Foreword: I've decided to make the beginning of these stories simpler, where the format goes like this:

(Series style, such as S1, S3, S5, S6, S7, Abbreviation of one or two hypothetical English narrators for the episode and their dub changes, such as RS, GC, MA, AB, MB)

For example, for "Fuel Trouble", it would use this:

(S6/S7, MA/AB)

I've also decided to include author's notes entirely, as they could help explaining a story.

Anyway, on with the story.

(S6, MA/AB)

THE TWO LITTLE TENDER ENGINES

The Skarloey Railway has some of the oldest engines on the Island of Sodor.

Skarloey is the oldest, and always acted as a sort of mentor towards the other Skarloey Railway engines.

Though the railway has some old engines, all the engines on the railway are Really Useful Engines.

Duke, Sir Handel and Peter Sam came from another railway, which had closed due to hard conditions.

Sir Handel and Peter Sam were originally Falcon and Stuart respectively, but had changed names when being purchased by the Skarloey Railway.

Duke wasn't initially wanted at first, but had been found by people looking to restore him to his proud identity onto the Skarloey Railway.

One day, Duke was talking to Bertram.

Bertram was discovered by Toby one night, and had been restored to work on the Skarloey Railway after spending time workless due to working on the same railway as Stuart, Falcon and Duke, which, again, had closed down.

Bertram was often called "The Old Warrior" because of his bravery to things that some of the other engines would be frightened by.

Duke noticed something about Bertram which caught his eye.

Although Duke and Bertram worked on the same railway, they hadn't met until now.

"You look awfully familiar," he stated, "and not just by your face."

"In what way do I look familiar to you?" questioned Bertram.

"First of all," started Duke, "you look like a darker version of me."

"I don't!" grumbled Bertram, for the first time in his life.

"Well for sure, not your face," explained Duke, "your face looks like Smudger!"

"Who is Smudger?" asked Bertram.

He had never heard of him.

"Well," started Duke on the story, "Smudger was really actually Stanley, but most engines who worked with him called him Smudger."

"Why exactly?" questioned Bertram.

"I used to work with Stanley on another railway," explained Duke, "and we called him Smudger because he rolled roughly and often came off the rails. Stanley came from the United States of America, however he hadn't been regauged properly for even this railway, so he didn't have as much grace as I did."

"Was Stanley any useful?" asked Bertram.

"Stanley knew he was rolling roughly and was accident-prone, but he never cared. I warned him to be careful, but he didn't care."

"Listen Dukie, who worries about a few spills? When yous in the States, rumblin' in the Bronx, nobody gives a dime for a few accidents!"

"'We give a dime here.' I explained. But Stanley just laughed."

"Hahahaha!"

"One day, the manager of the railway got fed up with Stanley, and decided to make him useful at last."

"What exactly did the manager do?" questioned Bertram. He wasn't exactly feared of this, unlike when Duke told the story of Smudger to Sir Handel and Peter Sam as Stuart and Falcon.

"Stanley was turned into a er, generator?" stuttered Duke. Then he remembered what Stanley was actually turned into. "No, a pumping engine! How could I have forgotten? I even forgot about that when I told the story to Stuart and Falcon!"

"Who are they?" asked Bertram.

"My friends who worked with me on the same railway," explained Duke, "they weren't nearly as bad as Smudger, but that kinda owed to me telling the story of him to them. They're on this railway now, although they're now called Sir Handel and Peter Sam."

"Anyway, Stanley was converted into a pumping engine for the mines, and couldn't move again. When the railway closed down, Stuart and Falcon were wanted at first. Not me. I was left in a shed until people went out looking for me and brought me together with my friends."

"What about Stanley?" asked Bertram.

"I'm not sure," explained Duke, "he might have been left there to rot or have been scrapped, for all I know. He could even have been given a second chance on another railway or perhaps have gone back to the United States, but I digress."

"Is your name 'Dukie'?" questioned Bertram.

"No," explained Duke, "that's what Stanley always called me. I'm Duke, named after His Grace, the Duke of Sodor."

"I'm Bertram." he explained. "They often call me the 'Old Warrior' because of my bravery."

"Sir Handel and Peter Sam used to call me 'Granpuff' because I outlasted most other engines that came and went on our old railway." Duke stated.

The two engines parted ways, going to work.

One day, Bertram was pulling a freight train.

He was approaching the viaduct.

Bertram was singing about his bravery.

The Old Warrior's got a new job tonight,

He's gonna pull it with all his might,

And he's met a old and wise engine,

Duke his name, always with a bright grin,

But the Old Warrior's gonna teach other engines a lesson or two,

Cause they should get scared when someone goes, 'Boo!"

This made the trucks/freight cars cross.

They decided to play a trick on Bertram.

"Pay the Old Warrior out!" one exclaimed.

"On! On! On!" cried the trucks/freight cars, and pushed Bertram down the line.

He was going faster than most of the little engines on the Skarloey Railway.

Bertram, for the first time in his life, was horrified.

"Aaah!" he cried. "Help!"

Then there was trouble.

Bertram approached another, older viaduct which hadn't seen use in years.

It started to crumble!

The rails in the middle had fallen off along with the keystones and the rest of the centre of the bridge.

If someone didn't do something, Bertram would fall off the bridge!

Rusty saw it all.

He was horrified, and with quick thinking, stopped Bertram and the cars before they fell off the viaduct.

Only a rock had properly fallen off the viaduct.

But Bertram was hanging on the edge.

Rusty tried with all his might.

The guard/conductor called for more engines to help out.

Skarloey and Duke arrived.

They quickly helped Rusty pull Bertram to safety.

"We saved the engine and the freight train!" shouted Rusty.

"My name is Bertram." he stated.

"I wasn't scared. I was pretty sure help would come."

"Actually," started Rusty, "you were scared. You cried for help, after all."

"Alright," conceded Bertram, "I was scared. Afraid that I was going to fall off the broken viaduct. I'm normally pretty brave, though."

"Well," concluded Skarloey, "being brave is great and all, but telling others about how you're scared makes you braver after all."

Ending Author's Note: Although Duke and Bertram are not my favourite characters, I wanted to give them their own story where they meet.

I also wasn't exactly fond of how Smudger was just a repaint and a reface of Rheneas, so I made this depiction more like Stanley in the Railway Series.

In the end, Duke explains a bit of a different story of Smudger to Bertram because I think that when he told the story in 'Granpuff', that was him not remembering a lot about Stanley due to Duke not exactly wanting to remember much about Stanley besides the point of the story that 'be useful, or bad things will happen to you'.

The line 'When yous in the States, rumblin' in the Bronx" is a reference to Rumble in the Bronx, slightly his original line in the Railway Series, and also a bit of a reference to Thomas Abridged and it's depiction of what Smudger said.

Also, the whole fact that Bertram speaks in this episode is a good mention.