One gloomy winter's morning, Edward was taking a goods train up the branch line to his junction. The wind blew nicely across the hills and the sea breeze made things feel a little more brighter. Edward couldn't help but smile happily as he puffed down the line, the trucks did not dare play tricks on him. But there was another one on the train that was about to give Edward grief. As they passed through the tunnel and began to go around the hill that went past the ruined fort, Edward felt a sudden tug behind him.
"Ohh!" he said, the train was getting heavier and heavier. Then the guard blew his whistle and the driver applied the brakes. Edward stopped in the middle of the line and his crew got down. They arrived at the guard's van, which the guard herself was inspecting the van all over.
"What's the matter?" asked the fireman.
"Search me," said the guard, "I heard a screech from this old bucket, but I couldn't find anything!"
"Probably something wrong with the brakes," said the driver, speculatively, "we'll get them checked once we've arrived at Wellsworth."
They agreed, and Edward set off once again. But now he was late to the junction. "Bother," he sighed, "I hope Molly is still there."
Thankfully, the yellow engine was still waiting, she looked agitated though as Edward stopped next to him. "What happened Edward?" she asked, concerned, "it's not like you to be late without reason!"
"Sorry," puffed Edward, still slightly out of breath, "but this brake van caused issues before Suddery."
Molly's eyes narrowed, she looked back to see the brake van and then her face twisted into looking like she immediately understood what happened. "Oh..." she sighed, "you mean Squawker."
"Squawker? Is that what the brake van is called?"
"Yes," Molly replied, "oh he's a troublemaker, Edward, he's not like Toad, Baresford, or Foster. Be careful of him."
"Oh, so this is Squawker?" Edward said he had never met this brake van before but had heard tales from the other engines. But why was he doing all the way here? Last he was on Winston's branch line, Winston had constantly fussed about him and had given him to Fergus instead to keep him away from him. Edward thought for a moment and then looked back to Molly. "I'll go talk to him," he replied, "I'm sure there's a reason why he does this."
Whilst Molly organised the trucks onto her train as quickly as possible, Edward moved to head down the train. He then came to the back of the train to see a very old Furness Railway brake van. He did not look much like the newer brake vans and looked more like a goods van if it weren't for the door at the end. He stared coldly at the blue engine as he stopped beside him.
"You are Squawker I presume," Edward said.
"And yer Edward," replied Squawker in a gruff manner, "thought yer were on me train, decided to give yer a nice welcome."
"I should give you the warm welcome instead since you are on my branch line," interjected Edward, "however, I wouldn't say your nice welcome was really... nice."
"Considering what I did to that big ol' red oaf on the smelly fish line, consider it nice."
"Old?" said Edward, "but Arthur is much younger than both of us."
Squawker glanced back at Edward with an annoyed look. "Listen bud, I ain't 'ere to be best pals with yer, I'm just 'ere to run trains."
"Could you explain the reason why we halted earlier though," asked Edward, trying to be as polite as possible, "because you were the cause of me running late with my train here."
Squawker just chuckled. "Never said I'd run the trains on time lad."
***
"Oh yeah, that was one hundred percent Squawker's fault," Jinty replied, later that night in the sheds, "remember when I had to help Winston on his branch a while back? Good old Squawker was there, and he was a nightmare."
"What would he do?" asked Edward.
"Slip his brakes on, encourage the trucks to be as troublesome as ever," said Jinty, "any trick for a troublesome brake van has done has come from him. He could write a book y'know, 'how to not be a brake van for dummies.'"
"How did he get over here though, that's my question," BoCo said.
"Maybe little ol' Fergus got fed up with him and smuggled him all the way here," joked Jinty.
"That... doesn't sound like Fergus to me," said BoCo, a little hesitant.
"We all have a dark side, BoCo," snickered Jinty, "Fergus roams the rails at night to smuggle rolling stock across the railway."
Edward chuckled lightly at that, but his smile faded. "Never mind how he got here," he said, "what are we going to do with him? That's my question."
"I'm just the banker here," said Jinty, "so..."
"You pull the push-pull service," scoffed BoCo.
"But no goods! It's just you and Edward, shame!"
Edward sighed. "I can handle him," he said, "you can take the other brake vans and I will try and make him see sense."
"Are you sure?" asked BoCo, "Squawker could be a handful, if Molly says that, then I am certain that's an understatement."
"Yeah... but knowing your record on rolling stock, we don't want another 'break' van on Sodor," Jinty teased, "don't want to have another incident like that scrap truck."
"Will you ever let that go?"
"I never plan to BoCo!"
***
The next few days, Edward handled the goods whilst BoCo took care of the passenger services. The trucks behaved well, with the other two brake vans assigned to the branch line, but whenever taking Squawker out, the trucks would often bump and rattle more often, testing the waters on whether they should play tricks on the blue engine. Squawker did no such thing, he would do anything to play with Edward, hurdle insults to him as he shunted him on his trains, try and get the trucks to get on Edward, and when that didn't work he would try and rile them up himself or play his tricks on the poor engine.
The usual hot axle box, or making the guard lose focus with pointless squabbles. Edward would have to wince every time those brakes screeched on when he acted up and he wouldn't move unless he had some demands. Edward tried to be reasonable, but Squawker refused to collaborate, the blue engine's patience, was wearing thin.
Two weeks after Squawker had come to the branch, Edward was searching the yards at Brendam for a brake van. He had to take a goods train to Tidmouth, unfortunately, Squawker was the only one there.
Edward gave him a stern look when stopping in front of him. "Now look," he said sternly, "I don't want any trouble, this is the mainline we're going on, there is a stricter timetable and busier than the branch, any slip-up and it could be trouble for both of us."
"Make it sound like I 'aven't gotten into any trouble before," smirked Squawker, he didn't even bother being innocent.
Edward's stern look turned to a scowl. "Have you ever taken a train down the mainline?" he asked.
"Not since the early days when good ol' George took me out," smiled Squawker.
"Oh, of course, George is the bain of my problems," groaned Edward, he looked back to his driver with worry. "Are you sure the others aren't here?"
"Sally is up at the clay pits with the twins and Wheeler is at Wellsworth and we cannot stop there otherwise we might miss our path."
"We might miss our path anyways with him," said Edward, "tell the yard foreman there to get Wheeler ready if we do miss our path."
Squawker just scoffed as Edward buffered up to him and shunted the rattling old thing to the back of the train.
Edward took him back up the line, it went smoothly with Squawker doing and saying absolutely nothing, the blue engine knew what that meant. He sighed as he arrived at Wellsworth and entered the mainline on time and Squawker then began to play up as usual. He began to screech loudly at the trucks, hurdling insults at them and trying to get them on their bad side, but the trucks just ignored him. Edward knew it wouldn't be long until Squawker would begin to stop trying to get on the truck's bad side and would try to brake in defiance. It took until passing Knapford Junction that Squawker gave up trying to annoy the trucks.
He then began to apply his brakes hard on, but that was what the trucks wanted all along. "Now!" shouted one.
They then began to bump him hard, this made the old brake van yelp in shock. "You disgusting devils!" he snapped and applied his brakes but was met with a hard bump.
Edward groaned as well, as he felt the jolt and harsh bump against his buffers. "Stop it all of you!" he called to all of them behind him.
But the trucks only ignored him and continued to biff and bash at Squawker who tried to bump them back, not hearing the rattling of something below him.
When they began to enter Tidmouth, Edward had finally had enough. "STOP IT!" And with the biggest bump he had ever given, he slammed into the trucks, the trucks all wailed as they felt the pain shoot through them. Squawker even felt it and then there was a snap and clang. Squawker looked down and squeaked in terror as he saw that his coupling hook had fallen out of his buffer beam and he was now running loose with a gap forming between him and the train.
He tried to brake but he couldn't, he looked further down to his wheels, but he couldn't feel his brake blocks moving to stop his wheels. "Help! HELP!" he wailed. The trucks only laughed out hard at the sight of a now terrified Squawker.
Edward, on the other hand, kept going forward, aware of the situation but knowing he couldn't do anything, it was too risky to brake and catch him, a train was behind him and he couldn't tell how fast Squawker was going it could risk him derailing and hurting him and his guard inside. He went under the bridge and began to curve around the coach sheds towards the station, he whistled the emergency code loudly which attracted the signalmen instantly. They saw Edward enter the goods line to the yard behind the station and then saw Squawker. Edward looked to see the red signal up ahead now allowing him through to the yards, giving him no choice but to stop.
"Oh dear," he said, "brace yourselves!"
Squawker could only squawk as loud as he ever could towards the train. One of the signalmen panicked and grabbed a level and pulled.
"Wait!" cried the other signalman, but it was too late. Squawker's front wheels went forward, while his rear went down another line towards the fourth platform. This did the trick, as the wheels buckled and twisted and made Squawker groan to a halt; all was silent but Squawker crying out in pain at his wrecked wheels.
***
"Well Edward," said Stephen, as he examined the scene, "it's quite rare for you to have these incidents. Lots of confusion and delays will occur from this."
Paxton had brought a crane from the yard and was now helping get Squawker onto a flatbed, the crane had to hold him in place though as workmen took off his wheels, as they were too damaged to be used again. Trains that were meant for platform four were now going into other platforms now, causing more confusion as well. Edward did feel guilty, not just for the passengers and other engines, but for Squawker.
"Don't worry Edward," smiled Stephen, "it wasn't your fault. I've heard of this certain brake van, I ordered him to your branch to see whether he could get some sense put him into, but I guess that wasn't the case. I know you were trying your best to make him and the trucks behave, but I guess he's too old to handle these types of mainline trains."
Edward did not respond to that, he only smiled gratefully, a thought then came to his mind. "Sir, what will happen to Squawker now?"
"Oh, I will assign another brake van to your line," smiled Stephen, "but I will repair Squawker and give him another chance after I talk to him though of course." Even though he felt relief, Edward could not help but feel a little happier about knowing that Stephen would chew into Squawker for a good few minutes. He was only sorry not to witness.
***
As promised, a new brake van came to the branch and all the engines were grateful for a new one, they were much more reliable and BoCo and Edward happily swapped back to their normal duties.
But what of Squawker, Stephen did talk to him once he was put on a flatbed and shunted into a siding in the yard. Squawker wished he hadn't. He was repaired and then sent to another branch, one that was far stricter and more terrifying than anything for the old brake van.
And as the day ended for Squawker, he couldn't help but shake.
"What's up with you bud?" asked a truck, noticing him shake.
"N-N-Nothing."
"I think there is a problem," chuckled Matthew in a dark tone as he puffed up next to Squawker, "alright brake van, what have you learned?"
"N-Not to mess with other engines a-again."
"Good," smiled Matthew, "anyhow, I've brought a new friend for you, to help you... get through the night."
The brake van looked to see a green brake van pulled up next to him and his face whitened in terror. "Oh good lord please no-"
"No lord is here is going to be good to you brake van!" snapped Bradford, "now I am ordered by soldier Matthew to teach you how to be a good brake van and you will take these teachings as orders! Do I make myself clear Private Squawker!"
"But... but... I'm no priva-"
"I hadn't permitted you to speak Squawker! Now listen to me!"
Matthew could only grin as he puffed away whilst Bradford shouted at horrified Squawker until the moon shone brightly into the night.