The Sudrians: The Archive Collection

Thomas the Tank Engine

"Thomas. Hey Thomas."

The tank engine mumbled quietly to himself.

"Thomas!" I blew my whistle long and hard. Thomas woke up with a start.

"Hey! Cut it out!" he yelled.

"Shhh," I said.

"Yeah," scoffed Thomas, "you just tell me to shush when you blew your whistle at me!"

"Oh stop it," I replied sternly.

Thomas rolled his eyes. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Half-past-five in the morning," I replied.

Thomas stared at me. "Why wake me up so early?" he exclaimed.

"Well I have to teach you to shunt and I don't have a lot of time before my first passenger train."

Thomas just rolled his eyes. I sighed deeply. This was going to be a long one.

Once Thomas puffed out of the sheds, he joined me and looked around the yard. I had set up the basics for him, now all he had to do was to shunt the trucks and I would tell him how to improve.

"This will be easy," smirked Thomas, he then puffed off and rammed into the trucks. The noice echoed across the yard and I cringed.

"Careful!" I exclaimed. "Do it more carefully, like shunting coaches."

"But they're not coaches," replied Thomas blankly and I sighed deeply.

"But trucks carry our customers goods," I continued, "if we bang a van we could break something."

"We even have to be careful with coal wagons?"

"Even coal wagons," I replied. Thomas groaned.

"You take all the joy out of everything," he said. I couldn't help but chuckled.

"But if I wasn't allowed to teach you then you would still be stuck in the yards at Vicarstown," I replied.

"Or Tidmouth, I think."

I smiled. "Come on," I said enthusiastically, "we still got a lot of time left on our buffers. Might as well start again with this lot."

Thomas reverse back with me and came to a gentle stop. "Remember," I said, "do it gently."

Thomas considered my words for a second, then slowly puffed forwards. He then buffered up to the empty van again, this time though, more gently and less roughly.

"There you go!" I cheered. Thomas beamed.

***

The sound of breaks echoed through the yard. It wasn't the only noice though, the sounds of shunters, doing their name-sake work. The Fat Director then climbed out of the coach, with General Alexander after him.

"Thank you Matthew," replied The Fat Director, "but why did you want me to come here?"

"So to buy an engine sir," replied the war engine.

"I know that you know that I'm in need of an engine," sighed The Fat Director, "but you don't need to send me all the way to Yorkshire just to find one!"

"Oh come on sir," smiled Matthew, "there's an engine here that is keen on being apart of your fleet. Just see him sir."

The Fat Director looked at the war engine. "You say he's an old friend?"

"Yes Topham," replied General Alexander, "he worked alongside my engine in the Great War! And he's the only type of his class to be built, so we'll know it's him."