Thomas and Friends Fanfiction Series 5

Stone Struggles

All of the engines on the Island of Sodor have to pull trucks every once in a while. Some engines pull trucks all the time. 

(Percy and Diesel pass each other with trucks.) 

Some pull them on rare occasion, like Gordon, though even that is enough to put him in a mood. 

"A goods train! Oh, the shame of it! Oh, the indignity!" he grumbles whenever he pulls them. 

But the job of pulling trucks can be different than another. 

One day, James and Toby were at Knapford. James was hoping to be pulling coaches, or even taking the Express so Gordon could have a rest, as he did seem to be snoozing on the sidings. 

The Fat Controller soon arrived with the answers. 

"Gordon, your train will soon be ready!" he called. "Make your way to Platform One!" 

"Yes, sir!" called back Gordon. 

"What am I doing today, sir?" asked James. 

"Ah, James, I need you to go to the Blue Mountain Quarry and collect some stone trucks and take them to the Docks before the ship sails." 

James gasped. 

"Toby, you can take some empty trucks to the coal yards and then take passengers as usual." 

"Yes, sir," said Toby happily.

James was horrified and cross. 

"Even Toby gets to take passengers later today! Why does he get to take passengers? Why does he have empty trucks, while I'm stuck pulling heavy, full stone trucks? It's not fair!" 

He then saw people being happy to be pulled by Gordon. 

"Look, Mummy! Gordon the Big Engine is pulling us!" called the Teacher's son. 

"I know, dear. Now let's hurry on!" she replied. 

"Hmph!" grumbled the Grumpy Passenger.

Gordon felt very dignified indeed. "Express ready to go through!"

James huffed sulkily away. 

"Not again." sighed Henry, who had been watching James. 

James was always complaining about having to do jobs that he didn't like, and he always made the other engines annoyed, though some found his reluctance amusing. 

"Have your trucks, James?" teased Thomas as he passed. "Need some bootlaces or do you only bump coaches? It's the other way around, you know!" 

(He is pulling Annie and Clarabel.) 

James was even crosser than ever. 

"Thomas is pulling passengers too, and he's such a cheeky little engine! Not fair, not fair!" 

Henry was not far behind James as he was pulling his freight flatbeds of logs. 

They split up at the junction. James stopped at a signal, and was getting more angry when he saw that he had to stop for Toby, whom was pulling his empty trucks with ease, and feeling happy about pulling passengers later. 

"Why are you going by first?" moaned James. 

"You have all day to take the stone to the Docks, James!" explained Toby, "But my trucks are needed to deliver coal around the Island. On a railway, coal can't wait!" 

James pouted unhappily. 

Soon, James arrived at the Blue Mountain Quarry and his trucks were filled with stone. 

(Rusty is loading the stone onto Owen's platform.) 

"How's your day, James?" asked Owen. 

"I'm pulling trucks of stone instead of coaches full of passengers...need I say more?" huffed James. 

"Oh no, uh, not at all," said Owen. 

James soon pulled away, but he was so busy being cross and bumping the trucks crossly, that he didn't realize that he had accidently slipped the brakes of the back trucks on. The last three trucks were now being dragged with their brakes on and James began to struggle pulling them, unaware of what he had done. 

James made his way up the line, but he was getting more tired out from the trucks pulling him back. 

"This has to be the heaviest load or the most troublesome line of trucks ever!" he moaned. 

He pulled and tugged and tugged and pulled until he came to a stop, needing a rest. 

Henry was coming back from the forest and saw that James had stopped on the line, and pulled up beside him. 

"What are you doing just standing there, James?" he asked. "Your stone is needed at the Docks." 

"I refuse to move another inch!" snapped James. "These trucks are holding me back. I'm exhausted." 

Henry observed the trucks and so did James' Driver and Guard. 

"Your trucks' brakes have slipped on, James," huffed Henry. 

"What?!" 

"You obviously bumped them too hard! Hopefully, the wheels haven't got flats!" said Henry worriedly. 

Luckily, they hadn't. The trucks were bumping each other and laughing around to be dragged too hard to make flats. 

"Hehehehe!" they chuckled and giggled. 

James moaned. 

"Stupid trucks!" 

"Silly James!" huffed Henry. "Every time you do a job you don't like, or are given one, you cause trouble! Remember when you caused collisions when working with Rocky to rescue Duck? Remember when you tried to force Edward into swapping jobs? Or when you caused yourself and Duck to crash most recently? You need to stop fussing over your jobs, or the Fat Controller will end up deciding that you are not a Really Useful Engine!" 

James was saddened to accept that Henry was right. 

"Now, I'll help you take your trucks to the Docks, then you can prove how useful you can be by helping me with my next load of logs. You'll see that some freight jobs can be fun as well as useful!" 

"Fine," said James doubtfully. 

But to James' surprise, after they took the stone to the Docks, Henry showed James how to enjoy pulling trucks on the log run. 

Birds sang, animals skipped by along the line and the children were making wishes at the wishing tree. 

They all cheered and waved as Henry and James passed by. 

"Thanks for showing me how to have fun pulling trucks, Henry!" whistled James. 

Henry happily whistled back. 

(The End!)