the tales of the Coaldai railway

The nameless Pacific

The engines returned to the sheds to discuss what Mark and David had been up to and after a brief summery this was the conversation:

"why did you go to steal those vans?" asked Nick.

"we didn't steal them, the vans were already stolen" replied Mark.

"again I ask why" responded Nick.

"Let's just say I have an old friend who I am going to meet up with who is very interested in the purchase of these vans contents" responded David.

"so you did it for money" asked Colin unimpressed.

"No" said David "You told me yourself the railway is bad financially so I am gonna give the railway the money"  

"when did I say that" asked Colin defiantly steam erupting from his valves.

"on new years after that worker poured that bootleg vodka in your tanks" responded David.

"That... makes sense" responded Colin.

"Don't we have something more important to discuss" said Mark.

"oh right" replied Colin.

The engines looked at the nameless pacific shunted on the old siding next to the shed, she noticed and spoke up.

"Please don't scrap me" said the pacific miserably.

"calm down" said Colin "we would never do that to anyone"

The pacific said nothing.

"she has no tender but apart from that she is able to work" said Mark hopefully.

"I guess we could give her the fowler tender from the back of the sheds if she wants" said Nick.

"what will we tell lord Decal" asked Colin.

"well I could leave now with the vans and be back in about six hours with the money from selling them" said David.

"but it would be midday" said Mark " what would we tell Lord Decal until then"

"You could say I was a gift from BR until he gets back" said the pacific.

"fine" agreed Colin begrudgingly "David get going, Nick fetch the tender"

"what about me?" asked Mark.

"well Mark" began Colin "we have the fun job, we need to go and lie to our owner"

"oh great" grumbled Mark. 

The engines all left leaving Nick with the Pacific.

"any services I could pull" asked the pacific.

"I guess you could take David's services for the day" replied Nick.

"freight or passengers?" asked the pacific.

"mostly freight" replied Nick.

"okay" said the pacific nervously.

The pacific left the sheds with the mismatched tender and collected a long freight train. She was quiet as she started the trip, the load had to be delivered to glan y mor harbour. It was early in the month of January and the rails were icy. The pacific struggled up the line as her tires were worn and her valve gear creaked. The pacific made it to the harbour with little issue, once there she left the trucks on the third pier and and collected a long line of trucks with supplies for the loop line to be taken to Gallen. She left the harbour and began to make her way to Gallen but she would never get that far that day.  The pacific did well on the line but began to suffer some issues once she had to stop at Coaldai to build up steam pressure. While she was there Mark passed her with a freight train. The nameless pacific soon departed and began to slight climb to Gallen. She was doing well but this wasn't to last. 

There is a level crossing between Coaldai and Gallen and recently the gates had been removed after the original ones broke as such there was only a set of traffic lights preventing drivers from crossing when a train was passing. As the nameless pacific approached the crossing all seemed normal but little did she know a slightly irate man was speeding in a small car and was fast approaching the crossing.  Soon the nameless pacific was a good 20 meters from the small crossing and suddenly the small car rushed across it and made it to the other side. Out of shock the nameless pacific put her brakes on hard and skidded to a stop just past the crossing unlike her train which blocked the crossing.

Her driver called out to her "are you ok?"

The nameless pacific replied "I think so"

The driver tried to release the nameless Pacific's brakes: but nothing happened. He tried again: nothing. It appeared the sudden stop had caused the Pacific's brakes to lock on. Cars began to honk their horns impatiently as (by some stroke of luck) Nick approached on the other track.

"what's happened?" asked Nick concerned.

"My brakes have jammed on" replied the pacific glumly.

"I'll move your trucks so that they don't block the crossing" said Nick as he moved off to move the trucks.

"just my luck this happens" mumbled the pacific to no-one in particular.

Nick soon coupled up to the trucks and took them away leaving The pacific stuck on the line. Soon he returned with a group of workmen who through the use of hammers removed the Pacific's brakes. Nick coupled up to her and took her back to the shed.