Brothers In The Pits: Stories of Industrial Steam

Chapter Ten: The End

     And thus, our stories of Beckington Colliery, and the engines that worked there, has come to an end. But what happened? Where did they go? And where are they now?
     The colliery itself was demolished in the spring of 1986. Many of the men that tore it down had worked there before. For them, it was a bittersweet moment, putting the place they had worked at for so many years to rest.
     Mr. Johnson, after leaving Beckington, had only been at his new workplace for a year before deciding to retire. Joining a group who was looking to preserve a branch line in the area not long afterwards, he was the one to recommend purchasing Kent when word got out that Beckington closed. He would go on to live for many more years, spending time with the group and the engine he saved, before passing away in his sleep at the ripe old age of 73.
The Austerities had different endings. Mike, as stated before, was taken apart for spares during Mr. Stephenson's short reign of terror. What was left of him was scrapped by men present at the colliery as it was torn down. As for Melissa, she would be transferred to another colliery and work for several more years before being retired. She has since joined Kent on his heritage railway, and they spend their retirement pulling trains of happy tourists through the Yorkshire countryside.
But what about Alan? The little old engine who had worked at Beckington for the many decades of his life? He had been sent to a scrapyard in Barrow-In-Furness, and was there for several months. Just when everything seemed stacked against his survival, he happened to meet some very nice people. This chance encounter ensured his survival, and after a long time being mended, Alan The Industrial Engine is now hard at work on another preserved railway further in the Midlands. He's very happy with his new home, but often, he thinks back to his days in Beckington, of his friends, of their stories, and of that last happy Christmas. If you ever see Alan, working hard on his railway, tell him that Melissa and I say hello, and that we miss him dearly.
When I was young, the bigger engines would tell me that being an industrial would bring me the worst life I could think of. Now, I know they're wrong, because my time at Beckington, with Alan and the twins, were the happiest days of my life.