Chapter 1: Safe from a Hellish Life

"Freak! Freak! Weirdo! Dumb bitch!"

"Creepy Carrie! Creepy Carrie!"

"Scarrie White! Scarrie White!"

"Devil's child!"

"Poor Praying Carrie!"

"Try and miss this one, Christian freak!"

"Go into your closet and pray for forgiveness!"

"Crazy Carrie! Crazy Carrie!"

"Sin never dies!"

"You'll never amount to anything in life!"

"You're such a stupid worthless human!"

"Scary White! Scary White!"

"Pray for forgiveness, little girl!"

Carrie White woke up suddenly with a loud gasp from another nightmare of really horrible memories from her old life, hyperventilating and with a few beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she looked all around, up and down, and tried to remember where she was. But then, after a few panicky moments, as she then remembered where she was, she calmed down and taking in a few deep calming breaths while wiping down her sweaty forehead, she gradually remembered where she was and why she was here in the first place.

(Wednesday November 30th, 2011, 8:30am, Island of Sodor)

Throwing her new blanket aside, she sat up from the bed of soft straw that she'd been sleeping on and, taking in a few more deep and calming breaths, looked outside from the top level of the barn where she'd been sleeping for the previous five nights, ever since she'd run away and escaped from the hellish nightmare that she knew as her previous life back in her home town of Chamberlain, Maine, which had taken place eleven long days before.

Gently settling back down onto the straw bed and, as she focused her eyes on the old ceiling above and rubbed her nervous sweaty face, she took in one deep breath after another and slowly calmed down. She tried to tell herself that the hellish life she had known was in the past and that she was finally safe from now from all that, and that no-one from her old town could never get her again, but...and perhaps understandably...her mind and brain just still wouldn't accept it, despite the fact that she knew she would, hopefully, never again see any of the people who had tormented her for so long throughout her life.

"I'm all right…I'm okay…everything's gonna be all right. You'll be okay...you're gonna be all right. They can't get you now." and she told that to herself over and over again for another minute or two, despite not knowing if everything would be all right considering where she was now, and what she'd had to do in order to get where she was right now.

After being badly bullied by many of her fellow students in Ewen High school Chamberlain for nearly her whole life, the worst of them being The Mortimer Snerds consisting of Chris Hargensen - the group's notorious leader and Ewen High's Queen Bee, Sue Snell, Tina Blake, the Watson Twins Nicki and Lizzy, Rachel Spies, Heather Shyers and Jessica Upshaw and quite a few other bullies, including some of the teachers, as well as being badly abused within the walls of her own home by her fanatically religious, highly mentally unstable, abusive and psychopathic mother, Margaret White, who'd often lock her up in the small prayer closet under the stairs for long periods of time if she suspected she'd done something sinful - which for almost all of the time she didn't - Carrie knew that she just couldn't take it anymore.

Feeling and fearing that her life would be in danger if she stayed at home for much longer, and unable to take any more of the bullying from any of her peers and some of the teachers in her school, as well as the bad abuse that she was receiving daily from her own mother, she decided to take the opportunity to run away from home and make a fresh start for herself somewhere else.

Before leaving, however, she had left in her school locker, in a brown A4 envelope, an exercise copy book with 400 pages in it, within which she had left a detailed record of what had happened to her, which included every single incident of school bullying that she could remember - and there were a LOT of such incidents mentioned - as well as describing in detail what her mother had done to her in her old home. Using her very neat, easy to read handwriting, she managed to fill up 398 pages in that book. And to have filled up that book with so much information really surprised Carrie, particularly by how much she had written, including the dates, the circumstances of what happened in every single incident and such as well as the names of any person or persons who had been responsible. But it was just like a cabinet, rich in memories from her life, had just been opened up and everything that could came spilling out in immense detail, and once she started writing down everything, she just couldn't stop writing it down.

She had also left, stuck to the front of the A4 envelope with a little bit of sticky tape, a letter which was contained within a smaller white envelope giving her explanations for why she was running away and how she expected to never return home to Chamberlain again.

Yet at the very same time, Carrie was also well aware of the risks that she was taking in planning to run away from home; she was aware of the fact that she would miss the rest of her time in Ewen High School, including the rest of Junior year, as well as all of Senior year, the big prom that would take place at the end of Senior year, as well as the graduation ceremony not long after.

She also full well knew that if she was caught running away or that if her over-religious, abusive, and psychopathic mother got even the slightest bit of wind of it, she would no doubt be locked up in the small, lonely closet under the stairs for a very long time to come, and so she had to take every precaution to avoid that from happening at all costs. In the time leading up to this, she acted like all was well, both in school and out of it, and did the things that Margaret expected her to do while discreetly packing up clothes and other things so that she could bolt from the house at a moment's notice if she needed to.

She did a very good job at that, as Margaret didn't see or hear any indication or clue that would indicate to her that Carrie was going to be leaving the house in the very near future. Not even Carrie's classmates or any of the teachers within Ewen High School, or anyone else, detected or noticed the slightest hint or indication that Carrie was going to be leaving town very soon.

Very early in the morning of Saturday November 19th - just a very short time before dawn broke - on the weekend before Thanksgiving week, with Margaret still fast asleep in her own bedroom, Carrie took the opportunity to escape, absolutely determined to escape from the hell she knew as her old life, and move away from Chamberlain in order to live her own life someplace else and make it on her own. She also knew deep down that that if she was gonna run away from home to start all over again, it was a case of go now or never…if she didn't take the chance given to her right then and there, it may never come up again.

Carrie was helped out in the fact that the following week was Thanksgiving week, and so many of the people who lived in Chamberlain, including most of those she went to Ewen High School with, would be out of town which would help make her escape much a far easier task.

Having already packed up a medium-sized suitcase with clothes, the necessary documents, supplies and all the very few personal possessions that she had in the world, as well as all the money that she'd saved up, totalling about $20,000, she dressed herself into warm clothing, put on a warm woollen hat, and then very quickly and extremely quietly made her way downstairs, and hoping that she wouldn't make any unnecessary noise - which she didn't, much to her relief - quietly unlocked the back door, opened it, and she very quietly stepped outside and, after closing the door behind her, she left the house. Once she had gone round the side of the house and past the driveway to the sidewalk and made her way along it until she was well clear of the house, she took in a deep breath and made her way along the sidewalk down towards the bus station along Main Street, where she caught an early bus heading straight to Portland, Maine. Her suitcase happened to have wheels on it, as well as a long handle, which meant that getting it moving along would be a much easier task than simply carrying it in her hands.

But just before she left the house, she left behind a note, which she had written in her room the evening before, on top of the kitchen table which basically told her mother that she was going out and how she never expected to return home again. She also said goodbye to no one before she left Chamberlain, as she knew doing something like that would completely and utterly ruin her chances for escaping from Chamberlain successfully.

She also left behind in that old house everything and anything to do with religion or the bible, as she was tired to the back teeth of all that nonsense from having her mother constantly speak about it and pray every day to something that had only brought her back luck throughout her time living with her mother. She even left behind the necklace with the crucifix that she always wore, wanting absolutely nothing to do with her old life anymore. The future beckoned, and she had no intention of ever looking back again.

At one point as she walked down along the deserted streets within the quiet centre of Chamberlain towards the bus station pulling her suitcase along behind her, she briefly paused along the sidewalk only a hundred yards or so away from the bus station and turned round to look behind her. In that moment, she debated for a moment on whether or not she should head on back home again. But then, fearful thoughts of being abused by her mentally unstable mother and being bullied again by many of her classmates in school filled her head as already bad memories of her life came flooding back to her. So, taking in another deep breath, she turned and continued on to the bus station; she'd made her mind up…LEAVE. She'd had enough of everyone here…and it was time to move on.

After buying a ticket at the ticket office for a ride directly down to Portland, Maine, she boarded the bus and took a seat at the very back. Not too long afterwards, with the few passengers up at that time of the morning aboard, the bus slowly pulled out and left the bus station on its early morning trip, and headed away down Main Street bound for Portland. As it made its way through Chamberlain, it passed by all the places Carrie was familiar with, including the Kelly Fruit Company, a popular diner where many of the teenagers in town hung out, the Hardware and Lumber Company, as well as the laundry and dry-cleaners in the middle of Main Street where her mother had worked for many years, and passing by many of the houses where many of Carrie's school mates lived.

They also passed by Ewen High School for a few seconds, which was all locked up for the holidays with its front façade looking quite dark and menacing in the pre-dawn light with all its lights turned off and the entrances closed up. The sight of it briefly caused Carrie a few moments of silent panic as they went past the school, and she was deeply relieved when they went on past it. They also went by Carrie's old grammar school that was along Baker Street, as well as Chamberlain Junior High School, both of which were more places that brought back some very unpleasant memories to Carrie.

Going along the road out of town, Carrie was slightly amazed by the sight of Chamberlain in the early hours of the morning, with almost every building with their lights off and curtains covering the windows. With the roads and streets mostly empty, apart from a few isolated vehicles to be seen here and there, they were able to go along reasonably quickly towards the edge of town.

As they got closer to the outskirts of town, they went past one of the main businesses in Chamberlain, the Chamberlain Mills and Weaving Co., which was a textile and dye business and one of the oldest businesses in town. It was a very large and impressive building, set up right beside the river, and that had been there for many years, and it too was closed up for the night, with all the windows dark and only a few lights being on here and there on the outside of the building.

Very soon, after clearing the outskirts of town and moving off into the countryside, they had left Chamberlain behind and went up a low hill off to the south side of the town, from where the whole layout of the town, and some of the key landmarks, could be clearly seen. Carrie turned and looked out of the back window as she got further and further away, and a small tear went down her face from her left eye.

"Goodbye to Chamberlain…I hope that I'll never ever return to this town again." Carrie said in a low whisper as she turned her head away when the bus turned went through a wood lining both sides of the road and motored on its way, while the woods blocked out the view of Chamberlain from the hilltop.

And with that, Carrie White's involvement with her hometown of Chamberlain, Maine came to an end. From now on, she had her own future and path in life to worry over and vowed never to go back home or remember about her past again, or even see those who had made her life miserable. She could now concentrate on her own future, and she had no intention of ever looking back again.

The various different thoughts that were going through Carrie's mind as she watched the countryside go by while the sun very slowly came up to the east were of immense relief now that they had finally gotten away from town. Other thoughts that went through her head was that she wasn't at all wanted in Chamberlain, either by her own mother in that lonely old house, or by anyone else, especially her own school mates who'd made her life an unnecessary living hell for years. So, it was time for her to leave that old town, move on to the future and to, hopefully, leave all her bad memories and bad people behind for good while making a brand-new start in her own life.

Yet, what Carrie didn't know was that by running away from Chamberlain when she had the chance to do so and leaving behind the hellish life of bullying and abuse that she'd endured for years, she'd done herself and her hometown a massive favour. It meant that she had saved herself from further and unnecessary abuse, humiliations and bullying from any further people at school – and had cleanly broken free from the grip of her abusive, religious-domineering and mentally unstable mother – which meant that it would allow her to get her confidence back at last and get her life back on track, as well as to secure her own future and steer in the direction that she wanted it to go.

But at the same time, and far more importantly for her, and for everyone else who went to Ewen High School, as well as for all the residents of Chamberlain, it also meant that when the night of the Senior Prom came to Ewen High School in late May 2013, she wouldn't end up getting humiliated in front of the whole of the Junior and Senior Years as the result of a horrible prank involving Chris Hargensen dumping a bucket of pig blood on top of her, which meant that there would be no Black Prom and no Chamberlain massacre or damage done, which meant that nobody would die on the night of the Senior Prom.

After arriving in the town of Portland after a comfortable trip about two hours or so later, by which time the sun was well up and the sky was brighter though it was covered with a thin layer of light-grey clouds, Carrie disembarked from the bus with the other passengers and left the bus station, making her way into town. Feeling hungry, especially as she hadn't had anything to eat before she left home, she took the opportunity to have some much-needed breakfast in a small café within town, which she really enjoyed. After finishing her breakfast and paying for it, she left the café and then make her way over towards the port area which was nearby. After sneaking into the dock area, she somehow had managed to sneak aboard one of the largest cargo ships that was tied up in the harbour, the M.V. Tidmouth, with no idea where it was going. But she didn't care about that, just as long as it took her to a place where she could make a fresh start where no one would know of her past.

After she somehow got aboard the ship without being seen by anyone and had hidden herself amongst the cargo within one of the large holds, the ship left the dockside bang on time at 12:00pm and, after clearing the harbour, headed eastward out into the open waters of the rugged and often stormy North Atlantic. Carrie managed to remain well-hidden for the entire trip, which was uneventful and took about six full days to cover. Luckily, they had fine and smooth sailing conditions all the way over, though the weather was quite cold at times, particularly during the nights. Luckily though, Carrie had plenty of supplies with her, and so she was able to stay well-hidden without taking the risk of leaving her hiding place.

At times during the crossing, particularly during times when it was very quiet and time just seemed to draw out like a blade, Carrie sat back and thought about what the future might hold for her, and hoped that she would be able to take on whatever challenges that future brought with it. However, she knew full well that she wouldn't be subjected to any more of the bullying and harassment she had experienced back in Chamberlain, including such things as having pranks and nasty jokes being played on her all the time by her classmates, as well as such things as being called names or being given cruel nicknames - such as "Truck Face" or "Big dumb pudding pop", people trying to trip her up by sticking their legs out from their tables in the cafeteria, having books deliberately knocked from her desks, or being pinched or poked or, even worse, being given wedgies by the bullies. She tried her best to push those highly unpleasant memories of her life to the back of her head, as she knew they would only upset her, and tried to concentrate on what the future would bring.

Very soon though, it was finally journey's end and they at last arriving at their destination; Knapford Harbour, which was located along the south west coast of the Island of Sodor very early in the morning of November 26th. The Island of Sodor was a part of the United Kingdom, and it was located within the Irish Sea between England and the Isle of Man, where Carrie felt, or at least hoped deep down, that no one from home would ever think to look for her there.

After somehow getting off the ship without being spotted by anyone, either from the members of the ship's crew or from anyone who was working away along the dockside or who were helping to unload the cargo from the freighter's enormous cargo holds, Carrie managed to make her way away from Knapford Harbour without any fuss or bother at all, and headed out to the town of Knapford, where she exchanged some of her money, bought some food to eat as well as a map of the island, so she could find her way around, and a blanket, and then went out of town into the country just outside. Even though she'd missed Thanksgiving back home, not that she would've experienced that much anyway - considering her mother's abusive ways - she was now in a brand-new place where she could restart her life again away from all of that rubbish, and THAT as far as she was concerned was something to be thankful for. After all, an old era had come to an end, and a brand new one had begun.

However, it wasn't very long – less than half a day actually – before Carrie suddenly noticed something that was…rather peculiar about the Island of Sodor; she saw that all the steam locomotives that ran along the island's many different railway lines, as well as a few of the road vehicles, had faces on their fronts, with eyes that could look around and mouths that could move and talk. Carrie couldn't understand how all the steam locomotives and some of the road vehicles could be alive in such a way, which freaked her out a little at first.

But over the last few days that she'd been on the island, she'd developed a liking to watching the many different steam locomotives go by with their trains, either long or short, rattling along behind them, particularly from a viewpoint on a ledge that looked over the branch line that ran from the main station at Knapford all the way to Farquhar, which was located in the western central part of Sodor.

One of the steam locomotives that she had taken a liking to seeing go by every now and then was a bright red tank engine with a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement, and was painted in a smart maroon red livery with the letters "L.M.S." painted on his side water tanks in bright yellow. He didn't go along the Farquhar Branch too often, but when he did, Carrie would always wave at him whenever she saw him go by, and the engine would always whistle a friendly greeting in response and call out "Hello!" in return before puffing along the line with his train, be it a freight train or a passenger train.

(Back to the present)

After finishing off a small breakfast of an apple, a carton of orange juice and a small box of cereal, Carrie got her things together, left the barn and headed off to the double-tracked railway line that was quite close by. She had only just gotten to the overlook where she liked watching the trains go by when, after only a few moments, she heard a steam whistle quite close by; a few short moments later, another steam locomotive went by heading from Farquhar towards the shunting yards close to Knapford Station with a long line of 36 hopper wagons of various sizes clanking and clattering along behind and laden with freshly quarried stone, their metal sides streaked with stone dust of different shades of grey and white.

The locomotive, a W.D. Austerity 2-8-0 (1) with the number 90361 on its cab-sides in white, and its plain unlined black paintwork still surprisingly bright and shiny despite the quarry dust, and with black and grey smoke chuffing sharply from the short stout chimney on top of the smokebox and rising high into the air and drifting back over the train, went by where Carrie was, tooting its deep-toned whistle and smiling when Carrie waved to it, with the driver looking up and waving back, before continuing on down the line to Knapford, with the heavily laden hopper wagons rattling along behind and dark grey smoke chuffing sharply from the chimney.

Carrie smiled a little as she watched the locomotive and its long heavy train go by. The hopper wagons rattling loudly as they followed along behind the locomotive until the brake van came into view and went by as well.

Very soon, the train had disappeared into the distance down the line, leaving everything at the scene quiet again and Carrie alone. It wasn't long before a small tear came to Carrie's eye and ran down her cheek. Wiping the tear away and giving a long, heavy sigh, she turned and headed away in the opposite direction to the small village that was nearby.

(1): The War Department (W.D.) Austerity 2-8-0 Class was one of the largest classes of 2-8-0 engines to be used on the British Railway system, with British Railways (B.R.) taking delivery of 733 locomotives out of the 935 that were built, with the rest going abroad to places on Continental Europe, e.g., to the Netherlands and Sweden, including 12 that went down to Hong Kong. The class was built during the Second World War, when there was a real need to have a standard class of heavy freight locomotives built in large numbers quickly for military service.

In selecting a standard locomotive for war work, the Railway Executive Committee did consider the Great Central Railway Robinson 8K 2-8-0 design, as well as the Great Western Railway's No2884 2-8-0 Class, but both were rejected on grounds that both designs had a limited route availability. The eventual design that was chosen was the Stanier 8F Class 2-8-0 design of the L.M.S. But it was soon discovered that a simpler and cheaper version of the 8F was needed, and one which could be built in large numbers and at a cheaper cost.

The new design for the W.D. Austerity 2-8-0 was basically a simplified version of the Stanier 8F 2-8-0 heavy freight engine. For instance, the firebox was a parallel boiler with a round top firebox instead of a Belpaire firebox on the 8F. The inner firebox was also made out of steel instead of copper, which was rarer and thus more expensive. They were also designed to adapt to different working conditions, e.g., the boiler could be adapted from coal firing to oil firing should the need arise, and without having to ever lift the boiler out from the frames. The narrow bunker on the tender was designed to give good visibility to the rear if the engines were ever running tender-first.

Fitted with two outside cylinders that were of cast construction and which were 19in in diameter with a 28in stroke, and paired with a boiler that was fitted with superheating elements and pressed to 225psi, and driving wheels that were 4ft 8.5in in diameter, the class had a maximum tractive effort of 34,215lbf. The class had Walschaerts valve gear fitted, with the connecting rod from the cylinders being fitted to the third driving axle. They were coupled to tenders that carried 9 tons of coal, and 5,000 gallons of water.

The class had to be quick and cheap to build, so as to be used for the British and Allied war efforts. They also had to use low-cost components and materials in their construction, and they also had to be light enough so as to have the widest possible route availability. They also had to be capable of steaming on anything, even when they were forced to use poor quality or low-grade fuels. As the class were also intended to be used in a variety of different war theatres, they were equipped with steam brakes for the locomotive and the option of either vacuum or Westinghouse brakes for the trains they pulled.

The class were primarily built by two locomotive builders, the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, and by the Vulcan Foundry, of which 390 were built by the Vulcan Foundry and the rest by the North British Locomotive Company.

Many of them saw extensive service on Continental Europe with the British Army during the time after the D-Day Landings in June 1944, including on the railway systems of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and in Germany. Prior to D-Day, when the British Army had little initial use for them, around 475 members of the class were loaned out to the "Big Four" railway companies, with the L.N.E.R. taking 350 of them into temporary stock. By the end of February 1945, almost all examples had been sent over to Continental Europe to support the British Army. All but three members of the class served with the British Army on the European Mainland during the war, these three engines being No.77223, No.77369, and No.79250.

On June 2 1944, very early in the morning, W.D. Locomotive No.7337 was hauling a freight train bound for Ipswich, that was approaching Soham, Cambridgeshire, when suddenly the leading wagon in the train of 51 wagons caught fire. As most of the train was loaded with 500lb bombs which were bound for R.A.F. airfields in the area, if the whole train had gone up it would have been an enormous catastrophe. So as a result, the train was brought to a halt and the burning wagon was uncoupled from the rest of the train, and then the No.7337 drew on forwards with the driver intending to move the burning wagon away into open countryside where if it exploded, the result wouldn't be a disaster. But No.7337 had only gone about 140 yards, and was alongside the platforms at Soham Station, when the bombs in the wagon went off.

The blast killed the fireman, and a signalman also died in the explosion, which left a crater 66 feet wide and 15 feet deep, with the station buildings almost completely demolished, and some form of damage caused to about 700 properties within a 900 yard radius. But if it hadn't been for the bravery of the crew in moving the burning wagon laden with bombs, then the damage from the entire train exploding would have been much more severe. As a reward for their bravery in preventing a disaster, both the driver and fireman were each awarded a George Cross, though it was posthumous in the fireman's case. No.7337 suffered extensive damage from the blast, but it was repaired and eventually returned to service. The line itself was reopened for freight traffic in 18 hours, and for passenger traffic on the following day.

Before they were sent over to Europe after D-Day, the class had 70000 added onto their numbers, while those that were built after 5th September 1944 had the number 70000 carried on them from new. Those that were built by the N.B.L. didn't have their builder's plates in the correct sequence and so were mixed up between the N.B.L. and the Vulcan Foundry as well as between batches.

After the war, 184 examples of the class were sold to the Netherlands, where they worked on Nederlandse Spoorwegen (N.S.), or Dutch Railways. Two of the examples that worked in the Netherlands were later sold to the Swedish State Railways or S.J. One example was given to the United States Army Transportation Corps (the U.S.A.T.C.) in exchange for a U.S.A.T.C. S160 2-8-0. In the second half of 1945, three examples of the class were involved in accidents within the North Rhine-Westphalia region of western Germany, and all three were subsequently written off as a result. These three locomotives were No.77125, No.77183 and No.77238.

The L.N.E.R. took 200 examples of the class into their own stock after the war ended, who classified them of O7's, and numbered them from No.3000 to No.3199. Initial allocations of the WD Austerity 2-8-0's tended to displace many older Gresley 2-8-0's, such as the Classes O1 and O2, to much less strenuous work. The British Transport Commission, the B.T.C., later bought another 533 examples of the class from the army after the war ended, though many needed substantial work done to them before they could be used again. Upon nationalisation in 1948, all 733 examples passed into British Railways ownership.

Two examples of the class remained with the War Department after the end of the war, where they served on the Longmoor Military Railway in Hampshire. They were No.77337 Sir Guy Williams and No.79250 Major General McMullen. Both were renumbered No.400 and No.401 respectively in 1957.

In 1946, 12 members of the class were sent down to Hong Kong, where they worked on the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Six were scrapped in 1956, but two examples survived there until September 1962.

The 733 examples of the class that ran in B.R. service were numbered from No.90000 to No.90732, and they were used all over the British Railway network, from the far north of Scotland all the way down to the very southwest of England, though those allocated to the Southern Region stayed only for a short time before being transferred elsewhere by 1951. They worked on all different types of general freight and heavy mineral duties, with the odd passenger train and fast fitted freight train thrown in for good measure. The class were known to railway enthusiasts as "Dub Dees" or "Austerities", and were easily recognised due to their characteristic "clink-clonk-clink" of their motion, as they rolled along, while hauling long and heavy trains of coal, iron ore, steel, or general freight behind them.

They were also given the rather unfortunate nickname of "Iron Lungs", due to their rather spartan appearance when they were in service. They also gained the nickname of "Bed Irons" due to the clanking sounds produced by their motion. Railwaymen also gave them the nickname of Ozzies.

Only one example of the class that ran in B.R. service was ever given a name at all; No.90732 was named Vulcan, after the Vulcan Foundry where many of the class were built.

As the 1950's and 60's went on, the class began to suffer from the poor maintenance of steam locomotives around this time, and many of them were seen in a very heavily weathered condition, their boilers, wheels and tender-sides heavily streaked with dirt, with their cab-side numbers often barely visible under the heavy dirt and grime, as evidence of the hard work they undertook. Yet even in their final days, despite their rather unkempt appearances as time went on, as well as the lack of maintenance characteristic of this time, with steam often leaking out from every joint, the class remained free-steaming and reliable workhorses who always managed to get their jobs done, and could always be trusted upon by their crews to pull through.

Withdrawals of the class began in 1959, and they were slowly phased out from service over the next eight years. By the start of 1967, there were only 123 examples of the class left in B.R. stock, with the final examples being withdrawn from service by the end of September that year.

Sadly, none of the engines that were used by B.R. have been preserved, with the last five examples of the class being withdrawn from regular service in September 1967, and all the withdrawn engines being cut-up for scrap not too long afterward they were withdrawn. However, one example, W.D. No.79257, which worked in the Netherlands for a time after the war, and then in Sweden for a number of years, returned to the U.K. in 1973 and has been returned to working order on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, and has been numbered as what would have been the next engine in sequence, No.90733.

A number of the original engines will be appearing within this story as it goes on, as well as a few members of the 150 strong 2-10-0 version of this class, which were numbered from No.90750 to No.90774, as well as a few more of those W.D. 2-10-0's which never worked on B.R., including a few with their W.D. numbers and in W.D. livery.

Also, a number of other different classes of British steam locomotive designs with eight coupled driving wheels, either real engines or fictional classes, will be appearing in this story, since none appeared in the original model series that we all know and love.