Redemption (A TTTE Story)

Part I: At The End of the Line

Not every engine that works on the North Western Railway is owned by Sir Topham Hatt, or the North Western Railway itself.

Some engines are privately owned. An example of this would be Molly the Strong Engine. Molly was an engine who was both owned and operated by Sodor's own military branch, officially known as the Sodor Royal Force. (Or SRF, for short.) The SRF, in its current form, has been around for centuries, though the names have varied quite a bit over the years. It's current engine was Molly, who was the only female engine to directly participate in the battlefields of France during the Great War. In fact, she was the only female engine at all to officially work for any military.

Engines and people alike naturally asked questions; they wondered why on Earth the SRF would have a female engine, let alone one on the front lines. But the Sudrian generals made a strong case that Molly was an engine that would always work hard, and never make a mistake. It turns out this was indeed correct, as the only accident she had ever had was when some cattle derailed her train of coal trucks while she was carrying them back to the base in 1940. Molly, however, was cleared of any blame. Molly was a tough cookie, and she took pride in her work.

Despite her rather outstanding record, she had her enemies, for one reason or another. If you were to make a list of said enemies, the one who would most certainly top the list would be another privately owned engine. Unlike Molly, this engine was owned by a single individual, and she was quite the opposite of Molly. The engine's name was Emily, known as the Emerald Engine. To say Emily hated Molly would not do much justice. Emily was a very old engine, built during the years that the Great Northern Railway blossomed into one of the best of its era. Unfortunately, the Great Northern Railway was not exactly the gem that many claimed it was. They had very strict policies about what a female engine could and couldn't do. Female engines were considered far more delicate and far more...well, dramatic, than their male counterparts. Engines where taught from day one that the female engines had to be treated with much respect. This ideology had been hammered into Emily's smokebox throughout the years, day in and day out.

So with that in mind, you can probably imagine how she reacted when she first learned that the SRF was, in fact, having a female engine do the "dirty" work. The pair constantly argued whenever they met. Names were constantly exchanged, as were insults and threats. No matter when they met or how they met, one always had an insult locked and loaded to fire. The argument had been going since Molly arrived on Sodor in 1940, and it just got worse and worse as time went on.

The pair hated each other fiercely. The pair also refused to back down, and the very rare attempts that one did try to back down they would be barraged until they gave in once again. It was a vicious, endless cycle.

But, unbeknownst to either engine, a single fateful event was laying in wait...

1968

Emily was finally at the end of a very rotten week. She had gotten into such a huge fight with Molly, that her owner decided she needed to be punished. The punishment was serving as a shunter at Vicarstown for the week. Emily loathed it.

What didn't help was that she felt weak. "Ye nout tryin' ta build ap steam so ye can 'void workin'.", her fireman said.

She had just finished arranging a slow goods train when the yard manager approached.

"One last job Emily. Go fetch the row of vans you shunted earlier and take them straight to Great Waterton."

Emily groaned. "Wha' happened ta 'e engine 'at was supposed ta take it?"