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Stowaway

Written by Broa Island

Proofread and Corrected by BNSF1995

Based off "Thomas and Gordon" by the Reverend W. Awdry

Isle of Sodor: 1920

The Wild Nor' Wester is an express passenger train that runs between Knapford and Vicarstown on the Island of Sodor. The train is most commonly associated with the NWR's No. 4, Gordon, however, the big blue engine wouldn't arrive on the island until 1923. At this time, Emily, Adam, Ruby, and Yang took in turns heading the express. While they all did a spectacular job with the service, there was no denying it was Yang who did the better of the four. Yang was an extremely friendly engine, but she did get a bit hot-headed from time to time.

This is a story about one of those times.

Ever since the S&M, the W&S, and the TK&E merged to form the NWR, Colin, the W&S' No. 1, had acted as the Knapford Station Pilot. He didn't mind being cooped up in a shunting yard all day and night, as he knew that his job was very important. Although, he did wish that some of the bigger engines would appreciate the work he did rather than see him as something to take out their anger on.

"Come on! Come on!" barked Alfred to the little maroon tank engine, "I want to get going before the Christmas rush!"

"It's April!" Colin retorted, but the B12 just rolled his eyes.

"Did I stutter?"

Soon, Colin brought Alfred's coaches to the station platform… half-an-hour early. Alfred backed onto the train, bumping the coaches violently! He should be thankful that there was no one inside just then. Twenty-five minutes passed and the guard blew his whistle, waved his green flag, and Alfred brought the train out of the station without even acknowledging Colin, let alone thanking him.

"What a miserable prat!" said Colin's driver, who was new to the job.

"Don't worry Mike," replied Colin. "You'll get used to it." And with that, he scuttled away back to the yard.

The next morning, Colin just couldn't wake up. No matter how hard he, his driver, and his fireman tried, they just couldn't make him start. His fire went out and there was not enough steam.

"Come on Colin," encourage his fireman, "it's nearly time for the express!" He was right, people were waiting but the coaches weren't ready!

At last, with a loud BOOM!, Colin finally got his fire under control. "Oh dear. Oh dear," he yawned as he staggered out of the coach shed where he was sleeping.

The little tank engine quickly ran over to the express coaches and the shunter hastily fastened the coupling. Colin carefully maneuvered the carriages through the yard, pushing them into place next to Platform 1. His driver looked at the station clock.

"Christ," he muttered under his breath, "we're already behind schedule." He then looked around, the station was void of locomotives, barring Colin. "Where the Hell is the engine?"

Just then, Yang came racing into the station. "Sorry I'm late," she cried, somewhat out of breath, "I was taking a nap and I lost track of time and then my pony truck felt stiff and then-"

"Well, you're here now, so hurry up and get to the front of the train!" Colin snapped; he was in quite a bad mood.

Yang scowled but did as she was told. "Hurry yourself," she said, but she had said it to herself. The brown engine ran round the coaches and carefully backed down upon them, her buffers barely connecting with that of the first coach's.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the stationmaster called over the PA system. "We apologize for the delay. The Wild Nor' Wester shall be departing shortly and we ask that you all find your seats as quickly as possible. Thank you."

Colin would usually push behind the big trains to help them start, a practice that was common among the UK's railways at the time, but he was always uncoupled first. However, in the mad rush to try and make up for lost time, the shunter had forgotten to do exactly that! The guard blew his whistle, and with Yang straining at the front and Colin barking at the back, the express pulled out of the station, slowly picking up speed as they went over the intersection.

Satisfied with his work, Colin tried to slow down, but found that he couldn't. It was then that he noticed he was still hooked to the rear coach! The tank engine's face went as white as a ghost.

"What's going on?" asked Colin's driver who had also noticed the increase in speed.

"Lads…" Colin said to his crew, "You'd might want to start writing you wills and testaments right about now!"

"Come on! Come on!" Yang puffed to the coaches, completely unaware of her new passenger. The train went faster and faster, too fast for Colin! He wanted to stop, but he couldn't!

Colin blasted his whistle in an effort to alert Yang, "Peep! Peep! Stop! Stop!" But the sound of her pistons' furious beating and the clickety-clack of her wheels on the track drowned out his cries!

"Wahoo!" cheered Yang as she burst out of a tunnel in a great cloud of steam! She was smiling like an idiot, but she didn't care, she loved speeding down the line with the wind blowing in her face and across her funnel.

Colin quickly found that he didn't share Yang's love for high speed travel. He was going faster than he had ever gone before. He was out of breath, and his wheels hurt him. I shall never be the same again, he thought sadly, my wheels will be quite worn out.

As they approached the Sodor Suspension Bridge, Thomas the Tank Engine came into view, pulling a local passenger service on the parallel track. Yang whistled a friendly "Hello" as she zoomed past, and Thomas returned the greeting. But his cheerful expression quickly turned to a look of horror when he saw Colin being dragged along by the express!

"THOMAS!" sobbed Colin.

"JESUS CHRIST!" whistled Thomas as the train rushed past. Quickly, the blue tank engine raced to the nearest signal box and his driver explained the situation to the signalman.

"No need to phone ahead," said the signalman, "the express stops at Wellsworth anyway. Someone should notice Colin there, the poor bastard."

Meanwhile, Yang began to ease the train to a stop as Wellsworth came into view. "The train now approaching Platform 1 is the 8:17 express to Vicarstown," came the announcement over the PA system.

Colin felt himself going slower, and slower, and slower, until he and the train finally stopped. He was very dizzy and exhausted, and also felt rather foolish. Yang, however, was very proud of herself, as they were only one minute late, when it could have been much worse.

"Nailed it," she smirked. It was then that Yang's driver noticed some sort of commotion at the other end of the platform.

"Hang about?" the driver thought aloud, "what's going on over there?" He hopped out of Yang's cab to investigate, pushing his way through the crowd of station staff and passengers. When he saw Colin and pieced together what happened, his face went pale. "Oh I am so fired."

A few women helped Colin's driver and fireman out of the tank engine's cab and rested them on a station bench. The two men were very disorientated as one might be after traveling 60 to 70 miles an hour standing up the whole time! When her driver passed on the news on to her, Yang was horrified and wracked with guilt! Colin was uncoupled and Yang helped him to a water column, apologizing profusely as she did so.

To rub salt into the wound, Alfred sped past with a goods train. He hated working with freight, but quickly forgot his grievances when he saw Colin. "Well, little Colin," he called. "Now you know what hard work means, don't you?"

"PISS OFF YOU NOR' EASTERN MENACE!" screamed Yang, letting off steam in Alfred's face as he rocked through the station. Soon it was time for the express to continue its journey. Yang backed onto the coaches, and once she was hooked up and heard the guard's whistle, sped out of Wellsworth, crying out one last "I'm sorry!" to Colin as she eventually faded out of sight.

Soon, Thomas arrived to help Colin back to Knapford, both remained respectfully silent throughout the journey. The next few weeks were living hell for the little engine, as both Alfred and Cecil gave Colin never-ending grief and would talk of nothing but expresses and stowaways. But Colin wasn't the only one being tormented about the incident. Ruby, while she felt sorry for Colin, found the entire thing hilarious and would use each opportunity she got to crack a whity comment at Yang's expense, much to her surrogate sister's annoyance.

Needless to say, neither engine likes to be reminded of that day. And soon, both engines' relationship with Adam would strengthen after he was involved in a similar, and just as embarrassing incident. But… that's another story.