. One was a tender engine with four leading wheels and six driving wheels, and the other was another tank engine with six driving wheels and two trailing wheels, just like Thomas himself. Both had liveries that were mainly shades of green, with the tank engine having the paler, lighter shade of green, and the tender engine having a deeper-yet-more-vibrant shade of green. They looked pleasant enough, thankfully, and didn't seem snooty like Henry, Gordon, or James were.

"Ah yes, here they are." Sir Kastrioti motioned to the two engines and then introduced all three to each other. "Thomas, these two are the 'Tyson' and 'Ryan' that I was mentioning. Tyson is the tender engine, while Ryan is the tank engine. Now, Tyson, Ryan, this is Thomas."

"I heard I had an older cousin working here." Tyson remarked, not a hint of arrogance in his voice. "Apparently, you were sent here because of a wartime mix-up. It's a shame, because your class is probably the best class of tank engine that we had on the Southern Railway."

"Really?" Thomas was amused. "And I thought they send me away because they thought that this railway 'needed me more'."

Tyson chuckled. "They changed their minds after the war ended. They're actually still building more of your class now."

Ryan then cut in. "So, um, this is Wellsworth, is it? Our new branchline is at Tidmouth, right?"

"It is." Sir Kastrioti affirmed. "Thomas, would you like to show them there once you get yourself turned around?"

"Of course I would, sir!"

So, once he did, Thomas led Tyson Billinton the SR Billinton N15X 'Remembrance' Class 4-6-0 and Ryan Gresley the LNER Gresley N2 Class 0-6-2T to Tidmouth, where their new branchline was waiting.

The next day, once the 'Coffee Pots' were taken to Vicarstown by Allison, Thomas, Tyson, and Ryan officially began work on the branchline. The branchline began in Tidmouth, and went through Knapford, Dryaw, Toryreck, and Hackenback, and currently ended at Ffarquhar, though there were plans to one day expand it through Ulfstead, Ballamoddey, and all the way to Peel Godred.

The coaches in question were a trio of LB&SCR Coaches named Annie, Bettie, and Clarabel, whom the three engines initially took turns pulling throughout the week. However, Thomas in particular enjoyed the company of the coaches, and they enjoyed his, so eventually, the three engines agreed to have Thomas be the one primarily pulling them.

All was well for the three engines. However, the same couldn't be said for James, who was being repaired at the NWR's Crovan's Gate Works.

Nor could it have been said for those who had in the path of that terrible tempest that ripped through those three states in the American Midwest.

So...another chapter over.

Now, I do know that this isn't COMPLETELY like the original Railway Series, but while that is still absolutely my primary basis for this story, and the best aspects of it are ones I seek to preserve here (worldbuilding, relative realism, good characters, stories based on real-life events, character arcs and plot structures that make sense and mean something), I still want to do it in a way that's refreshing, stands out from the various other RWS rewrites on this site and others already, and doesn't get stale too quickly. Basically, while the core events of each book will stay the same, especially if that book is a particularly important one...how EXACTLY that book's events happen this time may or may not be different, and in at least a few instances, the order in which each 'book' happens may or may not also be different. And yes, I will be introducing characters from the TV Series here as well, as Ryan's appearance may indicate.

And for this chapter itself...it's mainly the original "Thomas and the Trucks" and "Thomas and the Breakdown Train", with a few elements from "Thomas and Gordon" and "Thomas' Train". I also included a bit of "Trust Thomas" in here, as in this chapter, instead of it being Edward's Train that Thomas takes to Wellsworth, it's James' train, as James doesn't like pulling freight trains and wants to get out of doing so, so he exploits Thomas' desire to pull trains to have him do it instead.

And finally, as for the rather 'tornadic' prelude, it's a fictionalized account of what was otherwise a very, very, VERY real event known as the March 18, 1925 "Tri-State Tornado". It was the single deadliest known tornado in the history of the United States of America (and the second deadliest worldwide after the 1989 Daulatpur-Saturia tornado in Bangladesh) and one of its costliest, most violent, and most destructive, hitting the Missouri towns of Ellington, Redford, Leadanna, Annapolis, Cornwall, Biehle, Brazeau, and Frohna, the Illinois Towns of Gorham, Murphysboro, De Soto, Hurst-Bush, Zeigler, West Frankfort, Eighteen, Parrish, and Crossville, and the Indiana towns of Griffin, Owensville, and Princeton, before finally lifting after three and a half hours and 219 miles on the ground, having had an average forward speed of over 60 MPH (100+ KPH), and an average width of at least 0.75 miles wide. At least 695 people are known to have died, and at least 2027 injuries were recorded.

For a general visual appearance in this story, I based the The Tri State Tornado's physical description on that of the May 3, 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma F5 Tornado, the Tuscaloosa, Alabama High-End EF4 Tornado, the 2011 Hackleburg-Phil Campbell Alabama EF5 Tornado, the 2011 Smithville, Mississippi EF5 Tornado (all on April 27, 2011), and the May 22, 2011 Joplin, Missouri EF5 Tornado, recent real-life tornados that I think looked similar to what the Tri State Tornado likely looked like in real life at different points of its life.

Also, that prelude introduced a new character that may or may not appear later, so it's not going to be something that I just leave off on and never pick back up. I promise.

Now, see you next chapter.