THE INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY SERIES No. 9

JAMES AND THE ENGINES OF INDIA

Based upon the episodes by Becky Overton, Camille Ucan and Rose Johnson

Adapted by Zack Wanzer, James Riddle and Rachel Ravens

Foreword

Hello, everyone! It's me – James!

After Thomas got to travel Africa and brought home Nia, and then Percy went gallivanting off to China, I was feeling left out on seeing the world for myself. I thought I would've fit quite well in China since red's a color of good luck there.

But I digress. Some time after Percy returned home to Sodor that spring, Sir Topham Hatt received a letter from Charubala, a railway controller from India, saying that one of her engines was ill and couldn't run, so I was chosen to go to India.

I couldn't wait to show those people how splendid I was. And hopefully to get even with that Rajiv who stole my spot for winner in the Best Decorated Engine Contest…

Your favorite splendid engine,

James

JAMES AND THE ELEPHANT

Based upon "Trusty Trunky" by Becky Overton

Originally written April 7, 2019

"Ah, there he is!" cried Ashima as the ship's deck lowered. "Namaste, James."

"Er… namaste?" the red engine replied.

"That's how we greet others in India, James." Ashima was coupled up to James so that he could be unloaded from the ship that had brought him from Sodor to India. Like Percy before him, James had been fitted with knuckle couplers so that he could properly couple up to the rolling stock of India, as well as a headlamp and front cowcatcher.

"How can engines go about in public looking like this?" James asked. "I look silly!"

"I think you'll fit right in," Ashima assured, giggling slightly. "Aren't they temporary?"

"Well… yes," said James; his crew had begun to fire him up, and his fire was soon burning brightly. "Ah, it feels so good to be back under my own steam after weeks on a ship."

"And there's so much to show you, James," smiled Ashima. "Follow me."

Ashima led James on a tour across the railways of India. The red engine took in many of the different sights and unpredicted occurrences.

"I never knew so many people used bikes to carry things!" he remarked.

"It's much simpler than relying on using one large flatbed to carry one or two small items," Ashima explained, before sighing. "But most people use bikes because they can't afford cars."

"Oh my…" gasped James. "I… didn't know that many people were poor around here."

As Ashima led James into a station, her driver went to buy a snack and read the local newspaper. As she picked one up, a very familiar woman was shown on the front page.

"Addison Darnell?" exclaimed James.

"You know this woman, James?" asked Ashima.

"Her grandfather, Jacob Hockings, was a psychotic monster who tried to take over Sodor years ago," explained James. "After he died, Addison disappeared from the face of Sodor, and we haven't seen her since. She even had an extreme hatred for diesels and electric engines."

"Oh dear," gasped Ashima. "I'm glad I've never met her for myself."

"I wonder what she got up to that got her face in the paper," said James; he tried to read what it said, but the news was in Hindi, India's local language. "I'll have to ask Thomas and the others about that when I get home."

As James went to the water column, Ashima got a closer look at the paper, and gasped quietly. "Oopar mahaan relave…"

At last, James and Ashima arrived at a station called Varkala. The red engine was surprised with how busy it was; passenger trains were going in and out with the odd goods train passing by, and the engines were painted in various liveries that James didn't think were possible.

"Look at that station!" he exclaimed. "It's like a palace!"

"Ah yes, it is indeed quite fitting," came another voice. James looked over to see a navy blue tank engine with white wheels puffing up alongside him and Ashima. The red engine scowled as he caught a glimpse of the highly decorated engine, topped off with a crown on his funnel.

"You again…" he growled quietly.

"Rajiv, the royal engine, at your service!" the navy blue engine announced, rolling his Rs. He took a glance at James and smirked. "Ah, James, my old friend! It's been a while since we saw one another at the Great Railway Show!"

"Not long enough…"

"Still sore after your humiliating defeat in the Best Decorated Parade? It was barely a contest with my presence and all!"

"Now, Rajiv," scolded Ashima, "James is our guest here. We need to show him the utmost respect during his stay."

"Besides," James added, smirking slightly, "I heard that Emily, a fellow Sudrian, managed to beat you in the previous Great Railway Show."

"Th-that was just a fluke!" Rajiv spluttered, blushing in embarrassment; Ashima suppressed the urge to giggle. "Her extra large wheels must have given her the advantage. Next year, I'll have to work even harder to protect my royal status!"

Before more could be said, the three engines heard a diesel horn that made Rajiv gasp in delight.

"Noor Jehan…" he sighed dreamily.

"Just because you have a crown does not mean you're royal," a white diesel said as she pulled into the station with some coaches.

"That's Noor Jehan, one of our main express engines," explained Ashima to James. "Our other express engine, Rajinda, is stationed all the way up at Jaipur."

"Anyway," continued Rajiv, "our railway is one of the biggest and the most glamorous."

"And," came a firm voice, "the most hard working." This came from a diesel shunter in shades of brown, cream and orange shunting coaches to a terminal platform.

"Ivan?!" said James, surprised. "I remember you working at the airport before taking part in the Shunting Challenge!"

"Oh, no, Ivan is my cousin from Russia," said the diesel. "I'm Shankar."

"And here comes our manager, Miss Charubala!" announced Rajiv grandly. There, walking towards the engines, was a woman in a white dress, as well as a blue sweater and purple scarf.

"Ah, so you must be James, our visitor from the North Western Railway," she greeted.

"That would be me," said James proudly. "Namaste, ma'am; it's a pleasure to be here."

"Come, James," said Shankar. "I'll show you our main yard."

Shankar soon led James to the goods yard outside of the station.

"One of our mixed-traffic engines, Abiar, suffered from engine failure a few days ago," he explained. "She'll be at Jaipur for a long time for her repairs. We're glad you've come to help us out, James."

Suddenly, to James' surprise, an elephant was being led along near the yards.

"What's that doing there?" asked James. "Has it escaped from a nearby zoo?"

"No, no, no," said Shankar. "We use a few elephants to help out in the shunting yards."

"Isn't that almost animal cruelty?" asked James.

"Of course not," insisted Shankar. "Long before I came to the yards, they used to use elephants to shunt trains whenever they were either low on engines or none were available."

"Oh… I see," said James, still unsure. "I remember Skarloey and Rheneas telling us stories of how horses used to work alongside them in the old days."

"Yes, it's sort of like the horses," said Shankar. "You've never seen elephants working on railways at all?"

"Well… no," admitted James. "But my friend Henry had an encounter with an elephant from a circus once; gave it quite the fright and it hooshed water all over him!"

Shankar couldn't help but laugh. Before long, James was coupled up to a goods train, the guard blew his whistle, and away he went.

As James puffed along the main line, he took notice of the Indian countryside; palaces and monuments, high bridges and even animals traveling on top of trains! But throughout all of that, he thought about how silly it was for elephants working on railways.

"Imagine if they ran the railways instead of us engines or humans," he mused. "Pah! That would never happen. Elephants are just big brutes that don't know what they're doing or even care about their surroundings."

Unfortunately, James was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed a set of points that were against him. Before he knew it, James had come off the rails, and landed right into some mud beside the line.

"Ugh!" he cried. "I wasn't expecting a mud bath!" As James' crew put out his fire, Noor Jehan came rumbling by with her passenger train.

"Oh, goodness me, James!" she gasped. "What happened here?"

"Derailed at some faulty points," said James. "Can you go and fetch help? Rajiv is the last engine I want to see right now…"

"I'll let someone know at the next station," promised Noor Jehan, setting off again. "Don't go anywhere, James!"

"I wasn't planning on it…" muttered James to himself.

True to Noor Jehan's word, Ashima and Rajiv received the news of James' accident.

"We must help James at once," said Ashima.

"Count me out," huffed Rajiv. "The last thing I want is for my crown to get dirty."

"Oh, come now, Rajiv," said Noor Jehan. "James is in need of assistance. Couldn't you go help him? For me?" Noor Jehan then batted her eyelids at Rajiv, causing the tank engine to blush a bit.

"O-oh, alright," he finally said. "But just for you!"

Back at the field…

"I can't believe it," groaned James. "An accident on my first day in India."

Before he could say anymore, James noticed a nearby puddle ripple, accompanied by a stomping noise.

"Wh-what was that?" he asked nervously. The stomping grew louder and louder until James found himself staring at a large elephant. As it lacked its tusks, James could tell that this was a female one.

"Agh!" James yelped as it growled. "Please don't hurt me! I never meant what I said about elephants running a railway being silly! Honest! I'll do the shunting and you can pull my next train tomorrow!"

But the elephant didn't take much notice of James' panicking; she rubbed her trunk against James' face before trumpeting loudly.

"I don't want to be crushed!" the red engine carried on. "There are so many things in life I never got to do!" He then screamed even louder as he felt himself moving, but not under his own power.

James looked over to see that the elephant was pushing him closer to the rails using her head, with her hind legs on the ground for support.

"Driver! Fireman!" cried James as the elephant walked over to face him head on. "Do something!"

"The elephant's not hurting you," laughed his driver. "She's helping you."

James winced and shut his eyes as the elephant then began to push him and his trucks backwards. She had moved the train quite a distance to the point that James was almost back on the rails again.

"I hope that was that," groaned James, seeing the elephant walk away. "That was the most humiliating rescue I'd ever haaaaaad!"

The elephant was now using her rear end to further push James back onto the rails, much to the red engine's discomfort. After three pushes, James finally felt all eight of his wheels on firm rails again.

"Thank goodness," he sighed with relief. "And thank you, Miss Elephant… I guess…"

Suddenly, James and his crew heard a pair of whistles coming from beside them. It was Ashima and Rajiv with the breakdown train.

"Are you okay, James?" asked Ashima.

"He seems to be right now," Rajiv sulked. "I can't believe we brought the cranes out of the yard for nothing!"

"I had a little help," said James, shifting his eyes towards the elephant. She trumpeted to the engines as if saying hello. "Sorry if I wasted your time," he continued, "but I didn't know that an elephant was going to rescue me."

"I see you've met Trusty Trunky," said Ashima. "She's helped us out before, even Rajiv when–"

"Don't bring that story up!" protested Rajiv. James suddenly yelped again; Trusty Trunky had sprayed water all over him, washing off the mud.

"Now what's she doing?!" cried James.

"She's giving you a bath, James!" Ashima laughed.

"Oh," said James. "Well, thanks again, Trusty Trunky." Trusty Trunky trumpeted as she sprayed James again.

"Hey!" cried Rajiv, barely missing the water. "Watch the crown!"

"Oh, come now, Rajiv," laughed James. "A little water never hurt no engine!" Ashima and James both laughed at this, and even Rajiv couldn't help but chuckle too. When the time came to return to Sodor, James would make extra sure to leave out some details about the incident, especially if he was around Henry.

Author's Comments

Happy Valentine's Day! To mark this occasion, I'm finally presenting to you all a remastered version of James and the Engines of India! James (not the engine, obviously) and I first wrote these stories way back in 2019, just before Series 23 aired in the United States, partially due to how underwhelming I thought the India episodes of Series 22 were, but also as a writing exercise. In a sense, not only are these stories the first ones to be written for The International Railway Series, but they're also the very first SeventyVerse stories, period! Of course, as these stories were five years old, they needed reworking in order to fit the current vision we have for the SeventyVerse, which is where Rachel came in.

Anyway, Trusty Trunky. Like Number One Engine for the China episodes, this one's an okay start to the India episodes, although a bit duller as there wasn't as much in terms of character. By swapping out Thomas for James (the engine), we fixed that up and even carried on the red engine's rivalry with Rajiv as previously established in The Great Railway Show, wanting to settle a score with the royal engine himself. Although they aren't present in these stories, Rajinda and Abiar are two of the engines that were included in the Really Useful Around the World short "Thomas Dresses Up for The Black Beauty Contest in India" - a third engine from said short, Coran, will be appearing later on in this saga.

Next time, it's lights, camera, action for a pair of Movie Star Engines!