Next chapter coming up right now.
I do not own Thomas the Tank/Thomas & Friends or I would have kept them in their models forms.
Spring had come to Sodor after Winter finished its course and life got busy again on Sodor.
Things now were even more busy as news of Sodor had gotten more and more well-known causing more people to come to Sodor to visit or to live there.
And of course, more people meant more work for the train drivers to do. Sir Topham Hatt started asking for help from the Bus company run by Mr. Rhode, a good friend of Topham's, on Sodor who happily lent a hand.
Thomas pulled his coaches up to the bus depot at the junction that leads onto his branchline. He was waiting for the guard as he couldn't make it to Tidmouth station so he called Thomas to grab him at the bus depot.
So, Thomas waited for the guard while Annie and Clarabelle did their part-time jobs on the coaches making sure the passengers were comfortable while waiting. Thomas looked over at a bus next to him and saw the driver come to it. The driver a young man around Thomas's age with short black hair and wore the bus company's uniform.
He looked over when he noticed Thomas's train there and came over. "Hello, I am Bertie, who are you?"
"I'm Thomas." Thomas replied back politely.
"Ah you're Thomas. Yes I remember you, I took your passengers when you got stuck in the snow." Bertie said grinning and Thomas scowled at that memory as he didn't want to be reminded of it. Gordon and James had teased him about it, but Thomas teased back when they got stuck themselves.
"Nice to meet. I was assign to help you with your passengers on your branchline seeing my bus is very fast." Bertie said with a grin and Thomas got annoyed by this. "You fast? Never. My engine can handle all the work on my branchline in great speed time."
"No, you can't. Trains are slow and out of date." Bertie retorted back scowling a bit and Thomas scowled back. "How about this Bertie, a race? First one to Ffarquhar station wins." Thomas challenged him and Bertie grinned at that as he accepted.
Soon the bus depot's manager stood before the two with a flag in his hand.
"On your marks. Get set. Go!"
With that Bertie roared ahead and Thomas was right behind him, but Bertie had a good lead as Thomas could never go fast from a stationary position. However, he wasn't too worried as he knew his branchline very well.
"Why aren't you going fast?!" Annine called out to him from her coach as the passengers were told about the race and they actually liked the idea with them giving their support to Thomas.
"Wait and see!" He called back and he was right as he saw the first level crossing and he smirked as he saw Bertie pulling to a stop at it.
"Damnit!" Bertie shouts annoyed as he saw Thomas go rushing past. "Bye Bertie!" Thomas called as he race past.
Thomas grinned as he raced down the tracks and saw Dryaw coming up. He stops at the station to let passengers off and though he wants to get back to the race, but he knew he still has his job to do. As soon as he got the all clear he was a off down the line again.
He kept going and raced hard down the line with Annie, Clarabelle and the rest of the passengers all cheering him on.
He was glad that Toryreck was goods only and not passengers so he could continue on. He hoped he was still ahead of Bertire, but to his shock he saw Bertie ahead of him and he growled annoyed as he pushed Number 1 harder down the line. He lost sight of Bertie as he raced on, but to his annoyance he saw Elsbridge up ahead and knew he had to let off passengers here.
As he pulled his train to a stop he looked up onto the hill next to the station and saw Bertie there as he was driving off. "See ya Thomas, us bus drivers actually have to work you know!"
Thomas scowled at how Bertie was most certainly ahead of him now and as the passengers got off he filled up Number 1's water tanks before racing off again.
He did his stops at Maithwaite and Hackenbeck while constantly fearing that Bertie might have already won the race.
As he now heads to Ffarquhar he saw to his relief he saw Bertie up ahead and the sight of Bertie inspired him go harder. Than he saw Bertie had to go an hill…and Thomas goes through a tunnel which meant Thomas goes straight through and this made Thomas grinned as he knew what that meant.
As he went through the tunnel he saw Bertie having trouble with the hill before he vanished from view.
Soon Thomas pulls up to Ffarquhar not long after and Annie, Clarabelle and the passengers cheered as they saw Thomas wad the first to make it to the station. Which meant Thomas had won the race and Thomas smiled at that.
Bertie soon pulled up to the station not long after and he went right over to Thomas to shake his hand. "I admit I was wrong about trains. That was a good race Thomas, I had a lot of fun. Though to get over that hill would need to grow wings to beat you." He said smiling and joked as both drivers chuckled as they shook hands.
Since their race both Bertie and Thomas had become good friends as they would always talk about their race. Though Sir Topham Hatt warned Thomas to not race down the line at such speeds ever again and Mr. Rhode gave the same warning to Bertie when driving on the road.
Though the two would love to have another race again, but I don't think they ever will, do you?
Sorry if this one seemed rushed. I had troubles writing this one as it was the last 'filler' before a main story point chapter coming up so I wanted to get this one out of the way soon.
Hope you all enjoyed.
