Guess who?

Thomas and Gordon

Thomas is a steam locomotive who lives at a big station on the Island of Sodor.  He's a cheeky little engine with 6 wheels, a moderately tall funnel, and a big dome. He's a fussy little engine, too. Always gathering coaches for the bigger engines to take on long journeys. And when trains come back in, he pulls the empty coaches away so the big engines can go and rest. Thomas thinks nobody works as hard as he does; he loves playing tricks on the big engines. In particular, Gordon. He likes to quietly come up to Gordon while he's resting on a siding and whistling rudely to startle him. "Wake up, lazybutt! Why doncha work hard like me?" Then he would laugh rudely and go off to get the coaches.One day, the 5:22 express was late. and Gordon had to run fast to make up for lost time. He arrived back at the sidings, very tired, and was about to nod off when Thomas came up in his cheeky way and screamed, "Wake up fatso! Do some hard work for a change! Y'can't catch me!" and off he ran, laughing. Instead of going to sleep, Gordon thought about how he could get back at Thomas. The next morning, Thomas wouldn't wake up, and his driver and fireman couldn't make him start. His fire was out, and there was not enough steam. It was almost time for the express. People were waiting, but the coaches weren't ready. At last, Thomas started. "Oh dearo dear," he yawned. "Shamone," said the coaches, "hurry up." Thomas gave them a rude bump and headed for the station. "Honestly," he grumbled, "it's something I can do." "Where have you been?" asked the coaches, crossly. Thomas fussed into the station where Gordon was waiting. "Hurry up, you" said Gordon, crossly. "Hurry up yourself!" replied Thomas. "This from the hard worker?" Gordon asked contemptuously while making his plan, "But yes, I'll hurry for you." And almost before the coaches had stopped moving, Gordon reversed quickly and was coupled to the train. "Get in quickly, please" he whistled, so people raced in, the signal dropped, the clock struck 9, and Gordon was ready to go. Thomas usually pushed behind the big trains to help them start, but he was always uncoupled first so that when the train was running nicely he could stop and go back. This time, Gordon started so quickly, that they forgot to uncouple Thomas. Gordon's chance had come. "Shamone, shamone!" Gordon puffed to the coaches. The train went faster and faster; too fast for Thomas. He wanted to stop, but he couldn't. "Peep! Peep! Stop! Stop!" he whitsled. "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" laughed Gordon. "You can't get away! You can't get away!" laughed the coaches. Poor Thomas was going faster than he had ever gone before. He was out of breath and his wheels hurt, but he had to go on. "I shall never be the same again!" he thought, sadly, "my wheels will erode!" At last they stopped at a station. Everyone laughed to see Thomas attached. Thomas was uncoupled, and he felt very silly and exhausted. Then he went on a turntable, and then ran onto a siding out of the way. "Well little Thomas," chuckled Gordon, "now you know what hard work is, don't you?" Poor Thomas couldn't answer because he had no breath. He just puffed slowly away to rest and had a long, long drink. After that, he slowly went home, deciding to never crank Gordon again.