ROSIE & THE TRAMS

Rosie is a bright red tank engine who works in the big and bustling goods yard at Vicarstown.

There's always something to see and do, and Rosie finds no shortage of work, as so many engines from both Sodor and the Mainland come and go with their goods and passengers.

Rosie loves getting to see all her friends as she shunts trucks and coaches at the big station. And she always like to think back to that faithful day when she got given the job from the Fat Controller.

"I'm very pleased with how your work has been improving, Rosie." The Fat Controller had told her one day. "In fact, you're doing so well that I'd like to give you a promotion! How would you like to be the station and shunting yard pilot at Vicarstown?"

Rosie was delighted with this reward, especially when she got a new coat of red paint to go with it.

"Not only will you have a number now, but also the initials of the North Western Railway on your sides." The Fat Controller explained as he watched her getting repainted inside the Steamworks. "Just to make sure everybody knows you're a Sodor engine whilst you're working at Vicarstown, since so many engines there are from the Mainland. I know you'll do splendidly."

One clear morning, Rosie was arranging coaches to the platform for Connor to take away. Everything was where it should be, the trains were running to time, and it was rather peaceful.

As soon as all of Connor's coaches were right by the correct platform, Rosie was uncoupled from the brake coach and sat behind the train waiting to go back to the yard.

Suddenly, she heard a strange buzzing noise. Then came a continuous ker-klunk-ker-klunk sound, as a large object moved past the tall houses.

"What's that? I've not heard an engine like that before." Rosie wondered aloud as she looked around.

"Down here!" Came a voice.

Rosie looked down towards the roads and streets below the station, and saw to her surprise, an orange double decker electric tram, quietly sat beneath the bridge.

"Oh! Hello there!" Rosie called from above. "Sorry, I didn't see you! I've never seen you here before! I'm Rosie! What's your name?"

"I'm Lisa!" said the tram. "I'm a double decker electric tram!"

"An electric tram? I've never seen one of those before. Well, I've seen trams before. There's Toby of course, but he's a steam tram."

"I'm new here!" replied Lisa. "And I'm better than any old steam tram! In fact, I'm better than any steam engine ever!"

"How so?" asked Rosie.

"You're not as hard working as us city folk!" laughed Lisa. "And you're not as clever as us either!"

"That's not true!" huffed Rosie indignantly. "I'm quite clever and I'm a very hard worker!"

"But you're always up there making so much noise and steam!" scoffed Lisa. "Down here, we trams are as quiet as a mouse. That's the joys of being electric."

"I don't make much noise at all!" Rosie snapped back. "The passengers like us steam engines quite a lot!"

"Pah! Who'd want to travel behind such a dusty old claptrap like yourself?! I doubt you've even pulled passengers before!"

"Well, no, but-"

"Hah! Exactly! Now, if you'll excuse me, Rosie! I have work to do! Very important work, as it happens! You stick to your dusty old trucks and coaches!"

And with a ding of her bell, Lisa sauntered off quietly from the stop, before disappearing into the town past the houses and cars. Rosie glared as she watched her leave.

"Ahem! Excuse me!" came a voice. It was Flying Scotsman, waiting beside the platform with his coaches. "Do you mind moving please? You're blocking my path!"

"Oops! Sorry, Scotsman!" replied Rosie as she hurried off onto the other line, before moving over to the line opposite Scotsman's. "I don't suppose you know about the new trams working here?" She asked him.

"Hmm, I have heard about them arriving recently, but I haven't seen much of them myself." replied Flying Scotsman.

"I just met one! Her name is Lisa and she's really stuck up and rude! She thinks she's better than me because she's an electric tram and called me a dusty old claptrap!"

"There's really no point worrying about what some tram thinks of you, Rosie! Your work is more important. And so is mine as a matter of fact!" And with that, Flying Scotsman whistled and steamed away towards the Vicarstown Bridge with his coaches snaking along behind him. Rosie pondered to herself as she watched him leave.

"Scotsman's right. I probably won't even see Lisa again today anyway. We'll both be busy doing our own work."

Later on, Rosie soon met two more double decker electric trams. A purple one and a blue one. They were identical to Lisa.

"I'm Patti, and this here is Sarah!" introduced the purple one.

"You must be Rosie. Lisa told us all about you." added Sarah.

"Did she now?" tutted Rosie.

"Yeah, I did!" came a laugh, as Lisa trundled up alongside the other trams. "My sisters and I agree that places like Vicarstown are only good for smooth, clean electric trams!"

"Tch! We've been here longer than you!" Rosie pointed out. "I-I could run that tramway of yours myself, and better!" She added quickly.

"Why bother?" laughed Lisa. "I know I'll never have to bother with the likes of you railway engines! You can't be down here, this tramway is only for us!"

"Best place for you! Out of the way so we don't have to always put up with your rudeness!" rebuked Rosie.

"I'm taller and bigger than you, therefore I'm better than you!" said Lisa.

"But you're down there, and I'm up here!" giggled Rosie cheekily. "I'm literally above you!"

"High and mighty, big head!" chanted Patti and Sarah together.

"I'll wager you a little challenge!" smirked Lisa. "First one to do all their jobs by the end of the day wins and is the better engine!"

"You're on!" laughed Rosie. "It'll be easy! I'm much faster and more agile than all three of you put together!"

"We'll see, hun! We'll see!" Lisa snickered as she and her sisters chortled away together.

"We'll see, we'll see!" Rosie mocked with a laugh. "The only thing you'll be seeing, Lisa, is all my work done before you've even reached the station!"

Early the next morning, Rosie woke up and steamed out of the sheds, determined to win the competition. Sidney gave a weary yawn as he looked towards Rosie leaving her berth before he glanced sleepily at the clock on the side of the shed.

"Erm, Rosie?" asked Sidney, perplexed as ever. "You're up early. Erm, is the clock wrong? Or am I missing something?"

"Oh don't worry, Sidney!" replied Rosie. "I'm just going to help with shunting earlier today! Just being really useful! You can wait a bit until you're ready to go!"

"Oh um… ok!" Sidney yawned again, before he began to drift back off to sleep.

"I'll show those stuck up trams I can do it!" Rosie puffed to herself.

She scurried away from the sheds and across the junction down into the yard, pushing a line of sleeping trucks, making them groan as they woke up.

"What's the big idea? I was sleeping!" yelled one.

"Another five minutes!" grunted another.

"Come on, you lot! There's work to be done!" Rosie called as she shunted the line of trucks towards an empty siding, before quickly reversing backwards towards a rake of vans.

"Now then, I'd better get these ready for the Flying Kipper. I'll put them on that siding so they can be taken to Brendam Docks later." Rosie mumbled to herself as she coupled up to the vans and began to reverse before moving them towards a separate siding, before she stopped.

"Oh! Maybe I should put them there instead? No, no! They're fine here!" She backed up again and went away to another siding.

"I can't let Lisa win! The Fat Controller gave me this job because he knows I'm really useful! I just need to prove that to Lisa!"

Meanwhile, Lisa scuttled around the busy town, picking up and dropping off passengers at each and every stop. Though she and her sisters were new to the island, she didn't find it hard to figure her way around the streets.

"Easy peasy!" She grinned. "It's not that big a town, and all the cars and vehicles keep clear of me! I don't see those railway engines having it as easy as we do!"

Lisa stopped nearby to the busy market square and saw Patti nearby. They waited whilst their passengers got on and off and they whispered to each other.

"Does Rosie know?" Patti asked her sister.

"No she doesn't." giggled Lisa. "And we can't let her know until we win!"

Rosie wasn't feeling as calm as Lisa was. To her, this was a very serious competition, and one that she had to win at all costs. As such, she wasn't being as thorough with her work and kept making mistakes.

"Oh no! This goes here! But then… oh no! Where's the flatbed for the Dieselwor-" A loud whistle from the station cut her off.

"Agh! And there's Gordon's whistle! Oh no! Hang on, I'll be there now!"

Rosie barrelled away towards the busy station, as Gordon sat waiting impatiently by the platform, passengers crowding around behind him.

"And what time do you call this?" demanded Gordon, glancing up worriedly at the large station clock, hanging from the ceiling.

"I call it 'wait a moment and have some patience o' clock'!" replied Rosie.

"Hmph! Most engines usually call it half past 11! You should have been here half an hour ago!"

"It's not the end of the world!" huffed Rosie. "Just wait there, and I'll bring you your coaches!"

Rosie was really getting herself worked up now and into a panic. Nothing seemed to be going right for her at all. Caitlin whistled as her passengers all looked out the windows at the obstacle left in front of them.

"Rosie!" called Caitlin. "Why are there tankers left at the platform?" Rosie gasped and laughed awkwardly as she hurried over to pull them out of Caitlin's way.

"Sorry, sorry! I'll fix it! Don't worry!" She called before she was cut off by a loud horn.

"Rosie! Where are you going with those tankers?" asked Paxton. "I thought you'd left those there for me!"

"I have to move them for Caitlin! But don't worry, I'll put them somewhere else for you!" replied Rosie as she hurried backwards with the tankers as Paxton followed her.

By now, the yard was piling up with trucks and coaches, and engines in both the yard and the station were getting impatient. A queue of engines, trapped by trucks and coaches in the yard, was beginning to grow.

"Come on, Rosie!" whistled Spencer loudly. "The Duke and Duchess of Boxford have to get to Callan Castle for the banquet this evening! I cannot be late! My coaches should have been washed by now!"

"One minute!" called Rosie as she darted in one direction to fetch the special coaches.

"Excuse me!" came Merlin's voice from the back of the queue. "Someone said I needed to see a tank engine named erm… Rosalind, about where to put this delivery of steel!"

"Hang on everyone! Please wait! I just-" But Rosie's train of thought was rudely interrupted by a loud thudding noise coming from the junction heading out of the station to the bridge.

By the time Rosie hurried herself over to where the noise came from, she found Connor, trapped on his line and waiting at the junction because of Samson's line of stone trucks blocking his path.

"Come on, Samson!" snapped Connor. "I'm going to be late!"

"Stop rushing me about! I need to wait for my signal to turn green!" huffed Samson.

"No, no, no! Not more problems to sort out!" worried Rosie. "This just keeps going from bad to worse!"

It was complete carnage. And it was only 12 o clock.

At the end of the day, Rosie was completely exhausted. The yard had been in disarray and the Fat Controller was most annoyed about it.

"You've certainly caused a large amount of confusion and delay, Rosie!" He scolded. "I had hoped you'd work better if I gave you this job! You were starting to show a lot of promise!"

"But, Sir!" exclaimed Rosie. "It was those new electric trams! They kept making fun of me and making me annoyed, and-and-!"

"The best thing for you to do, Rosie, is to focus on your own work, instead of trying to compete with the trams. I know how much they enjoy winding up you railway engines, but I'm sure you can see what happens when you don't try and get your work done."

"Yes, Sir. I know, Sir…" sighed Rosie sadly.

"You'll get the hang of it soon, I'm sure of it." The Fat Controller added soothingly. "Let's just hope this doesn't happen again."

Rosie trundled off sadly towards her shed. But before she'd even passed through the station, she noticed Lisa stopped just below the arched bridge and looking up at her smugly.

"I won. I knew I would." She grinned. "And you lost. I knew that you would. Got all my work done by at least 3 o clock."

"But... but how? How did you get all your work done so much faster than me? I'm sure you finish later on than that."

At that moment, Patti and Sarah snaked out under the bridges and stopped by Lisa, and all three of them started laughing at once.

"We all chipped in!" giggled Sarah.

"Good thing I have my sisters to help me out!" chuckled Lisa. "That's the thing about us trams; we're just so clever!"

"But-but… I thought it was a challenge between just the two of us!" huffed Rosie.

"Well, I don't believe we agreed to that." smirked Lisa. "Besides, you said you were faster than all three of us. I just… wanted to see if you were right. Which you weren't, obviously."

Rosie's face went as red as her paintwork; she was livid.

"That's not fair!" She protested.

"That's life, hun. Toodles!" And Lisa, followed by her two sisters, sauntered away from under the bridge, giggling to themselves all the way.

"Toodles!" snorted Rosie angrily. "I'll give her toodles!" She steamed furiously away to the shed. Sidney was waiting in his berth when she arrived.

"Oh! H-hi, Rosie!" Sidney called cheerfully as Rosie puffed in. "Rosie...?"

But Rosie didn't answer. She puffed into her own berth and stayed at the back of the shed in silence. She stayed up for a while, brooding over how to get back at the trams. But no ideas came to mind, so she went to sleep instead.

The next morning, Lisa, Patti and Sarah were sat in their own shed, in the middle of the busy town. They were watching cars, buses and lorries going past on the roads that they shared with their tracks.

"Of course I knew I'd beat that silly little tank engine!" Lisa bragged to her sisters. "Nothing to it!"

"These railway engines don't know the first thing about working in the city!" added Patti. "They should leave that to us!"

"Exactly!" finished Sarah. "Wouldn't Vicarstown be a better town without any railway engines at all? Only us trams!"

Then, she saw a figure walking out from the main office building beside their shed and coughed.

"Hey up, here comes the Commissioner!" called Sarah. Mr Blake was the Commissioner of the Vicarstown Electric Tramway, and the owner of the three trams.

"Now then, Lisa." He began as he glanced down at the clipboard in his hand. "You have done rather well since you started. So, you shall be getting a new route that goes from here to Norramby." Lisa was delighted.

"My hard work pays off!" She gloated. "Naturally!"

"And remember!" added Mr Blake. "Your tram line will come into contact with-" But that last bit of information went right out of Lisa's mind, as she was busy snickering to her sisters.

"And then, when I see that Rosie, I'll tell her that she-!"

"AHEM!" Mr Blake cleared his throat. "Did you get that, Lisa?"

"Oh yes of course!" remarked Lisa. "Don't worry, boss! I'll remember that!"

"Right." Mr Blake replied, before turning to Patti and Sarah. "You two will carry on as usual today, going round the town in opposite directions. Remember all the usual stops."

He strolled away to his office, leaving the three trams alone again.

"Good luck, Lis!" exclaimed Patti.

"Yeah! Show them what electric trams can do!" added Sarah.

"You know I will!" smirked Lisa. She trundled out of her berth and down towards the busy roads around the town, passing by a few lorries and cars along the way.

Lisa looked up to the large arches going over the roads and tramlines, where she could catch glimpses of Samson and Caitlin puffing past each other with their trains. But she saw no signs of Rosie.

"Haha!" She grinned gleefully. "I've won! She's given up completely and left Vicarstown!"

Lisa pulled off out of the busy city streets and into the open countryside. There wasn't anyone else around aside from a few seagulls and the long rows of catenary wires stretching out down the length of the line.

The line was short but Lisa didn't mind. She was just happy to be somewhere new and the tramline past the coast and the beaches was really splendid.

"Haha! This is the life! Not a single railway engine in sight! Just me and the sea! And certainly not that silly little Rosie, either! And-"

"Look out!" shouted Rosie. The sudden noise caught Lisa completely off guard and her driver had to apply the brakes so suddenly, the passengers all got lurched forwards.

Lisa clanged into Rosie's flatbed hard and her front wheels came off the line. Her front was very badly dent now.

"You again!" She snapped. "! And just what are you doing on my tramline?! It's bad enough that you try and one up me! But to try and go on my line when you're not allowed to is just-"

"You weren't watching where you were going! Did nobody tell you this line came in contact with the railway line?!" demanded Rosie.

Lisa looked down and finally noticed that her tramline crossed over the main railway line. Lisa gulped. She felt very embarrassed.

"S-someone might have mentioned it." She stammered. "Though… I might not have caught it."

By now, the passengers were piling out of Lisa and gathered around her, all talking at once and telling her what a bad tram she was. Lisa didn't feel so clever now.

Soon, Mr Blake arrived along with Butch the Breakdown Lorry, who had come to take Lisa away for repairs on his flatbed.

"Now, what to do about all these passengers?" grimaced Mr Blake.

"I'll take the passengers, Sir!" offered Rosie. "There's some coaches in the yard here, I can fetch them now!"

"Thank you, Rosie!" smiled Mr Blake. "I'm glad someone is focusing on their work today."

The passengers all cheered up as they boarded Rosie's coaches. Mr Blake stormed over to Lisa crossly.

"It seems you aren't as clever as you think you are!" He scolded. "When you're repaired, you shall stay on the route in Vicarstown until I can trust you again!"

"Looks like I'm carrying passengers after all!" smiled Rosie sweetly. Lisa snorted and looked away.

"This isn't fair!" scowled Lisa.

"That's life, hun." replied Rosie. "Toodles!"

Before Lisa could get in another word, Rosie was already puffing along the line back up to Vicarstown with her coaches.

A few days later, Lisa was back to work as usual. As she stopped for her passengers by the station, Rosie called down from above.

"I don't suppose you're up for another challenge today?" She grinned. Lisa scoffed.

"No! I'm far too busy, as it happens!" She snapped back as she began to move off again with a jingle on her bell. "Lots of passengers to deliver! More than you'll ever carry in your lifetime, missy! And I'll tell you another thing- WOAH!"

She jolted to a very sudden halt, as a car braked to a halt in front of her. Its horn blared at her as a man leaned out the window and shouted at her, as another car screeched to a stop behind Lisa and blared its horn too.

"Oh dear!" chuckled Rosie. "I suppose working on a tramway isn't as easy as it looks!"

All Lisa could do was fume and seethe by herself, as the cars and buses began to gather around her, whilst Rosie, still giggling her smokebox off, scurried away to the shunting yard for another hard day of work.

THE END

Remember when Rosie got that new red repaint and redesign? Remember when people thought this meant they'd finally do stuff with her? Yeah, me too. And I'm still waiting haha!

Getting to focus a story entirely on Rosie in her new job and work environment, as well as introducing some new characters into the bargain was a real treat.

This episode is also my first one to introduce new characters, these being the three electric trams who work at Vicarstown. They were scrapped characters from the official show, and although their tramway remained in various cameos, they did not, and so I thought they'd make for some fun ideas to explore.

Ian McCue in an email last year explained how they were originally meant to be featured in a story called 'Controller At Sea' which later evolved into Big World Big Adventures. He described the three trams as being 'busy, urban, jokey characters who love to tease the big engines as they come into the city. They love to gossip, exchange quips and wind up the big engines, who think they are much more clever than.'

Lisa, Patti and Sarah are all based on the English Electric Balloon, double decker electric trams built in 1934 and most commonly seen working around Blackpool. My good friend Justin Kwon, (GoYourOwnWay196) came up with their names and liveries. Mr Blake, their owner, is named after Inspector Blakey from On The Buses. This won't be the last time you'll see these characters in this season so keep an eye out for them.

As always, here's what's next:

- Diamond In The Rough - In order to keep Thomas' cheekiness and racing around in check, the Fat Controller sends the tank engine to work with Logan and Hector at the Crosby Coaling Plant. Thomas isn't happy with this arrangement, and neither is Logan.

- Better Safe Than Sorry - After a rather bad inspection, the Fat Controller is told to start a health and safety campaign. Emily decides to make a good impression on the railway inspectors, and goes around the railway making sure everything is what she views as safe.

- Traffic Warden George - Whilst working nearby both a busy intersection and a level crossing, George decides to take on the role of a traffic warden and commandeers the road for himself, when he feels that nobody is appreciating his hard work.

- A Holiday For Sir Handel - Fed up with being 'mistreated' on the railway, Sir Handel decides that he should go for a holiday. But when he goes to Harwick for a railway gala, he finds that it's not as relaxing as he thought it would be.

- Environmentally Henry - When people aren't being as considerate about the environment as they should be, Henry takes a stand and protests against the people spoiling his forest.