Sir Handel Goes Haywire
Today started out as a simple day for Sir Handel. His first job was to pull a long line of slate trucks from the quarry to the loading bay. But today, however, is not going to be a smooth day for Sir Handel. He had returned to the main yards to have his slate unloaded into Arthur's waiting trucks.
"There you go," said Sir Handel when he arrived. "Why thank you, Sir Handel," smiled Arthur. But just as Sir Handel stopped completely, he suddenly jerked forward. "What on earth?!" cried the driver. "What just happened?!" asked Sir Handel, surprised. "Sir Handel," said Arthur confused, "Are you playing a trick?"
"No," answered Sir Handel, "And the slate trucks didn't bump me. What happened?" "Not sure," answered the driver. "What?" thought Sir Handel. Luckily, none of the slate have been damaged. So they were successfully loaded into Arthur's train and he set off. "What happened?" wondered Sir Handel. "Not sure," replied his driver.
Sir Handel did his next job, which is to pull a goods train. "Here you go," said Rheneas, "All set for you." "Thank you, Rheneas," Sir Handel replied. He backed slowly up to his train.
But once again, when Sir Handel stopped, he ended up backing up too fast and hit the train. "Whoa!" cried the guard in Cora, the guards van, "That was somewhat a surprise." "What?" cried Rheneas, "Sir Handel?" "I don't know," said Sir Handel. He was starting to worry.
Nonetheless, Sir Handel pulled the goods train to the mountain station where they are needed. Sir Handel stopped at the station, but not before banging the trucks again. "There!" cried Sir Handle, "It happened again!" "What is going on?" asked the driver.
After the workmen unloaded the train, Sir Handel took the empty trucks back to the main yard so he can do his next job. He left the empty trucks in a siding, but not before banging them again and he collected a train of empty coaches. Sir Handle stopped just before he touched the coaches buffers.
Then he jerked back suddenly and gave them a slight bump. "There is something wrong today," said the firemen. "Yeah," agreed the driver, "I don't know if Sir Handel should pull the passenger train today."
"But all of the other engines are busy today," said the firemen, "So Sir Handel is the only one who can do this job. He must!" "All right," said the driver, "But let's be careful." So Sir Handel did his job very carefully. He collected the passengers and he made his trips with his train.
Later in the afternoon, Sir Handle took the passenger train to the station by the lake. The driver put on the brakes carefully and Sir Handel stopped like normal. But when the guard left his van, trouble happened.
Just as Sir Handel stopped completely, he started up again. "Uh oh," muttered Sir Handel, "What now?" "I'm not sure now," answered the driver, "The brakes aren't holding anymore!" "Argh!" cried Sir Handel as he departed from the station just as the passengers were preparing to leave the train.
"Runaway!" cried a passenger. "We must do something!" said the guard. Sir Handel had cleared the station platform when the driver turned the brake lever even harder. "The brakes aren't holding!" he said alarmingly. "Oh no!" cried Sir Handle.
At the same time, Duncan was pushing a train of vans. He is on the same lines as Sir Handel. "I wonder what's going on?" thought Duncan. Sir Handel continued steaming down the line. "We've got to do something," called the driver. Then Sir Handel saw Duncan's train in front of him.
He couldn't stop. Luckily, all of the passengers had braced for impact before it happened.
Duncan felt a big bump in front of his train. It stopped him suddenly. "What was that?" he asked. His crew walked out and saw that Sir Handel had ran right into him and his train. Luckily, Sir Handel wasn't going fast at all to cause serious damage to him, Duncan, his vans, and the passenger coaches.
They all stayed on the rails, but they were all shaken. The passengers were also shaken, but all of them were unhurt. The impact finally stopped Sir Handel. "At least I stopped," he sighed, "Thank heavens."
Skarloey arrived to see what had happened. "Oh my!" he said. He took the passenger train back to the station.
Duncan took Sir Handel to the repair yard to have him checked out. Once he got there, the workmen checked Sir Handel's brakes and steam pipes. It turned out that there is a faulty brake pipe. "It doesn't work all the time," one of the workmen concluded. "Oh," replied Sir Handel. "We've should have had the brakes checked out yesterday," said the driver.
"That's right," the Thin Controller said sternly, "I hope you will all think again after this event." "Yes, sir," Sir Handel and his crew replied.
2 days later, Sir Handel returned to service. "That was really foolish of me," said Sir Handel. "Well," said Peter Sam, "It can happen to anyone." "Just try to have something done about it earlier," said Sir Handel. "Right," agreed Rusty.
"Sir Handel," said Duncan, "I know better about passengers now, thanks to Skarloey, so maybe he can teach you the same kind of lesson." "I don't think that will be necessary," smiled Sir Handel, "After what happened to me." Skarloey and Rheneas agreed with Sir Handel.
