Chapter Two: Flying Angry
"Perfect, just perfect!" Henry fumed as he roared out of Tidmouth Station, instantly being struck by the seemingly never ending snow that had consumed the Island. The big green engine stared angrily up at the clouds, somehow knowing that this ghastly weather would have something to do with making him late.
"We should have been on the Main Line ages ago!" Henry shouted back to his driver. The reasons for the delay had gone unexplained while Henry had sat steaming at Tidmouth Station, surrounded by people making rude comments about the smell of fish wafting from the vans coupled behind, many of them thinking it was him. It was dreadfully embarrassing, and had only added to Henry's rage.
"Sorry Henry, but Duck was delayed leaving the sidings, so we had to wait for him to leave before the tracks would be properly cleared," his driver shouted back above the wind. Henry knew safety came first during the winter season, and with low visibility it would have been easy for the two engines to have collided if the wrong tracks had been switched.
"That doesn't explain why we had to wait for twenty minutes!" Henry huffed, not satisfied and still wishing to vent.
"We would have gone straight through, but our delay meant that they sent James and his passenger train first and let Bear come through with his goods train," the driver replied. "They have to be efficient during this time of year, and delaying stressed out passengers is something the railway does not need to deal with. Come on now Henry, you know how it gets! We'll make excellent time on the open line though, don't worry!"
But Henry was worried. Many of the engines had long said that the Flying Kipper was cursed, and while the green engine ignored their silly complaints, it was always a bad sign when he got off to a delayed start. And it had been snowing the first time Henry had taken this train all those years ago, and that had not ended well. Sometimes, he would dream about the brake van that had come out of nowhere, his world flipping upside down as pain rippled throughout his body, the endless cold as he lay wearily in the snow… Henry never wanted to have to experience that again, and hoped that this trip would go a lot better, but the horrible weather, the delays and the tight schedule he was on were all factors that could lead to yet another disaster.
Imagine if I had an accident and this new engine saw it, Henry thought. Everyone was talking about this modern engine designed to tilt that was arriving this very evening. It seemed rather unlikely, and indeed James' attempts to mimic this engine had nearly led to his own derailment, so all the steam engines were fascinated to see him in action. Henry was eagerly waiting to see him as well, and wanted to make sure that there were no accidents that would prevent him from meeting and marvelling at the new engine.
Let's actually get back on schedule, and then that will never have to happen, the green engine thought, and he pounded across the snowy tracks, his snowplough pushing through the flakes that had begun to pile up. Having the protection was of mild relief to Henry, who knew he would be unlikely to get caught up in any major snow drifts, but he still was weary of the weather. This cold blast had come out of nowhere and had quickly covered the island with ice and snow, and there were plenty of crash opportunities on the lines ahead.
Henry carried on down the open line, the houses and businesses slowly starting to thin as he entered the Knapford Tunnel. The sound of his wheels clattering and the long line of fishy vans behind him rattling echoed inside the brick-half cylinder, and Henry savoured the comforting noise and brief protection from the snow outside. He appeared to be making up for lost time, and thought ahead to completing things on schedule.
They quickly passed through the tunnel and emerged in the town of Knapford, with the sea in the distance and quainter houses surrounding the rails. Henry began to relax, as the line appeared clear up ahead, and he knew he could make up for the lost time.
"Damnit, I thought this would have been cleared already!" His driver snapped from his cab, his voice carrying on the wind, and Henry was left confused as to what he was talking about. However, all was revealed as he left the safety of the tunnel and emerged into Knapford Station. Thomas' branch line lay to his right, the nearby farmlands hidden under fields of snow, but the view was quickly obscured by two engines: Thomas himself was on one side of a platform, while James was waiting on the other with his passenger train.
"What are you doing here?" Henry huffed as he sailed to a stop on the other line, glazing angrily at Thomas and James. "You left before I did, you should be miles ahead!"
"I am aware of that," James snapped, "but there is something blocking the line. Didn't your crew get the call?" Henry was confused, but his driver quickly answered.
"We did," he called out, "though I simply thought it would have been cleared by now." Henry was curious, and as he put together what his driver had said to what was going on, he noticed that there were men moving towards the railway lines. At first, it looked as though there was a large amount of snow on the line, but then there was the sharp noise of a tiny motor echoing through the silent night, and Henry saw that something much more solider was covering the tracks, the men approaching it with several portable machines that glinted in the dim moonlight.
"A load of timber on Bear's train fell off as he came through," Thomas explained to Henry. "They weren't properly tied down or something. There was already this delay going on and there are no cranes about, so Bear went on ahead and they are going to cut the timber into smaller pieces with chain saws and move it off the rails." Henry looked again and could make out two men dragging one already cut-up pile away from the rails and towards the platform, but there was still plenty of activity going on both lines.
"This is ridiculous!" Henry said angrily. "I am already running late, I need to get a move on! Why was I not aware of this before we left Tidmouth?"
"I told you, I thought it would have already been moved," his driver said, appearing next to him on the platform. "The stationmaster gave us permission to leave after they told us about it, saying that it should be cleared before we got there, as they wanted your line to be freed up, and your trucks were making the entire station stink. There is no need to get angry, we will just have to wait!"
"This isn't good for anyone Henry," James said with a sly grin. "No one wants to be next to you and your smelly vans!" He and Thomas both laughed, and Henry huffed and looked in the opposite direction, slinking back into his annoyance. He waited five irritable minutes as the workmen cut through the timber with their chainsaws, the snow gathering around his plough, before one of them finally gave the signal that the line was clear. Henry lit up, ready to get back to his delivery, but James blew his whistle and whooshed steam and snow into his face.
"Not yet my fishy friend! I am ahead of you on the schedule, I need to get to Crovan's Gate first!" The red engine said, and a guard's whistle sounded from the back of his coaches. Henry was aghast, and watched angrily as James soared laughing from the station. He knew known of this would have happened if he had left on time, as Bear would have arrived after he had left this station. Now the green engine would have to wait long enough to put distance between himself and James, and that was only going to delay his delivery further and push him for time, and Henry could not help but feel angry.
"Come now Henry, be patient!" Thomas said teasingly from the platform. "How do you think I feel about being pulled away from my work to bring workers up here and sit in the cold while some huffy tender engines sit about complaining?"
"Who was the engine that spent months complaining to us huffy tender engines when the viaduct was being strengthened?" Henry snapped back, missing the mocking tone of Thomas' voice in his anger. His crew had climbed back onboard, preparing to set off once more, and Henry watched as the piles of timber were dragged through the snow, adding the blame for his delays on to them.
"Touchy, are we?" Thomas laughed. "Are we worried that if we aren't on time, we will have another accident with our cursed train?" Henry was sick of being mocked and dealing with all of these delays and could not take it a second longer. He stared at Thomas and flared up, unable to hold it in.
"At least I am not some silly little tank engine that managed to drive into a house, or left my very first train behind!" He snapped. "You can hardly mock my accidents when you stupid tank engines always have far worse accidents! Didn't you break down a few years and had to be rescued by Toby? Or how about the time Percy managed to send you fleeing in fright down your own branch line? Do not even try to tease me Thomas when we both know you have had the stupider accidents!" Thomas looked as if he had just noticed a runaway train coming towards him, and Henry felt some bitter satisfaction as his guard blew the whistle, signalling for him to go. The green engine quickly gathered speed, and was moving at a reasonable pace once more within a minute. He left the station and a stunned Thomas behind, and though the green engine felt sorry for the insults and his short temper, he was simply glad to have put another engine in their place, and was able to focus once more on completing his journey at hand as safely and as quickly as possible.
Thomas watched as Henry disappeared into the night, not quite sure what to think. He didn't even register the sounds of another engine approaching until they appeared alongside, and Thomas briefly registered Arthur's appearance, the dark red tank engine filling the line James had just vacated. The workers moved between them both on the platform, moving back towards the brake van that Thomas had brought them in as the timber lay piled on the tracks.
"Hello Thomas," Arthur said, his usual cheery self. "Has the line been cleared yet?"
"Yes, Henry just left," Thomas said with a touch of bitterness. Arthur looked shocked, but before he could ask what was wrong, Thomas sounded his whistle and began to move off, leaving Arthur and the piles of timber behind without another word. He glanced down the Main Line, wondering where Henry had gotten to, and dwelled over the big engines words as he set off down his branch line.