The Way To Get Things Done
With credit to Katrina Pallant and Nancy Parent for the original story.
It was a busy morning at Brendam Docks. Thomas and Percy were shunting trucks about the dockside, as Cranky watched our to sea, waiting for a ship to arrive.
"Can ya see it yet, Cranky?" Carly called out from next to him.
"Mmm, yes," Cranky responded, "it's far out but it should be here any time now."
The two best friends felt tired as they backed down from their perch of trucks.
"Phew!" Thomas sighed. "We've shunted every last truck in the dock this morning, Percy."
"When did The Fat Controller say Porter would be fully repaired?" Percy asked.
"Ha-her!" Salty honked, as he rolled in. "Porter should be at the SteamWorks for quite a while, me hearties. Till then, it's best we do what we can get this dockside looking tip-top. The Fat Controller has a special job for us to do."
"Quite right, Salty," boomed a familiar voice. The Fat Controller's car door slammed, and he walked up to face the three engines, clearing his throat so as to make his announcement. "An important of cargo is coming from the canal on the mainland, and I've phoned ahead to the SteelWorks and for a diesel engine called Frankie to help out till Porter returns. The cargo needs to be unloaded by 3:00, so it's best you all work together to get the job done quickly."
"Aye, captain!" Salty honked, as he headed back to work.
"Right away, sir," Percy whistled, as he headed backed up to his trucks.
"Hmm…" Thomas thought to himself, as he pushed his trucks steadily along the dockside. "Despite everything I've been through in my adventure on the mainland, it should be nice to see Frankie again."
As the ship from the mainland drew closer to Brendam Docks, Frankie was looking forward to working on Sodor and seeing her old friend Thomas again.
"I hope the other engines like me," she said to herself. "It can take time to meet new engines, but I do love making friends."
At long last, the ship arrived and Cranky wasted no time in unloading Frankie from the ship.
"Hi, Frankie!" Thomas whistled, as he and Percy gathered round and looked up Cranky's arm.
"Welcome to Sodor!" Percy added.
"Gah!" Frankie screamed, startling the two friends as she shut her eyes, moaning, "please don't drop me! This isn't how we'd lower an engine at the SteelWorks!"
"Excuse me!"' Cranky snapped back. "I do know how to lift and load. It's my job."
Carly chuckled, as Frankie was lowered closer to the ground."
"I hope we can all get along," Percy whispered nervously to Thomas.
"Don't worry, Percy," Thomas assured him. "Frankie will fit right in."
At long last, Frankie was lowered to the ground, and she took a deep breath as she smiled and looked over at her old friend Thomas.
"Hello, Thomas!" she greeted.
"Hello, Frankie!" he greeted back. "Nice to see you!"
"Likewise!" Then she joked, "say, have you been up to any mischief lately?"
Thomas chuckled and responded, "you have no idea." Then he looked over. "Oh, and this is my best friend Percy."
"Hi, Frankie!" Percy whistled.
"Hi, Percy!" Frankie greeted. "Nice to meet you! You look like a really useful tank engine as well, just like your friend Thomas here."
Percy was flattered.
"Oh, well, um, uh, thanks, Frankie!"
Percy didn't know what to say, as he went back to work, Thomas chuckling as he did the same. Frankie backed down and stopped alongside Carly.
"Hello, Frankie!" the yellow gantry crane greeted. "My name's Carly."
"Hi, Carly! Nice to meet you!" Then she looked around the dockside with curiosity. "Is it...always this busy at the Docks?"
Carly chuckled.
"Why, yes. Very much so, but that's just the fun in working here."
Cranky turned around to face the pair and offer an opinion on the matter.
"But it can get very tedious though," he warned. "I'd be careful if I were you. It's your first day on Sodor so it may be easy for you to get carried away."
"Nonsense!" Frankie scoffed, than boldly claimed, "I am the leader of the SteelWorks, and I don't need to worry about getting carried away."
Carly looked rather concerned.
"Working at the Docks is different from working at the SteelWorks, Frankie," she warned. "It may take time for you to learn your way around."
But Frankie remained unconcerned.
"I assure you both I'll manage just fine working here," she told them. "You wait and see."
And she set to work at once.
"I give up," Cranky sighed, as he reached down to pick up the next load, and Carly sighed as she moved down the dockside.
As Frankie made her way about the dockside, she wondered to herself if she could find a particular job.
"Hmm," she thought. "I wonder if my new friends could use with a bit of some help."
Just then, she saw Percy back up to a flatbed of steel pipes.
"Aye! Percy!" she called, then rolled up beside him, honking her horn. "It would be much quicker for me to shunt those flatbeds," she told him, "that's how we sort trucks at the SteelWorks."
Percy gave her a look of confusion.
"But we're not at the SteelWorks," Percy told her. "And anyway, I was given the task to take these trucks over to where they could be loaded onto the ship."
Frankie felt offended, and gave him a stern look.
"Eh, 'scuse me," she queered, "but I was brought over to help out. Surely it's no use for me to sit around doing nothing."
"Than don't," Percy responded, rather confused. "Find another job you can do."
Frankie looked hurt, as Percy whistled and pulled the flatbeds quickly away.
Frankie felt somewhat offended by Percy's response to her request, but nevertheless found a load of cargo that she could bring over to Big Mickey to load onto the ship.
"Come on!" she honked at Big Mickey, as he slowly unloaded cargo from her trucks. "Surely this isn't the rate at which we load and unload trucks at the SteelWorks."
"Mmm," the crane quietly groaned at her, as he hoisted the cargo up high and around towards the ship.
"I don't know," Cranky wondered, as he loaded the last of the steel pipes from Percy's flatbeds. "There is definitely something peculiar about that new diesel, but I don't like her behavior one bit."
"Nor do I," Percy agreed. "I think she just needs to learn her place here at the Docks." And he pulled his empty flatbeds away, as Cranky turned around to loss the steel pipes onto the ship.
Later, over the workmen's break, Percy decided to talk to Thomas about Frankie.
"I just don't know what to think of her, Thomas," he admitted. "She does seem to be acting very strange."
"How so, Percy?" his friend wondered.
"Well, first she attempts to talk me into taking the flatbeds I was meant to be taking, and then she tries to rush Big Mickey into loading cargo onto the ship."
"Let alone assuming that I don't know how to lift and load," Cranky added.
"Her common trend is that 'this is not how we'd get things done at the SteelWorks," Percy finished.
"Frankie's not so bad once you get to know her, Percy," Thomas told him. "I'm sure she's still just learning her way around."
Just then, Salty rolled in.
"Ahoy there, maties!" he honked. "Listen up. I has a good story to tell before the men head back at work."
"Oh, no," Cranky groaned, and turned around in dismay.
"Now," Salty began, as Thomas and Percy listened hard. "It was a night when high winds blew over, and the tides rose high when…."
His story was rudely interrupted by the loud honking of Frankie's horn, as she rolled up alongside Thomas with a flatbed of cargo.
"Ah, 'scuse me," she asked, "but, eh, what are you all doing?"
"It's the workmen's break, chuck," Carly replied. "And Salty's about to tell a story."
"A story?! Oh, no, no! We don't tell stories while we're working over at the SteelWorks! It's quicker to get our work done first!"
"Oh, finally someone noticed," Cranky quietly remarked.
Salty looked puzzled, and then took a deep breath.
"Well, this is Brendam Docks," he kindly explained, "and I think you'll find, matey, that the way we like to do things is a lot different than how they're done over at the SteelWorks."
"I've tried telling her that," Percy bluntly added.
Thomas shot a look of concern over at Frankie, as she quietly began to cry and pulled her flatbeds quickly away.
"Hold up, Frankie!" Salty called. "Surely I didn't mean no offense!"
But Frankie was too far away to hear Salty.
Salty sighed sadly, as Thomas took a deep breath and said, "I'll handle this."
He whistled as he backed away to switch points to the next track, then raced away to find Frankie. Salty and Percy shot each other a look of confusion.
Frankie sat on a siding, where she thought no one else could see her. She just didn't understand it. Everything seemed to be playing against her that day, and she was finding it very difficult to fit in. Thomas found her and attempted to talk to her.
"Are you...mmm...okay, Frankie?"
Frankie stopped crying, so as to regain her composure and talk to Thomas.
"Your friends don't seem to like me very much, Thomas," she told him, "all I wanted to do was show them how we do things over at the SteelWorks, but I feel like all I've done was make everybody cross."
Frankie cried a little softer, as Thomas looked at her, feeling quite sorry for her.
"Don't worry, Frankie," he assured her. "Sometimes being a good friend is learning how others do things, and what you can do to show that you care."
Frankie sighed sadly.
"I feel like the best thing I can do is stay out of everybody's way," she remarked, and then she honked as she set off back to work.
Thomas sighed, as he set off back to his own work, thinking hard.
Thomas wished there was a way in which he could make his friend feel better and more accustomed.
As work progressed around Brendam Docks, Frankie shunted trucks to and fro around the Dockside. But her heart wasn't in it and she still felt really sorry for herself.
Thomas watched as Frankie dropped some trucks off for Cranky to load onto the ship, then quickly took off.
"Frankie! Wait!" Cranky called. "You need to stay here till I'm done loading, then take the trucks away."
But Frankie was too far away to hear.
Thomas sighed.
"I'll do it, Cranky," he whistled, as he switched tracks and backed down on the trucks.
"I don't know what's wrong with her, Thomas," Cranky wondered, as he lifted his first load. "Porter never would have acted their strange."
"I'm afraid Cranky's right, Thomas," Percy sighed, as he pulled up alongside. "Perhaps some action must be taken if we're going to get this ship loaded by 3."
"Hmm," Thomas wondered.
Thomas thought hard about what could be done, whilst being fair to his friend Frankie. Then, an idea flew into his funnel.
"I've got it!" he decided, Cranky and Percy looking at him, rather confused. "The best way to make Frankie feel more accustomed is to show her how we do things here at the Docks as opposed to the SteelWorks."
"How so, Thomas?" Percy wondered, somewhat puzzled.
"Well, a demonstration of course," Thomas chuckled, as Salty alsk rolled up to listen. "If Frankie sees how really useful we are, she may come to an understanding what it's like working here at Brendam Docks."
"Excellent idea, matey!" Salty agreed, as he honked and set back to work.
Soon enough, the engines and cranes went quickly back about their work, determined to show Frankie how really useful they were.
Frankie tried hard to pull several flatbeds of crates, but she struggled and panted, as her face went red.
"I...can't...do it," she groaned, and stopped, sighing sadly.
"Hey, Frankie!" Percy whistled, as he pulled up beside and backed down towards a line of flatbeds. "Watch how we shunt heavy flatbeds here at the Docks." He backed up, and pulled hard to haul the flatbeds, but couldn't manage to pull them.
Percy sighed sadly, as Frankie looked over at him, rather confused. He chuckled nervously, as Salty rolled up alongside.
"Need some help with those flatbeds, matey," he asked.
"Yes, please, Salty," Percy panted, as he tries once more to pull them.
Salty honked and reversed to the back of the train, As the shunter coupled him up, the two engines made it on their way.
"Say, Percy," Salty wondered, "what we're ye thinking attempting to haul more all these heavy flatbeds of cargo by yeself?"
"I feel like Thomas has a point, Salty," Percy explained. "I was only trying to show Frankie how we do things here at the Docks."
"Aye, matey. But Porter and I would never try to haul more than between five and ten flatbeds."
"I guess you're right, Salty," Percy sighed sadly.
"Don't worry, matey," Salty assured him. "I believe I have a plan."
Frankie had enlisted the help of Thomas, the only engine around the Docks she could talk to, to help her haul the heavy flatbeds over to Carly and Big Mickey, as they both loaded cargo onto the ferry.
"So, Frankie," Carly wondered. "How are you enjoying yourself here at Brendam Docks so far?"
Frankie sighed.
"To be quite honest, Carly…"
"Ahoy, Frankie!" Salty honked, as he rolled into view, pushing a line of trucks. "Watch how we work with trucks here at Brendam Docks." And then he burst into sing.
"Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside"
"Oh, no," Cranky groaned.
"Oh! I do like to be beside the sea!"
"Oh! I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom," the trucks joined in after him.
"Where the brass bands play:
Tiddlely-om-pom-pom!" Percy and his trucks joined in after him.
"Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside," Thomas joined in, as he backed up from the trucks.
"Oh! I do like to be beside the sea," Carly sang along, Cranky eventually deciding to sing the song what them.
"When I'm down beside the sea,
I'm beside myself with glee
Beside the seaside!
Beside the sea!" the engines and cranes sang out, Frankie smiling and cheering up a bit.
"I know what I should do now," she said to herself, as the last load of cargo was placed down onto the ship. "The way to get things done faster is by engaging the trucks in sing-along! We always sing songs at the SteelWorks while we do our work."
And she honked as she rolled away to find some trucks to shunt, Carly smiling as she watched after her.
As Frankie found herself some empty trucks to shunt from one of the Docks to the other to fill up with cargo, she was certain that she would be able to engage them in sing-along the way Salty did.
"Listen up, you lot!" she called, as she pushed them steadily along the line, than sang out:
"This is the hottest place in town
We warm each other up when we're feeling down
And make a smile out of every frown
"Just take a look around that the joy that can be found!" she told them, the trucks looking rather confused, as she continued to sing:
"This is the place we can have some fun!
Whilst we work all day till the day is done!
We've got more sunshine than the sun!
At last, she arrived at the other side of the Docks and waited as the men quickly loaded her trucks with cargo.
There's a light in our eyes we simply can't disguise
This is the hottest place in town!"
"Yeah!
Come in and come along for the riding
Shunting all those lovely from the sidings"
When her trucks were fully loaded with cargo, she pulled them sternly away, and continued singing, Percy watching nervously as he passed her, though Thomas followed her encouragingly down the line.
"Rails so smooth that you'll be gliding along
And before you know it you'll be joining me in our song"
She looked to the trucks to start singing with her, though to her surprise, only Thomas sang instead.
"This is the hottest place in town"
"Eh, yeah," Frankie responded, rather disappointed, but forced a smile toward her friend anyway.
"No other like it anywhere around
You'll be king and you'll wear a crown"
"Mmm," Frankie guessed, rather hesitant at the thought.
"You'll be part of the team
You'll be living the dream"
"This is the hottest place in town," they sang together, and continued,
"Come in and come along for the riding
Shunting all those lovely trucks from the sidings"
"Rails so smooth that you'll be gliding along," Thomas sang.
"Before you all know it, you'll be joining us in our song," Frankie sang out, before turning to the trucks to sing with her, but they didn't sing back with her and instead gossiped and giggled to each other.
"Come on, Frankie!" Thomas encouraged, but all she could do was let out a frown, as he continued to sing:
"This is the place I can have some fun!
Whilst we work all day till the day is done!
We've got more sunshine than the sun!
There's no looking back now!
We're on the right track now!
This is the hottest place in town!"
Thomas finished his song, as Frankie hastily left her trucks at Big Mickey and reversed away in a huff.
"Frankie, wait!" Thomas called. "Your trucks!"
"Huh!" Big Mickey snorted, as he picked up the first load.
Thomas sighed sadly as he switched tracks and waited as Big Mickey was done loading the first truck so he could move the next one down the line.
"Well," sighed Frankie, as she backed down to her next line of trucks. "There's another thing that's different about this place than the SteelWorks. We all can't even engage in the same sing-a-longs." She pulled sadly out of the sidings, and out towards the dockside where the other engines were working.
The engines and cranes were rather disappointed that their plan to help Frankie fit in didn't work as expected.
"It just doesn't make any sense," Thomas wondered, as he moved on to his next truck for Big Mickey to unload.
"Guess my plan to engage those trucks in sing-song didn't work after all," Salty sighed. "It was worth the try though."
"I had a hunch that plan of yours wouldn't work, Salty," Cranky admitted, honestly yet trying to be as nice as possible, as they all watched Frankie sadly and slowly in and out of sight.
"Mmm," Salty groaned, than thought harder. "But you know, there's always Plan B…"
"''Ey, everyone!" Carly called out. "I got it!" Thomas and Salty looked over at her in surprise, as she looked enthusiastically out to sea.
Everyone looked over as another ship of cargo from the mainland arrived at the docks, full of cargo to load onto the ferry.
"I'll show Frankie how we do things here are the Docks!" Carly told them excitedly.
"Eh, I don't think that's such a good idea, Carly," Cranky told her worriedly.
"Don't worry, Cranky," Carly assured him, as she lifted her hoist down to pick up the first load. "I've got it all under control."
As Thomas' trucks were soon emptied, the three cranes got work at lifting the cargo from the ship to move onto the ferry.
"Just wait till Frankie sees how quickly we do things here at Brendam Docks," Carly said enthusiastically, as she waited for Frankie to show up again.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Carly," Cranky told her.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Big Mickey said to himself, as he loaded his current load of cargo onto the ship.
At long last, Frankie came back into view with trucks full of cargo, and Carly had just picked a load of steel pipes from the ship.
"Hey! Hey, Frankie!" she called, swinging the pipes around into view, and rolling quickly up towards her direction. "Watch how we do things here at the Docks!"
"Huh?" Frankie wondered, as she looked up as the swinging load in her hoist.
Thomas had just pulled in with some freight cars, when he saw Percy coming in the opposite direction of Carly's pipes.
"Percy, quick!" he called. "Move those trucks out of the way!"
"Woah!" Percy wailed, whistling loudly, as he chuffed quickly towards the points, as the pipes came flying towards him.
"Carly!" Cranky shouted.
"Look out!" Big Mickey
But it was too late. Percy had puffed so fast and so hard that he crashed into Carly's crates. Steel pipes went tumbling all over the dockside.
"Oh, no," Percy gasped.
"I'll help!" Salty called.
"No, Salty!" Thomas and Cranky called together.
But they spoke soon. Salty went crashing one of the pipes and came off the rails.
"Whoops!" he grunted. "Eh, that wasn't meant to happen."
"Uh, oh," Carly gulped, as Cranky glared at her. "Eh, sorry, Salty."
"Cinders and ashes!" Thomas cried, as he surveyed all the chaos that stood before him. "Now, what do we do?"
Frankie, having watched all the commotion, struggled to think of how to resolve the problem and slowly began to cry, the engines and cranes all stopping to look over at her in surprise. Thomas rolled slowly up beside her.
"Eh, Frankie," he wondered, "are you alright?"
Frankie sniffled quietly, and then decided to respond to Thomas.
"It's just difficult for me to fit in here, Thomas. Surely we would never have an accident like this happen at the SteelWorks."
"But Frankie," Thomas told his friend. "Accidents happen all the time. What's important is what we can do to prevent them."
"I know, Thomas," Frankie responded, "but it's just difficult to take to all this in a brand new environment. This is not like where I usually work. I don't know how to solve the problem." She sighed sadly, and added, "I wish I was back at the SteelWorks. Hurricane and I would definitely agree on what to do."
Thomas felt sorry for Frankie, and attempted to help her see sense in the midst of a bad situation.
"It's okay to miss working at the SteelWorks, Frankie," he told her, "but I do think the best way you can overcome it is by working together with others to make the effort to fit in."
"Aye, chuck," Carly added, "the best way I learnt to fit in here at the Docks is by learning to work together with Cranky and Mickey. Now, the three of us are a crackin' crew!"
"Hmm," Frankie wondered, as Salty sighed sadly amongst the pipes.
"Oh, dear," he worried, "the ferry leaves at 3:00, and we haven't finished unloading the cargo. It may not be loaded by then."
Just then, Frankie had a thought.
"Yes, it will!" she assured him, taking both him and Percy by surprise as they looked over at her, than she looked up at the cranes. "Cranky, I need to lift Salty back onto the rails, and then work with Carly to lift the pipes back onto a flatbed so I can move them away and have them ready for you to load onto the ferry."
"Hmm," Cranky thought. "Much obliged!"
"We're on it, chuck!" Carly assured her.
"Eh, great," Frankie beamed at them, trying her best as if to hold back her excitement. "I'll be, eh, waiting." She chuckled nervously, as Thomas whistled and pulled up beside her.
"Well done, Frankie!" he congratulated. "You were able to solve that problem all by yourself."
"I know, Thomas!" she told her friend excitedly. "But I couldn't have done it without your help, otherwise I never would have figured out what to do." Thomas chuckled, as Frankie inched closer towards Percy and Salty. "I'm sorry if I snapped at all of you," she apologized. "I was only trying to be really useful, and I had no idea how things worked around you."
"Ha-her! All's forgiven, matey!" Salty told her, as Cranky lifted him up.
"It's alright, Frankie," Percy told her. "I'm sorry I seemed a bit harsh with you as well. Perhaps you and I got off on the wrong foot."
"Well, don't worry, Percy," Frankie assured him, "we're on the right track now." And she reversed away to collect a flatbed to lay the pipes down on, Percy smiling after her.
"You were right about her, Thomas," he told his friend, "she is quite nice once you get to know her."
Thomas beamed at him.
"Now that we can all work together," he said, "we can get the job done on time."
Frankie found a flatbed and waited as Salty was lifted back onto the tracks for Cranky and Carly to lift pipes onto the flatbed so the men could tie them down, while Big Mickey continued to load cargo from the ship onto the ferry. At long last, the mess was cleared, and Frankie moved the flatbed down to Big Mickey's platform.
"Here you are, Big Mickey," she said. "Sorry I snapped at you earlier."
Big Mickey, not sure of what to say, just smiled at her, as he picked up the pipes from the flatbed and hoisted them up before lifting it over towards the ferry.
Afterwards, the engines wasted no time in shunting trucks to and fro from the dockside to load them up with cargo and have them ready for the three cranes to load onto the ferry.
Frankie waited patiently, as Cranky loaded from her trucks onto the ferry, and smiled up at him, so the best thing he could do was smile before lifting the cargo down onto the ferry. As soon her trucks were empty, she pulled them away to be reloaded.
At long last, the important job was finished, and the ferry was able to leave on time. The Fat Controller arrived, and was pleased to see that all was well.
"Mmm," he wondered, looking down at his watch. "3:00. Splendid! I'm glad to see that you have all completed the job on time."
Thomas looked over at Frankie next to him.
"It was all thanks to Frankie, sir," he admitted. "We couldn't have completed the job without her expertise."
"Yes, sir," Percy agreed. "She was a great help."
"Oh, please," Frankie told them rather shyly, blushing a bit. "It was a nothing."
Salty chuckled.
"Well, of course it's something, matey," he told her. "You were able to solve a problem all by yerself."
"Oh, okay," said Frankie, rather surprised. "Well, uh, if you put it that way then…"
The Fat Controller chuckled, then sighed.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that you've been really useful, Frankie. As a matter of fact, Porter's repairs may take another day or so, so I was thinking maybe you could stick around and help till he's back."
Frankie beamed.
"I'd be happy to, sir," she replied. "As long as Hurricane and the others don't mind managing on their own in that time frame."
The Fat Controller chuckled.
"Oh, don't you worry about them, Frankie. I've just received a call from the manager over the SteelWorks, and they seem to be doing just fine."
"Oh," thought Frankie, "well, in that case, maybe I can stick around for a little while more. I've really became accustomed to how things are done here."
"Then it's settled," the Fat Controller beamed. "I'll make the arrangements right away."
The engines all whistled and honked, as The Fat Controller hopped into his car and set off. Frankie looked around her new friends.
"I'm so glad we could all work together," she told them.
"Likewise, Frankie!" Carly called from above.
Welcome to the team, matey!" Salty honked.
Frankie couldn't have felt happier to have made friends with the Sodor engines, that she felt like she owed it to them.
"Say," she wondered, smirking a bit. "Now that we've gotten all our work done, Salty, why don't you engage us in a story?"
"A story?" Salty gasped, rather puzzled. "But I thought you never told stories at the SteelWorks."
"But we're not at the SteelWorks," she reminded him.
"Oh," Salty chuckled, "ha her! Why didn't you say so then?"
Thomas, Percy, Frankie and Carly all laughed, as Salty got ready to tell his story.
"Now," he began, "it all began on a dark, stormy night when the old ghost pirate ship came in from port…"
"Oh, no," Cranky groaned, turning away towards sea in dismay towards the view of the sea in dismay.
Thomas, Percy and Frankie inched closer to listen, and Salty told them his story, as the sun shone over them in the sky above.
Phew! Another story up and running, and in just a week gap from the last one, which is cool considering the two take place at the same time of one another. This was a fun one to write, even though I was in a bit of a hurry with it, because I'm going on holiday this coming week and I want to prioritize with other things besides this, especially with college starting in a few weeks. Anyway, I'm halfway through my second set, this being the fifth of what started with Duncan Takes Back two years ago, so it's like as if it's been a week set of Channel 5 Milkshake! here. I hope you've all enjoyed this one. Frankie was fun to write, and incorporating some of her JBS persona with this adaptation was also lots of fun. Having Carly in Cranky's place for trying to show off to Frankie and causing the accident was something I sorta had in mind from the start, because not only did I think it'd suit her, but I had no idea why she was omitted from the original Really Useful Stories book. Anyway, it was a nice change/expansion from the original story. The reason this one came so quickly was because I knew exactly how it was gonna go while borrowing from the source material, and I figured I might as well work on it before going on vacation. The next week few, I may take my time with up, though the adaptations may come quicker depending how much of my own liberties I take with it. Till then, stay tuned for…
Job-Swap Day - After Gordon and James have a fall-out, Nia devises a plan with the Fat Controller to get the two engines to become friends again by giving them a job-swap day.
Frank To The Rescue (based on We Need Another Engine by Christopher Awdry) - Frank the Diesel engine feels under appreciated at having been missed out of the Thin Clergyman's book and grumbles dreadfully about it, but feels more like a hero after coming to Rex's rescue.
Alfie's Secret - (based on canceled episode Alfie Has A Secret) - Alfie has a secret method to dig a trench for a hedgehog crossing, and Jack and Isobella are curious about what he's up to.
Lighten The Load! - Duke is scheduled for a trial run up to the Blue Mountain Quarry, but is teased by his two protégés Sir Handel and Peter Sam, and vows to prove to them that he can handle stone trucks just as well as they can.