BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY
It was a crisp autumn morning at Tidmouth Sheds. All the engines were waking up to the sunshine dazzling between the clouds, as the firelighter walked away, and their drivers and firemen arrived to start work.
The Fat Controller drove up in his car and parked beside the sheds, as he stepped out to address the engines.
"Now listen up everybody!" He announced. "It's going to be another busy day today! So I hope you're all ready for-"
"Ah, Sir Topham!" came a voice from just nearby. "Glad we caught up with you! Are you all prepared for today's inspection?"
The Fat Controller jumped and leapt around to find the three railway inspectors, clipboards at hand, now standing in front of him.
"A-ah, g-gentlemen!" stammered the Fat Controller. "Ah, um, y-yes yes of course! Where would you like to begin?"
The engines looked just as worried as the Fat Controller did, as they all whispered to each other whilst the inspectors talked to the Fat Controller.
"I didn't know there was an inspection today!" exclaimed Percy. "I haven't had time to prepare! It's been so busy lately!"
"None of us have!" replied Thomas. "Maybe the Fat Controller forgot about it?"
"Well, whether the inspection is a surprise or not, we should at least try and get on with doing our best!" said Edward wisely, but he was just as worried as the others.
The Fat Controller and the railway inspectors first went to the Shunting Yard to observe the work being done there. Gordon was taking on coal from the hopper, just as Diesel was shunting a row of oil tankers towards a siding ahead of him.
"Hurry up, Diesel!" huffed Gordon. "I'm going to be late if you keep going so slowly!"
"I'm hurrying, Gordon!" Diesel snapped back. "You need to pipe down and stop getting in my way!"
Diesel gave his tankers an extra hard shunt to move them along quicker, making them rattle hard. But because Diesel was hurrying so much, he didn't notice that oil was starting to leak from the old tankers onto the rails.
And because Gordon was also rushing about, he didn't notice the oil until it was too late. His wheels suddenly couldn't get a grip, and they spun helplessly round and round. He couldn't move an inch.
"Help!" cried Gordon in alarm. "I'm stuck!"
"Oops!" murmured Diesel, upon seeing the Fat Controller with the inspectors nearby. He tried to scuttle away, but the old brakes on the tankers had locked up suddenly, and when he tried to pull harder on the coupling, it suddenly snapped, and Diesel was sent rocketing backwards across the points and into Douglas.
"Aye! Watch it, laddie!" The Scottish engine snapped. Gordon, meanwhile, was still stuck, his wheels spinning in place on the oily rails.
"Get some sand on the rails!" called Stafford.
"My sand boxes are empty!" replied Gordon.
"Hold on, Gordon! I'll save you!" Philip called from across the yard as he hurried over as quickly as he could..
"Philip to the rescue!" The little boxcab scampered towards the big blue engine excitedly. But Philip didn't account for how fast he was going, and smacked straight into Gordon hard, denting his front buffers.
"Ouch!" yelped Gordon, before glaring down at his damaged buffers and then at Philip, chuckling awkwardly.
The three inspectors looked around the yard, their faces still not showing much emotion. They caught a brief glance of the Fat Controller shaking his head in his hands, but their attention quickly turned back to the scene as some workmen moving sacks of coal onto some trucks, suddenly slipped and dropped them, as they burst open everywhere.
The sudden burst of coal dust flew over a passing Duck, who coughed as it showered over his face, and he held his eyes shut.
"I can't see!" He gasped, but once he escaped the cloud of coal dust, he did see… the flatbeds right in front of him.
Charlie, noticing the distressed look on the Fat Controller's face and the stern expressions on the inspectors, puffed quietly and discreetly over to them.
"Psst! Ok, this may be a bad time right now… but I might be able to lighten the mood a bit! Ok! There was an engine and a truck-"
"Not now, Charlie…" sighed the Fat Controller. Charlie puffed quickly backwards to the crash site, muttering something about how the joke would be a lot better once he released an album.
The three inspectors each wrote something down in their clipboards and then glanced over their shoulders, one by one, as the Fat Controller chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.
"Hehe, um… well, gentlemen… where would you, erm, like to see next?"
The inspectors and the Fat Controller next went to Brendam Docks. Things started to look promising the moment they arrived.
Salty and Porter were scurrying back and forth, shunting trucks as Cranky, Carly and Big Mickey swung their arms around high above, loading and unloading waiting ships.
"Come on, Cranky, hurry up!" shouted Porter. "These flatbeds needed to be loaded half an hour ago!"
"Keep your steam in, Porter!" snapped Cranky grumpily, as he swung around a pallet stacked with coffee beans from the ship. The sacks of coffee beans suddenly tipped over and fell down all over Porter, bursting open and causing a huge mess.
"Brilliant…" Porter groaned sarcastically. "Just… brilliant…"
At that moment, two shrill whistles came from nearby, as Bill and Ben scurried into the dockyard, along with trucks full of china clay.
"Here we are!" Bill called out. "Where do you want these trucks going, Salty?"
"Just over on that siding there, matey!" The dockside diesel replied as the twins hurried off to put their trains away.
Ben, meanwhile, stayed back as he was busy trying to wind up Cranky. Bill, came back around with his train.
"That siding is full, Salty-" He began, but had forgotten about his twin. Their trains crashed together and caused an even bigger mess.
"Oh bother…" groaned the Fat Controller, hiding his head in his hands.
Bill and Ben looked from each other to the Fat Controller and grinned sheepishly before they whistled and scampered off as fast as their wheels would carry them.
"That was your fault, Bill!" They heard Ben shout out angrily.
"My fault?! That was all your fault, you mean!" They also heard Bill snap back.
The inspectors glanced down at their clipboards and then back at the Fat Controller as all three of them wrote something down.
By late afternoon, the three inspectors and the Fat Controller were back at Knapford Station and none of them looked particularly happy.
"I must say, Sir Topham Hatt." grimaced one of the inspectors. "This inspection hasn't exactly gone with flying colours. A shame too, your railway usually does quite well."
"We suggest you start a health and safety campaign on your railway." added another inspector, handing a pamphlet to the Fat Controller. "This will hopefully ensure your railway, engines and staff take the correct procedures to ensure smooth runnings and proper safety precautions are laid out."
"I see…" the Fat Controller took hold of the lengthy pamphlet in his hands and skimmed through the pages.
"We shall return for a follow up inspection in two weeks time." said the first inspector, examining his golden pocket watch. "We hope to see major improvements by then."
The Fat Controller watched the inspectors go to board Gordon's coaches and he looked back down at the pamphlet, before striding away into his office.
Emily the Emerald Engine had been away at the Steamworks for repairs. She hadn't known about the inspection and was surprised to see porters putting up health and safety posters on the walls in the station.
"What's going on here, Sir?" asked Emily
"I've been told to start a health and safety campaign, Emily." explained the Fat Controller. "Everyone has to be more wary of being safe and preventing accidents from happening."
"Really? Why is that?"
"Unfortunately, we didn't pass the recent railway inspection. The inspectors will be coming back in two weeks and we have to improve our health and safety before then."
As Emily sat underneath the hopper in the sidings beside the station, she overheard Philip and Stafford talking to each other about the bad inspection.
"But-but what's going to happen to the railway now?!" gasped Philip in dismay. "We didn't pass the inspection!"
"But there is that follow-up inspection in two weeks!" Stafford pointed out. "So it's not all bad! We'll be fine, I'm sure of it!"
Philip then left to shunt Henry's trucks away, and Stafford went to fetch James' coaches. Emily was left alone thinking to herself about the situation.
"The Fat Controller and the other engines really need some help! I should help them all out! I can be Sodor's safety engine!" Emily puffed to herself. "I already know a lot about staying safe and railway rules! I just need to get everyone else involved!"
Emily headed straight for the shunting yard when she came across her two coaches, Moss and Selby. They both yawned sleepily as Emily buffered up in front of them.
"What time is it?" asked Moss. Selby glanced up to the clock on one of the nearby warehouses.
"Eight o'clock." He grunted.
"Come on, you two!" called Emily. "You two are going to be my inspection saloons today!"
"What for?" asked Selby.
"I'm making myself Sodor's safety engine today!" She explained. "And we're going to go around the railway, making sure everything and everyone is following proper health and safety rules!"
"You sure about that, Em?" asked Moss. "Don't sound like a good idea to me."
"It'll be fine!" replied Emily. "We can't run a railway without health and safety!"
Emily hurried off to Knapford Station and waited by the platform for her passengers to board as she looked out across the busy junction.
Toby was arriving from the Quarry with a train of heavy stone. As he crossed the points, Emily suddenly noticed a load of the stones tumble from one of the hoppers onto the tracks. She whistled loudly to warn him.
"Watch out, Toby!" She exclaimed. Toby braked to a halt in surprise.
"Wh-what? What happened?" He asked. Emily looked back at the rest of his train.
"One of your hoppers had a squeaky wheel and it's now lost a load of stone all over the junction." said Emily. "You'll need to wait for it to be cleared up. We can't have any accidents."
"No, you're right. Thanks, Emily." smiled the tram engine. "I can't believe I nearly missed that. Good thing you saw it in time."
Emily beamed proudly. And once the mess was tidied away, and the guard blew his whistle, Emily steamed out of the station and onto the Main Line.
"Huh. Not too bad, Em." said Moss. "I guess it isn't too bad that you're a safety engine today."
"I still got a bad feeling about it inside." muttered Selby. "Something will go wrong, I just know it."
"Don't worry, mate." chuckled Moss. "Everything will work out all hunky dory, you just watch."
Emily soon puffed slowly into Crosby Station. She saw painters on the footbridge, and then noticed one of their paint pots tip over and cause a spillage down the steps.
"Best clean that up quickly!" She called. "Could cause an accident."
The painters tipped their hats to her and quickly tided up their mess before they went back to work.
At first, it was fine. The other engines were happy about Emily helping them out. But it wasn't long before Emily started to become a little overzealous with her help.
"Just making sure everything and everyone is staying safe." replied Emily. "No need to worry."
She saw Paxton being filled with diesel fuel. A tiny little splatter of it fell to the ground.
"You'll need to clean that up right away! Someone could have an accident otherwise!"
"But... it's a very tiny mess." protested Paxton. "I don't think it'll be able to cause any accidents."
Emily was already moving away. She closely watched Stafford marshalling a long line of trucks for Henry. Emily noticed several fragile signs on the trucks and she called out to the electric engine.
"Be careful with those trucks!" She called. "You can't biff them about or go too quickly!"
"But... I always shunt trains at this speed." said Stafford. "I'm being careful!"
"It's better to be safe than sorry!" said Emily. "Try taking extra care!"
Henry grumbled dreadfully in the yard, whilst his driver checked his watch. At that moment, Stafford finally rounded the bend with his goods train.
"Where have you been, Stafford?" snorted Henry. "You've been gone for half an hour!"
"But Emily told me I was shunting too quickly and roughly. She said to go slowly." protested Stafford.
"You're always going slowly." grunted a passing Diesel.
"But you've been shunting those trucks far too slowly!" huffed Henry. "And now I'm very late!"
Once the train was coupled up behind him, Stafford watched as Henry hurried away across the junction.
"I'm sure I was shunting those trucks safely!" Stafford tutted to himself. "Emily was just being very silly!"
Further up the line, Emily came across Gordon approaching Cronk Station. She could see he was puffing quite quickly along.
"Slow down, Gordon!" called Emily. "There are speed restrictions, you know!"
"But-" Gordon began, but Emily cut him off.
"You must always slow down when approaching a station, Gordon! It's the rules!"
So Gordon did. He began to slow down as he steamed towards the station. His passengers felt confused as to why he was going so slowly.
"But I'm the Express!" He muttered grumpily. "And I don't have to stop at this station! Rules indeed!"
Emily next came across a long section of track. As she puffed along, she suddenly felt a small bump and noticed one sleeper that was snapped in half.
"There's a broken sleeper in this section! That'll have to be replaced immediately!"
"Didn't seem that bad..." said Selby. "It's just one sleeper, and the rest of the line is good."
At that moment, Merlin puffed up with a heavy train of steel beams. Emily stopped him before he reached the broken sleeper.
"You can't use this section of track! It'll need to be pulled up and replaced!"
"Is it?" asked Merlin. "Oh dear... but it looks safe enough to me!"
"You'll have to go the long way around." said Emily. "Take the junction you just passed. That'll get you around it and back onto the Main Line easily."
"Oh dear... I'm going to be very late now..." puffed Merlin as he backed his train down to the junction.
At Crovan's Gate, Emily found Harvey arranging crates onto a flatbed.
"Harvey!" She whistled. "There's a broken sleeper further down the line near Kellsthorpe! Can you take the workmen to help repair it? That section will have to be closed until it's fixed."
"I don't think I'd need to dae that." murmured Harvey. "If it's just one sleeper."
"Better to be safe than sorry! We do need to pass that inspection, after all!" And Emily hurried on. Harvey watched her leave and groaned before he went on his way to Kellsthorpe.
Soon, Emily was coming back down the line from Vicarstown. All over Sodor, engines and people were grumbling about the delays.
But Emily carried on her merry way, none the wiser. All she knew was that she was enforcing safety precautions and doing a very good job of it.
"Now then!" She called to her coaches. "We should head to the Search and Rescue Centre next! If any place needs to be especially safe, it's there!"
But Emily was so busy thinking about more safety rules, that she had forgotten about the broken section of track.
The workmen had only just taken up the rails and were about to remove the sleepers when Emily came steaming along. When she saw the warning signs, it was too late. Her driver applied the brakes and Emily screeched around the bend.
Emily juddered sideways for a distance before she came to a stop at last, tilting over onto one side over the sleepers as she looked back at Moss and Selby, who had derailed behind her.
"Oh no!" gasped Emily. "I don't believe it! We've derailed!"
"You know…" muttered Moss. "This accident wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to enforce your own safety rules."
Emily groaned. She knew Moss was right.
"Here I am, spending all day trying to prevent accidents… and I end up having one myself." sighed Emily.
Her driver got down and went to the nearest signal box to telephone for help.
Soon, Emily heard a horn as Norman rattled up alongside her with Judy and Jerome. And then right behind them was Winston, with the Fat Controller on board.
"I'm really sorry about this, Sir." said Emily, as Judy and Jerome lifted their crane arms over towards her and the workmen began to attach her to their hooks. The Fat Controller raised his hand up and Emily went quiet. She was surprised to see him smiling.
"I'm really glad you're trying to help us all out, Emily. It's good to have someone concerned about safety. But you're just a bit, ahem, too concerned. All these safety precautions you're trying to make are causing more danger than preventing them."
"Yes, Sir… sorry, Sir…" sighed Emily.
"It's the job of the people in charge to enforce safety rules and regulations, Emily." added the Fat Controller.
"I know, Sir... I just felt very worried about us not passing the inspection."
But Emily had helped a lot. With her being so wary of health and safety, it made the others do the same. Soon, everyone was working hard to make the North Western Railway as safe as possible. Just, not too much, of course.
"Everyone is really coming on leaps and bounds!" exclaimed Emily. "I'm sure even the railway inspectors will be pleased!"
"Well, we can only wait and see!" replied the Fat Controller.
Soon came the day for the follow up inspection. The three inspectors came back from the Mainland, and were waiting at Knapford Station with the Fat Controller just as Emily pulled in with Moss and Selby.
Emily took them to each and every corner of the railway, as they carefully examined each station, length of track and even the engines themselves.
"Very good!" said the first one, examining the large signal gantry at Knapford Station, looking up down at his clipboard and writing down before he watched Gordon thunder away with the Express across the junction, whilst Paxton waited to cross over with his stone trucks.
"Outstanding work!" said the second one, taking note of James, Gordon and Henry lined up together in the sidings before he watched Duck marshalling a long line of trucks together.
"Mmmm!" said the third one, as he watched Harvey carefully lifting up a pallet of crates off of the line with his hook as Donald then puffed on his way once the line was cleared.
Finally, later that day, the inspection was over as the three inspectors and the Fat Controller stood together on the platform at Knapford Station.
"I must say, Sir Topham Hatt! You and your railway have made a tremendous improvement since the last inspection! The North Western Railway shall receive a glowing report for this! Keep up the good work!" All three inspectors shook hands with the Fat Controller and tipped their hats to him as they boarded Emily's coaches.
"Well, there you go, Emily!" beamed the Fat Controller. "We've finally passed that inspection! Everyone has been superb in improving the railway's health and safety!"
"That's wonderful!" said Emily happily. "I just hope everything can be this good for the next time we have an inspection!"
And once the guard blew his whistle, Emily steamed out of the station.
"I told you everything would work out all hunky dory." laughed Moss.
"Never doubted you for a second, mate." smirked Selby.
THE END
I don't think there's nearly enough fan stories out there about Emily or many other female characters. I already gave Rosie one so naturally I knew Emily would be another one to focus on. I like Emily, as do many other people, and I thought a story focusing on her
Also, using that pretty stupid and rather ambiguous 'safety engine' title she gained in Series 24 here, as more of a title she gives to herself whilst trying to improve Sodor's safety standards, was quite fun.
I loved the idea of making Emily's coaches actual characters by giving them faces and names. Moss and Selby, unlike Annie and Clarabel, would have grey faces like Henrietta and Dexter, and to put it simply, they are like Emily's two gay dads.
Their names come from two stations on the Great Northern Railway, as Emily is a GNR engine. Also, Emily and her coaches are green, moss (the plant) is green and PC Selby is a character from Postman Pat, which takes place in a town called Greendale. It was just too perfect an opportunity to pass up.
As always, here's what's next:
- 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.
- Freddie Without Fear - The other narrow gauge engines wonder if Freddie is really as brave or fearless as he claims to be, after the old engine has an accident. Freddie decides that the only way to get the mere shred of respect he has from the others back, is to be even more daring and risk taking than ever, which, understandably, goes horribly wrong.
- The Phantom Light - Whilst Gordon is out at night pulling the Midnight Express, and helping a film crew to make a ghost movie, he and Hiro come across something that looks like a real ghost, and they try to find out what it is.