Sodor Scenarios: A turn of the tables

"And so... that engine went as fast as he could, but the ghost of Timothy caught up to him, blaring his deathly ghost death whistle of ghostly death! And he was never seen again...." 
"James, yon ghost stories have aboot as much appeal as a gluten free muffin!"
Tinkerbell burst into a fit of the giggles, it was funny to watch James' face go as red as his paintwork as his spooky ego was shot down for the 3rd time that night.

The red engine had brought the last train of the day as a halloween party train to the Sodor museum at Vicarstown and was not due back for another few hours, in the meantime, James had huddled up in the former North Western shed with the museum's engine "Neil" and the station pilot for that week, Tinkerbell. It was the time of halloween once again and with it, came the wintery fog of October an with that came the tales of ghost engines of long since past, threataning to sheet engines up and take thema way from this world... Or in James case, fanfiction that was so terrible, it would've been quicker to scrap yourself.

"PAH!" Snorted James "My story was too scary, Tinkerbell over there practically jumped over there when I got to the bit about Timothy falling into the rivene!"

"Oh, no no James..." Tinkerbell rebuked "When you got to zhat part, a moth landed on my nose... Your story..." Tinkerbell grinned cheepishly "I have to admit... I nearly fell asleep, it vas so bad." The sound of James' ego hitting the flaw was audible, ever since the Danish tank settled into Sudrian life, her lack of social skills did leave her being unintentionally blunt, even if she didn't realize it.

"Aye, case oond point James, ye canne tell a ghost story to save yon paint job~" Neil grinned.

"Oh yeah? If ya so good at ghost stories, why don't you tell one?" James snorted

"Simple one of that James, ghosts annieh real, it's all smook oon mirras, ah shood knoo, ah been roond fora centry or two..." Neil went on, his Glaswegian accent as thick as the day he was built. "Apart from that, ah think ah got a storeh that'll make the pair o' yeh funnels quiva'"

"Pfft, a scary story that doesn't involve ghosts? Go on then! Show us what ya got." 

"A'ight..." Neil began, as the old engine began his story "For the wee lass across from me, I'll give a bit o' backgroond... Ah take it ya knoo of the sodor and mainland James?"

"No, of course not, I'm not a historian" James sniffed, the box tank grinned with the opertunity of a history lesson.

"Well, sodor's railways were made up of several different railway companies and often or not we'd meet various engines from other companies, often or neigh, these were fleets of ex-industrial engines, or even ex-tender engines turned into tank engines... One of these that ah often met was an engine called "Samson". Many o' the engines that were tender engines turned tankies don hated the idea, they felt they had lost a mark of distinction. But if ye talked to Samson, ye more thane think he were built as a tank. He wouldne go more than 2 sentances withoot metioning the fact he were a strong tank engine and t'his credit, he were more a hard worker than me and the other engines were. But, his main problem is that he didne knoo where his limits lay. Oftene or noot you'd see him pulling longer trains than any other engine in the right mindcept would pull. For the life o'me, I couldn't crack hoo he did it. It wasne until I actually asked him

"Fookin' 'ell Samson, hoo the fookin' 'eck ya pullin' such long trains?"
"Well young Neil, as a proud strong tank engine like myself, we all have secrets to our strengths, for me it's being a robust and stirdy tank engine, keeping all my wheels to the rails and keeping high pressure in my boiler!"

Tinkerbell burst into a fit of giggles at Neil's abrubt foul language "Did... you actually say zhat him as a way of greeting him?" She asked

"Ehehe... Ah were young and foul moothed when I were younger... At the time, I didne know just what he meant by "High pressure in the boiler" but it wasne a few years after this, did ah find oot his driver had been tampering with his safety valve while he was in steam...."

"Safety valve tampering?" James asked bemused, looking back to his firebox "Saftey valves are assembled so only fitters can adjust them" He added, looking over to the box tank "Look, even yours with your old design is made like mine." Neil just smiled knowingly

"Aaaah, while it may be the same as yours James, this wasne the one ah were built with, there be reason why they're like that in the first place... The safety valves at the time had a wee bit of a problem. They only mon screwed in, so say ya wanne get more speed n poower oot ya engine. Ya crew only need screw the valve a bit further.... From what ah foond oot about Samson's driver, he didne take much kind to yon wee bits of steam gettin oot. So one mornin' he decided to screw it all the way in...

Ah had only just sat in the platform at the station at vicarstoon. The sheds there at the time were only 3 road and to get to the water toower, it were a bit of an akward depot, you'd have to go onto yon table, turn half way roond then roll to the tower. Ah could see Samson just comin' to a stop at the tower when it happened. One second he were there.... Next... N-next..." He trailed off...

"W-wait a mintue..." James interupted, looking a little bit rustled "Are you saying he-"

"Gone" Neil said simply "The poor wee engine were there one second, next, him and surroondin' area were gone in an explosion o white hot metal and steam... By the time the steam had gone, anythin' left of Samson were lost in a great massive crator..." Neil's tone went a little vemonous "That incompetant driver neigh took into accont that the constant high pressure was past his design limits... That plus the increased workload didne do his boiler any favors... the crew were killed instantly... But seeing as the railway engines at the time were blooin' up left right and centre, the railway just carried on... The sheds were rebuilt t'what ya stand in t'day. They tried fillin' in the crator were samson lay, but f'some reason, the crator kept comin' back like a sink hole, eventually they gave up and it filled with rain and became a ditch in years t'come...."

"W-wait hold up again..." James said, clearly shaking at this point "So ya saying... That the ditch that Gordon fell into were..."

"A site for a boiler explosion? Aye it were an all, why d'ya think there were rails that wenne into tha ditch? They didne bother to clean up the wreckage, as it weren't valuble as scrap at the time... As for the ditch re-formin? Wouldne knoo for the life o' me..." He grinned a little "Maybe its samson's ghost OOOoooOOOoooOOoo~" he mocked in a fake spooky voice, but then... silence. "Uuuuh... Tink? James There's me story... What ye think?" The old engine look back and forth between the Dane and the Jame. Poor Tinkerbell looked as if she had just wittnessed the entirety of Barry Scrapyard get cut into pieces right in front of her. James on the other hand was lost in a fixated stare at the ditch. Neil looked back and forth once more and metaphorically shrugged. "Young'ins." He mumbled to himself  "Duke were right, they scare more easier than a cat with a case of faintin' goot..." and with that remark, he reversed into shed and felll asleep.

Poor Tinkebell would need quite a while to recover from that story. James on the other hand had to set off to collect his passenger train to take the party-goers back. However, as he did so, he'd never be able to look at Gordon's ditch, the same way again...



AAAAAAAAAAND 3 days late he's across the finish line folks! 

Hey guys, Mr. Joj back here again with another Sodor Scenarios picture and story. Probably one of my more clunkier stories I've ever written, but to be fair working with steam engines tends to leave my mind, body  and soul a bit rattled. Seeing as I work most of the week smashing and bashing boilerplates, it hardly gives me the strength or metnal focus I need to do drawings like this anymore. :S 

But yeah I thought I'd try a scenarios pic with a taste of halloween, however, the time this particular story is in, Tinkerbell has indeed finally settled in with the NWR fleet and is earning her way to being a really useful engine like all engines yearn to be... (mostly... and hence the sudrian flag on her funnel) I still have a lot of stories I'd like to write  for Tink, it's just getting them down to paper that's being the struggle... And hey, diifferent charactars in the mix, this seems to be the first digital scenarios pic I've done, while easier, it's not eactly asthetically pleasing in my view :S

I've always looked at Gordon's ditch in the TVS and thought "Why the fuck would they have a track half way round the turntable at Vicarstown that would lead straight into a seemingly pondlike stature of water? And more importantly why are there fucking engine pieces lying about? And boom, this story came about. ...Also Samson's backstory about being an ex-tender engine makes sense as to why he's so proud of being a tank engine, having the tanks ON him rather than him pulling, gives him more adiesian weight, which makes more pulling power and makes him stronger. ....I just blew him up cause he's a shit 8U

Right that's it from me, my arms are giving out again. Stay safe kids.

Bollocks to Brexit

Joe the joj