The winter snow came earlier than expected in 1922, and with it came heavy blizzards, the railways on the island froze over, with the Skarloey railway being one of the most affected, as it only had 2 engines. During winter, the slate quarry would close, but that didn't stop all work: local trains and goods still needed to get through, for not all of the communities were connected by road. To make sure the line was in as tip-top shape as possible, maintenance trains and snowplow trains would run frequently. Aside from these though, it was mostly quiet, and more often than not, there would only be one train throughout the whole day.

Usually, Skarloey and Rheneas didn't mind staying all day long in the sheds, as long as their fires were lit: one was always in steam on regular days anyway. But on this particular morning, Skarloey got fed up. It all began when he had steamed out of the sheds: as he left, the smoke from his funnel blew off a pile of snow on the roof that landed on his saddle tank!

"Ugh! Snow, snow, snow!" he snapped. "I've just about had enough of it!"

"Calm down, brother," intervened Rheneas. "Snow isn't all bad. In fact, I find it rather pretty."

"Humph!" snorted Skarloey. "Of course you would: you enjoy everything and anything."

"Now that's not true, I don't enjoy it when icicles hang from me," said Rheneas.

"My point exactly!" said Skarloey. "Snow is dangerous and uncomfortable! Nothing enjoyable about it at all!"

"Of course you'd say that, with all your extra weight," muttered Rheneas.

"I heard that!" shouted Skarloey.

"Good, you were supposed to!" Rheneas snapped.

"Well, if you think snow is so easy to handle," said Skarloey, "I dare you to take over this turn!"

"Challenge accepted!" Rheneas called, grinning.

The fireman went to arrange things with the Manager, while the driver had Skarloey move Rheneas out of the sheds. The well-tank was moved onto a nearby siding so he could get to work without needing to push Skarloey out of the way. Once all the arrangements were made, Rheneas collected the coaches.

The coaches were not happy as Rheneas pulled them out of the sheds.

"We feel so cold! We feel so cold!" they complained. "We're freezing! We're freezing!"

"Oh come on, think of our passengers," said Rheneas.

"Not like we'll get any," muttered Agnes.

"Who would want to ride in this cold weather?" agreed Lucy.

Rheneas ignored their grumbling as he took them to the platform. The passengers were all dressed up in scarves and coats. Rheneas left the coaches to collect more trucks and a snowplow.

Unlike on the North Western, the Skarloey's snowplow had been rebuilt from a truck. This meant it had a tendency to be troublesome. And unlike what many people thought at the time didn't care to have a gender.

"What're you doin' 'ere?" growled the truck. "I thought Skarloey was on turn today."

"He's decided to take a little break to avoid the snow, so I'm filling in," Rheneas replied.

"Just 'urry up an' get me attached. Then let's get to work!" snarled the truck. "I'm sick o' dis weather!"

"I always wondered what happened to your tongue, considering you can't say the TH sound properly," said Rheneas with a grin. The truck spluttered at this.

"I can't 'elp da way I talk!" it snapped.

"And I can't help the weather," said Rheneas. "Now come on, we have work to do." The truck continued to grumble as Rheneas pulled it away.

He backed down onto the trucks he had collected and pushed them in front of the coaches.

"For crying out loud, I refuse to travel behind trucks! Put them behind smelly Beatrice!" snapped Agnes.

"Do you have any idea how long that would take? I'd have to leave the snowplow, leave these trucks in a loop, run around to Beatrie, uncouple her…ugh! My point is, that would require so much shunting we'd be running late by the time we finished!"

"Humph! Not like there IS any timetable!" sniffed Agnes.

"All the same, it wouldn't do for us to be late," said Rheneas. "Now quit complaining! It's a lovely winter day!"

For the coaches, it seemed like hours as the porters loaded any goods onto the trucks and into Beatrice. When the last truck was loaded and tarped, the guard blew his whistle.

"At last! At last!" sighed the coaches, as Rheneas departed the station.

Rheneas had a happy day: thanks to the plow, all the snow was easily pushed aside.

"This is lovely! This is lovely!" he puffed. The Well Tank made good time and it wasn't long before he made it to Cros-ny-Cuirn. On the platform stood a well-dressed gentleman. This was Sir Handel Brown, the owner of the Skarloey Railway. He lived in a house in the village that was known as The Rowans It was very rare to see him on the railway, as he usually had other business to attend to.

"Everything ok, Sir Brown?" Rheneas asked.

"I'm afraid not," the Owner replied. "I was outside The Rowans earlier, and the snow was hanging dangerously over where road and rail run side-by-side. I suggest you be careful."

"Will do sir," promised the driver. "Once we depart, we'll stop before the crossing to see how things look."

"Good. As I said, be careful."

Once there, the driver stopped before the crossing and stepped out, along with the fireman.

"It does look dangerous," admitted the driver. "One wrong move could cause an avalanche."

"Perhaps we should set off a detonator and see what happens," suggested the fireman. The driver placed a detonator in front of Rheneas while the fireman uncoupled Rheneas from the train. Afterwards, the Well Tank slowly rolled over it. The detonator went off…but nothing happened!

"That's lucky!" sighed Rheneas.

"I agree!" said the driver. "Let's couple up to the train and continue on our way."

The rest of the journey went without incident, until they got to the tunnel in between Glennock and Rheneas Station. As Rheneas approached, he felt a rumble.

"Driver, did you feel that?"

"I did," said the driver, and he looked up. "Oh no! AVALANCHE! Back, Rheneas, back!"

Rheneas braked and tried to reverse, but the rails were too icy and his wheels just spun! His efforts lead to steam shooting up and then even more snow started to fall! Then…

Skarloey was dozing comfortably inside the shed. That was until Mr. David Hugh, the railway's CME, came running up.

"There's an emergency: Rheneas has been trapped by an avalanche!"

Skarloey was alarmed!

"Rheneas was trapped in an avalanche?! Well what are we waiting around for?!"

Wasting no time, Skarloey was quickly steamed up and began collecting all the trucks he could find. The rescue team hopped into the trucks and Skarloey immediately set off.

Upon arriving at the tunnel, he was surprised to find Beatrice sticking out of a giant pile of snow! He couldn't help but laugh.

"You look like part of a snowman!" chuckled Skarloey.

"Very funny," groaned Beatrice.

"In all seriousness, is everybody ok?"

"I think so, everybody was inside when the avalanche fell. Now, if you would hurry up and get me out, I'm sure we'd find the situation more agreeable."

The rescue operation started, the men began digging in the snow, unearthing the coaches and trucks. What they found when they got to Rheneas, however, was unexpected: a bunch of ice laid where Rheneas should be.

"That's an odd igloo," said a rescuer. "Wonder what's inside?"

Rheneas and his crew were unharmed, with the driver and fireman stepping out of his cab with a cup of coffee each.

"Want some?" asked the driver.

"Well I'll be: who knew a hot boiler could make an igloo!"

They all had a good laugh about it. Afterwards, they checked on the passengers, who as it turned out, were all ok. Then Skarloey took the train home.

"I guess I was wrong," said Rheneas. "Snow isn't something to take lightly."

"It seems to depend. After all, you do make a nice igloo," laughed Skarloey.

"I suppose I do," said Rheneas. "You know, for situations like this, the road between Glennock and Skarloey should be upgraded: we'd still be able to get the goods through if it was."

"So long as the road doesn't get blocked by an avalanche too," said Skarloey.

"Stop arguing and take me home already!" interrupted Agnes. "I'm freezing to my frames here!"

Skarloey and Rheneas just laughed, while Agnes sulked in silence, all the way home.

(Author's Note: Inspired by the Season 5 episode Snow and the 1910 Rogers Pass Avalanche)