Settling In:
Sarah was dozy, she had been up all stormy night talking with Caitlin about various things. Her crew had a difficult time getting her up to steam because of this, and it didn't help that the weather was still awful this particular morning.
"At least she's got an all weather cab, hopefully we'll be able to get back to Sodor at least this week." Her fireman told the driver.
"That is not gonna happen by then Jackie, we'll most likely be out here on the Norramby line for a couple of months." Michael replied. This woke Sarah up and she became dismayed.
"B-but, I just got Casey back." She stuttered. "You mean to tell me that I'm going to lose him again thanks to an idiot ship captain who could have killed his entire crew?"
"I'm afraid so Sarah." Michael told her gravely.
"Well, look on the bright side Sarah. You get to see mainland England." Jack butted in. Sarah looked out at the heavy rain and heard a low thunder rumble. Needless to say it perfectly described her feelings to the situation. A couple of hours later when she had finally gotten enough steam up, Sarah puffed into the station at Barrow to talk to Sir Robert Norramby, who was already on the main land when the destroyer struck the bridge. He understood Sarah's sadness, but that didn't mean that he didn't need her to help with the work.
"Cheer up my dear, you will see Casey again, I promise you. Now, The Fat Controller has allowed me to be able to use you to help with the load while the bridge is being mended, and your first job today is to take a load of goods to a city called Liverpool. The signalmen know you're coming so don't worry about getting lost." He said kindly.
"Yes sir." Sarah replied, still a little down.
"Now when you get to Liverpool docks, you'll meet a Great Western Pannier named Robin, she is the head shunter of the docks there. And you'll meet the man who handles the railway on the mainland when I'm doing something on Sodor." Sir Norramby continued. "His name is Molly Wellington, yes I know it's a silly name but let's not bring that up with him now."
This made Sarah want to laugh, a man with a girl's name was always funny to her. "Yes sir." She snickered. Sarah then puffed away to find her train.
Meanwhile Casey, Southern Ks-1 class consolidation number 645, was at Tidmouth Sheds with the other engines as they heard the news about the bridge from the Fat Controller.
"I hope Sarah's okay over there." Casey thought to himself worriedly.
"Disgraceful." Said Gordon angrily, he knew that now he couldn't take the morning express to Barrow, only Vicarstown.
"I can't believe the bridge would suddenly just drop down onto that ship." Emily added.
"I hope everyone on that ship is alright." Edward said.
"The sailors that were injured are stable and expected to make a full recovery, thanks to Sarah who braved the storm to get them to the station at Barrow where a few ambulances took them to the hospital." The Fat Controller told them. The engines gave a sigh of relief, and Casey showed a smile of pride.
"Because of this, all trains destined to stop at Barrow will be diverted to the Vicarstown Harbor, where ships will take the loads to the mainland." Th Fat Controller continued. "Now Casey, I understand your work load has been light lately, would you mind doing Sarah's work as well as your own?"
"I don't mind sir, what's first?" Casey asked with a smile.
"Your first job today is to take Sarah's slow goods to Vicarstown and back again." The Fat Controller answered.
"Yes sir, I'm on it sir." And Casey ran off to take his train.
Meanwhile back on the mainland, Sarah had just arrived in the Liverpool harbor and was looking for Robin. She looked over towards the water and noticed an old fashioned steam tugboat, most likely from the 1920s. Sarah hadn't seen one of those for a long time, and coincidentally he was docked very close to the line so she decided to go over and say hi to him while waiting for Robin. As she approached the old tug boat, Sarah observed his appearance. The tug's cab was a very faded and soot covered yellow, his tall smokestack was blackish red, his hull was black and his deck was faded hardwood. The tug boat had a face, it spoke of age and experience. Sarah also noticed that there was an instance of paint covering over what she assumed was the boat's original name, and further down the hull another name was stamped. "Old Man" was the name, which was a shame. That kind of name is demeaning to people, why would they give that name to engines or boats, or even cars who also have minds of their own?
"Morn'n." Sarah called out to the tug boat. The boat was awoken with a startle, he moved his cab around, looking for whoever called out to him until he saw Sarah smiling at him.
"Oh, hello there Miss Puffer." He said. "I didn't expect anyone to come and say hello to an old boat like me." He smiled meekly.
"I'm Sarah, what's your name?"
"Well, my current name is Old Man, as you can see. But it's not my original name, that one was Ten..." The tugboat began until a man ran up to him, most likely it was the harbor master.
"Alright Old Man, no need to keep the railway distracted. Now forty five oh one, the tank engine is waiting for you further down and be quick about it, it won't be long before the tides comes and if our ships are not loaded by when that happens there will be complaints." The man told the two of them sternly. Sarah glared at the man as she pulled away.
"I have a name you know." She muttered, annoyed. How rude of that man, she was only trying to say hello to the tugboat, who has clearly not been used in a while. As Sarah moved up the line a minute later she heard another voice, this one female and a little impatient.
"There you are, quickly now, let's get this load in the loading docks!"
Sarah looked over to find a busy pannier, but this tank was a little different from Duck, the most obvious was that she had external pistons instead of the usual internal ones. She would look a lot like Cassidy if the latter was a little more grumpy and impatient. She had a dirty yet nice coat of Great Western green. Sarah moved carefully under the loading crane until her freight cars were in position. The pannier was a quick engine, already she had moved a load of cars ready for the next engine to take on a journey and returned with Norramby's right hand man by the time Sarah's train was emptied.
"You must be Sarah, Sir Robert told me you were bringing this train. I'm Molly Wellington, and the pannier you just saw was Robin." The man introduced himself. "I must say, you USRA standards never disappoint."
"The standards rarely do indeed." Sarah replied with a very slight hint of irritation. This was one of the most annoying thing in the world to Sarah. Just because a few modeling companies label her as a USRA standard light mikado everybody starts to think she is one when in fact she is not, rather she was already three years old when World War 1 even began in Europe in1914, let alone the creation of the United States Railroad Administration in 1917. Mister Wellington picked up on this and quickly apologized for his mistake. Sarah couldn't be annoyed anymore, after all it wasn't the mistake wasn't his fault. She had other things on her mind anyway, like that old tugboat that she just met. Sarah asked Mister Wellington about him, like his history and such.
"I'm afraid I don't know that much about him, except he is very old and is going to be retired and scrapped soon...by year's end I believe." He replied somberly. "It's a shame to lose a steam tugboat, especially one as old as he is so I've been trying to find a suitable preservation society for him."
"Any luck?" Sarah asked.
"I found one group and they're trying to acquire as much money as they can to buy and restore him. Other than that no."
"Well, at least somebody's trying." Sarah sighed.
"Indeed, now when you get refueled, Robin will direct you to your next train to take out somewhere." And with that, Mister Wellington walked over to Robin to have her take him back to his office. Sarah hoped that Old Man would be saved, it would be a shame to lose anything old to be forgotten into history books.