A/N: Been a while? But that's because I wanted to release something big for the 75th Anniversary. Hope you all like the new stories I've written for you all and thanks for waiting so long!

There are many engines on the Island of Sodor. Big, small, fast, or slow, they all try to be useful. But there is one engine that most people know who runs on those rails. He hasn't been heard much for these years, after all, spending most of your time in the sixties away from your railway would really make you try and have a quiet life for a while. But this engine never stops having stories to tell. He is a tank engine, who has six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and a short stumpy dome.

But most people know him as Thomas the Tank Engine.

Thomas, as you know, runs a branch line with his two faithful coaches called Annie and Clarabel, who ride along happily with him. But Thomas had to leave after an incident in 1961 and didn't come back until 1967, right before The Flying Scotsman came to visit his brother Gordon. Things have changed since then, most notably a diesel railcar called Daisy who took over Thomas' work whilst he was away and remained ever since.

The other engines who work alongside Thomas were Percy and Toby. Even though the engines might not get along, all three wouldn't like to have any other engine running trains with each other.

Thomas loves his branch line very dearly and wouldn't like to be anywhere else. He has many places he likes to go by, but one of his favourites, is the windmill. The windmill resides on some strong earth surrounded by marshland, Thomas' branch line goes behind it on an embankment. Thomas loves going past it when either he's heading up towards Hackenbeck or heading back down the line to Elsbridge.

He always whistles over towards the windmill every time he goes past it and the workers at the windmill wave back at him when they see him.

Daisy didn't understand it. "It's looks so old," she said to Thomas on a cold morning's day, "I don't understand why you find it so important."

Thomas huffed crossly. "It is one of the many things which makes this line so distinguish from the other branch lines," he said defensively, "but you wouldn't know anyways, you haven't been here longer than I have."

"Oh really?" replied Daisy snootily, "then where were you for most of the 1960s?"

Thomas didn't reply, he only scowled at the diesel railcar and puffed away. Toby had watched everything. "The windmill is very special for us," he said, as he came up next to Daisy, "it's a mark of distinction, it's definitely a place where we prefer not to be destroyed and it helps people recognise our branch line. After all, most pictures of us are taking from a distance right. It has helped advertise the railway too, with being in posters, books and even in a documentary about our railway in 1959."

Daisy said nothing, she only rolled away, but she couldn't help but think about what Toby had said as she took her morning run. "I don't know why it's so liked," she said, "it's nothing special after all."

She eventually came to marshland. She glanced up at the windmill which was turning around and around. It was wooden and shabby, and Daisy thought it would collapse at any moment. "Sill thing," she murmured to herself, "if there was to be a storm, I wouldn't be surprise if it were destroyed into little pieces!"

"Don't be so silly," scoffed her driver, who had heard everything, "you know it's important to the railway."

Daisy sighed. That was the third time she had heard that, she was hoping another engine would agree about it once she gets to the junction. When she got there and asked James, she was met with a surprise.

"Even though it's quite strange having a windmill in a marshland," he said, "it has helped with advertise on the railway, it boosts tourists to that area as well so you do get a lot busier because of those parts."

Daisy was a little stunned and refused to talk to anyone about it for the rest of the day.

But a week later, everything seemed to change.

A storm came one night and struck the island, mainly the south-west part and the engines all had to beg that the doors wouldn't break away whilst they were in the sheds. Thomas, Percy and Toby were all inside their three-birth shed, listening intently to the storm that racketed outside.

"It does seem to be pretty bad out there," said Percy.

"Indeed, it does," replied Toby, "but we'll be safe in this shed I'm sure of it!"

Thomas huffed. "These sheds are strong," he said, "but I'm more concerned about the coach shed."

"I agree with you there," sighed Toby worriedly, "but there's nothing we can do at the moment, we can only help once the damage is cleared."

The three engines then went silent and after a while, finally managing to go to sleep.

The next morning, the storm had past, and the engines could now peak out from their sheds. They looked around and only sigh out with relief, nothing of value had been damaged. The water tower still stood up and the coach shed, whilst looking a little shaken, still looked fine from the storm.

Soon, the Fat Controller arrived, he was in a great hurry. "The storm has severely damaged Tidmouth Harbour," he declared, "many keys have been damage, cranes tipped over and a ship has also sunk at its own key."

All three engines looked at each other in shock, a ship had never sunk before at Tidmouth Harbour. But an answer still remained in Thomas' funnel. "Excuse me sir?" he said, "but shouldn't you tell the mainline engines? This doesn't really effect all too much."

"Well it does Thomas," replied the Fat Controller, "because there's so much damage, Percy shall be reallocated to Tidmouth to help repair the harbour, Duck will also help with the mess."

Percy was surprised but felt very pleased with himself. "Thank you, sir!" he peeped, and the Fat Controller left.

Thomas had to take his first passenger service to Knapford junction like he usually does. He sang to his coaches as he puffed down the line, he stopped at the small station of Hackenbeck and carried on towards Elsbridge where he had to go through the marshland.

But when he got there, he was in for a shock.

The windmill didn't stand on his harden earth no more, only a pile of wood and metal. Thomas just went by it in clear shock.

"H-How can that happen?" he asked.

"Would've been the wind and rain sadly," twittered Annie.

"Indeed," Clarabel agreed, "it was an old thing it was, but it's still such a shame. Such a shame!"

Thomas felt awful, as he could only puff past it and to Elsbridge, he arrived at the station and was a little startled by the owner of the windmill, Mr Salford waiting at the station, he looked miserable.

"Hello Thomas," he said glumly, "I guessed you've seen the windmill just earlier."

"I'm afraid so," replied Thomas, "is there any way you can fix it?"

"Thanks for to your railway who gave us money for the advertisement," said Mr Salford, "we can rebuild the windmill, but apparently, we can't be allowed to build it on the marshland."

Thomas was confused. "Why's that?" he asked.

"Earlier today," explained Mr Salford, "we had some men inspect the land and said we cannot put a new windmill on there since the land that once held the windmill has become unstable due to the storm and the collapse of the windmill made it worse with it's weight going on top of it. I'm afraid we're stuck with what to do now, and the dairy here will might have to put me and some of the workers on redundant payment then."

"But that won't help you," replied Thomas, "you'd better find a job quickly."

"That's all and well Thomas," replied Mr Salford, "but that'll be harder than it appears to be."

Thomas could only watch as Mr Salford left him and climbed into Annie. The tank engine felt even worse than before and continued to head down the line. Thomas soon met Henry at the junction and told him what had happened.

The green engine could only sympathise. "Sorry about that Thomas," he replied, "I'm guessing they can't rebuild it then?"

"Sadly not," the tank engine said, "but this will affect the dairy at Elsbridge as well with layoffs and many other problems will occur if they don't find a solution soon."

"They would have to hurry then," agreed Henry, "flour is what they need at the dairy sometimes and profits will decline otherwise."

Soon, Henry had to leave and set out of the station, Thomas took his return train back to the top station. The others had also heard about the unfortunate collapse of the windmill. Daisy felt a pang of sorrow for the windmill, as she purred past the remains, she felt like not just the marshland had lost something, but the branch line had lost something dear as well.

It was few days later when Daisy was humming along down the branch. Percy was still working at Tidmouth Harbour and Thomas and Toby were busier than ever with doing the small engine's work as well as their own. Daisy was taking the milk with her as well, she had done just that and shunted into a siding at Elsbridge where the men would take it to the dairy further up the line since a passenger service shouldn't stop there. Daisy had allowed Thomas to go through with a goods train as a friendly gesture.

But once Daisy was out of Elsbridge, she began to head the small gradient that went down to Toryreck. It was quite similar to Gordon's hill. It had a stone bridge that allowed road vehicles to go over the railway and had a bend at the bottom of the small slope. The track went through a cutting a white stone could be seen from either side. Daisy groaned though, a signal, which was in the middle of the gradient was showing red for her, meaning she had to stop her. She did so, a little annoyed though.

"It's must've been Thomas," said the driver.

"I knew I shouldn't allow that tank engine to go ahead of me," she grumbled, "now I'll be late!"

She waited for the signal to change, but as she did so, she looked around her surroundings, trees on the right side that towered over the white cutting, and a field that was on her left which was right in front of the road. Daisy stared at it for a while, it was bare. Nothing was used on it, there was never any sheep or cattle, no plants growing in it. It was just a layer of thick grass. The diesel railcar paused. "I wonder," she pondered.

Just then, the signal dropped to green, and Daisy set off once more, lost in thought.

Once she got to Knapford, Thomas was resting in a siding nearby. "Sorry," called Thomas apologetically, "a bloody truck gave itself a hot axle box, so we had to take it off at Toryreck."

"I see," said Daisy, who came to a stop at the station, "hey, y'know that a slope between Toryreck and Elsbridge?"

"The cutting with white stone, yes I do," replied Thomas.

"Well... I was just wondering, has anyone used that field?" she asked curiously.

Thomas pondered for a few seconds. "The last it was used was in 1955, when Percy was transferred here and Duck came to the railway," he replied, "it was only used for sheep, but it disconnected with the farmer's other fields, so when he expanded his land, he stopped using the field and it just became something for train spotters or a place to have a picnic."

"I see," Daisy said, an idea was slowly forming in her engine, "thank you Thomas."

Thomas smiled and puffed away to the harbour to collect his return train to Ffarquhar.

Daisy asked her driver to get a hold of the Fat Controller so she could speak with him. Her driver did and a few days later, the Fat Controller was standing on the platform at Knapford. Daisy was very pleased to see and explained his plan, even though the Fat Controller wasn't keen on getting into businesses that had problems that didn't involve his railway, he knew it was important for workers and civilians and agreed to Daisy's plan.

Another few days later, Thomas was taking his first passenger train of the day, but as he puffed down the slope towards Toryreck, he saw the red signal, he scowled at it as the blue tank engine came to a full stop at it. But as he was about to complain, he noticed something on the open field. He saw Mr Salford and a few men on it.

"Hello," he whistled, "what are you doing there?"

Mr Salford looked over at Thomas and beamed. "We just got a hold of this land," he called, "the dairy suggested that we have this land and rebuild a new windmill here!"

Thomas was stunned, he had never suspected this to happen. But the tank engine couldn't help but smile, as the signal shone green and puffed away.

Later that day, Thomas and Daisy met at the top station. The diesel railcar looked curiously at the tank engine who smiling at her. "What is it?" she said.

"You were the one who suggested that they have a new windmill built at the slope near Elsbridge," Thomas replied, "I just want to thank you for that."

Daisy blushed. "Well, we don't want any of our goods traffic to decrease," she said bashfully, "what would Percy say when he finds out there's less of those dirty trucks to take care of!"

The new windmill was built with white bricks, they put two other buildings on each side too, one for storage purposes and one for worker usage. It wasn't long before the windmill was up and running, whenever the Ffarquahar engines puffed by it now they will always give it a peep of their whistle, a rang of the bell, or a toot of the horn. What was even better, that the Fat Controller agreed to put the new windmill into the new brand of posters for the railway. Daisy enjoys it especially with the white paint glistening in the sunlight. The diesel railcar even considers it to be her favourite place on the line and doesn't consider old and shabby things to be useless anymore.

The old windmill's wooden remains have been left there in case anyone was wondering what had happened to it and laid in the marshland peacefully. Thomas stills misses its grand, tall feature, but he understands when old things go away, there's always something new just around the bend.