[color=blue][b][u]Thomas & Friends: Troublesome Trucks Strike Back[/u][/b][/color] ------------------------- As the day began, Sir Topham Hatt was feeling miserable to a certain extent. He had finally begun to realize that there were too many occasions where he blamed his engines for something that was not actually their fault, or at least entirely their fault. For example, he once scolded Thomas for crashing into a stationmaster’s house, but that was partially because a careless cleaner had messed with the controls and made him start to move, leaving him to drive without a driver. On another occasion, he was cross with Percy for allowing himself to fall into the water at the harbor, evidently not setting the freight cars correctly. In reality, the cars had pushed him into the water themselves. There were several other occasions, that were beginning to bother Sir Topham Hatt, but it did not occur to him that they all had the same thing in common: the freight cars playing jokes on everybody. The cars didn’t care; to them, it was just all fun and games. They even made Diesel look silly on a few occasions, but the steam engines would argue that he brought it upon himself. “What’s the matter, Topham, dear?” his wife asked. “I’m afraid it’s me,” said Sir Topham Hatt. “Through recent discussions I have had with the engines, especially after I permanently got rid of Diesel, I have come to the realization that there were things I was angry at them about, but the reality is that the fault was not their own. The ones at fault were either the drivers of the trains, a different vehicle, the signalmen, or some of the other workers. ‘How could I have been so stupid about the whole thing?’ I asked myself.” “I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it if I were you,” said his wife. “All I’d do is do further investigations into the matter before jumping to conclusions.” “I guess I do get riled up,” said Sir Topham Hatt. “I hate it when confusion and delay happens. I once got upset at Gordon, for example, when he had the last accident he had. He was going faster than he was supposed to be going. However, I should have been cross with his driver for not noticing a level crossing was paved over in the wrong manner until too late. Mind you the whole thing was George the Steamroller doing his job; he was turning an old branch line into a road. But it was not done properly, and he knew it.” “Serves him right!” “Indeed. George is still off-duty; it will be four more days before he can work again.” ---------------- Meanwhile, Thomas and Edward were shunting freight cars in the yard at Tidmouth Sheds, while Gordon and James had to fetch their own coaches. Nobody complained, however; everybody had promised Sir Topham Hatt that they would behave themselves and do as they were told. Deep down inside, Gordon and James (and on a separate note, Henry) still felt they were too important to fetch coaches, but they did so nonetheless. In return, the coaches stopped making remarks such as “You’re lazy and slack! You’re lazy and slack!” Gordon was pulling the express he usually pulled, while James was pulling the second and newer express train that was added in when the new harbor that opened up added more lines to the railways. “Hello, sir,” Thomas said to Sir Topham Hatt when he arrived. “You don’t look so happy today. Is something wrong?” He and Edward continued to shunt as instructed, but it was done in such a way that Sir Topham Hatt was able to talk to them. “No; it’s just me,” said Sir Topham Hatt. “I’ve felt a bit down lately, because I have come to the realization that there were things I was cross with you and the other engines about, when in fact, it wasn’t your fault. More often than not, it ends up being those troublesome trucks. I know you two are getting better at keeping them in line, but just the other day their stupid actions almost put Toby out of service entirely.” “I don’t want us to lose Toby,” Edward agreed. “He’s too valuable to all of us.” “Today, however, it is your turn to deal with them, Thomas. I know you dread it, but it’s part of the job.” “Yes, sir,” said Thomas. But he felt dreadfully nervous inside. ------------------- At last, it was time for Thomas to pull the freight cars; they were empty at this point, but the task for Thomas was to fill them with minerals from the quarry. The freight cars, however, giggled and laughed amongst themselves. They had decided to play another trick. Why? They felt Thomas had been shunting them too hard. (At one point, he did accidentally hit one too hard, but all it did was bump into another freight car and cause it to slightly derail. The quick-thinking workers managed to get it back on the rails and out of the way, just as Henry was about to pull in. “That was close!” he said.) “Come along; come along!” Thomas puffed when it was time to begin, indicated by the conductor’s whistle. “We don’t want to! We don’t want to!” screamed the cars. It was no use; Thomas had already started. The cars then decided to play their tricks, but they waited until the train had reached the top of Gordon’s hill. “Ready, set, go!” they yelled, and began to push Thomas as hard as they could. As a result, he was going faster than ever before. “Now I know how James felt when he had that one major accident on that one occasion!” he shrieked. He continued to pass through the main line, trying to get help whenever he could. “Help! Help! Mayday! Mayday! They’re pushing me! They’re pushing me!” he yelled again. “On! On! On!” laughed the freight cars. -------------- Fortunately for Thomas, Sir Topham Hatt happened to be riding in one of the express trains, and it was the one James was pulling. He had the windows down, so he could hear the trucks laughing as they whizzed by him. “What was that?” exclaimed James. “That was Thomas,” his driver replied. “The freight cars are at it again; they’re being mischievous like they always are, and Thomas is feeling their wrath.” “I feel bad for Thomas,” Sir Topham Hatt muttered to himself. “I can clearly see that those troublesome freight cars are the ones doing this to him. This isn’t him being cheeky or ignorant like he has been in the past. In the old days, I would be cross with him. I should have been cross with the cars. This is exactly what I was saying to him earlier this morning.” ------------- The signalmen set all the signals to danger so that any other traffic would come to a stop, but because of the way the cars were pushing Thomas, he ended up crossing the signals, just as reckless drivers would run a red light. The driver and fireman were struggling to gain control of Thomas, showing how strong the cars were as they did their dirty deeds. Thomas cooperated with his driver and fireman by hitting the brakes when one signalman was able to divert him off the main lines towards some buffers. Yet he couldn’t set the buffer points in time, because Thomas was almost immediately back on the main line. The route Thomas took also led him to pass by Gordon at high speeds as he pulled into the station where the express train was to end. “That was Thomas,” he called to his driver. “Those freight cars are at it again; they have no manners!” “I see that,” said his driver. “I’ll call for help.” “Good idea!” ------------ It was miraculous to see that Thomas had gone the entire route without crashing, but when he finally arrived at the docks, it was quite clear that the cars were going to make him crash. Fortunately, the harbormaster was able to warn all his crew and ships about the problem, and everybody was able to get out of the way just in the nick of time. As Thomas got closer and closer, he again tried to put the brakes on, since he didn’t want to disobey a sign that said, “No trains past this point.” He remembered a day when Percy did go past the sign on purpose, although his intentions were to stop about halfway towards the end. But he was no match for the troublesome freight cars. They pushed him all the way over the edge into the gulf below. His driver and fireman were able to jump clear just in time. “Are you guys okay?” the harbormaster asked. “We are,” said the fireman, “but Thomas isn’t.” -------------------- Soon the alarms rang out back at the yards. “Thomas fell into the water! Get the breakdown train quickly!” the stationmaster yelled. The workers did so, and Percy was coupled on; having finished his tasks, he quickly volunteered to help. Meanwhile, Gordon and James arrived out of their own curiosity. They knew this was no time for teasing; they felt bad for Thomas. “Thomas! Thomas! Are you okay?” Gordon called. Poor Thomas couldn’t answer; he was too upset to speak. When he was finally able to talk, he sputtered out, “At last; I stopped! Oh, dear me; what will Sir Topham Hatt say?” ------------- When James got to the correct stopping point, Sir Topham Hatt immediately walked to the scene of destruction. He could find the cars were giggling and very pleased with themselves. “WILL YOU QUITE FINISH?” he snapped. The cars became silent. Sir Topham Hatt continued to speak severely to them. “I don’t know what has gotten into you troublesome cars! I am fed up with you making my trains look bad; if you cannot behave yourselves, I shall have you replaced, dismantled, and turned into one giant henhouse, just as I did with Diesel!” “Will you really?” one car asked. “Yes,” snapped Sir Topham Hatt, “especially now that I see that it was you causing all this trouble all this time. You made James crash on his very first day. Your unacceptable silliness once led Duck to crash into a barbershop. You pushed Oliver into the turntable well on that one occasion. You made Toad, Oliver’s brake van, go forward when he wasn’t supposed to be going forward. Now this!” On and on he went, and the cars felt that he was giving them a taste of their own medicine. ------------- Percy soon arrived with the breakdown train, and everybody got to work pulling Thomas out of the water. “Is this what you went through?” Gordon asked James. “Sort of,” said James, “but they just pushed me into a cow pasture, and my brake blocks were on fire. Those troublesome cars have no heart whatsoever. I hope that there are different freight cars for us to move around in the future.” “So do I; these cars are nothing but trouble. It’s no surprise that Diesel was too rough on them once upon a time.” --------------- Sir Topham Hatt finally was able to speak to Thomas. “I’m sorry, sir,” said the blue engine, “but I did all I could to stop them. They didn’t stop.” “Cheer up, Thomas,” Sir Topham Hatt replied. “It was not your fault. Those silly cars were causing the whole ordeal. I told them I’d replace them and have them all mashed together and converted into one big henhouse, just as I did with Diesel, if they didn’t stop behaving themselves. In the meantime, I’m going to have to send you to Sodor Works to be repaired, but don’t weep. It’s not you I am angry at; it’s those cars. You did what you could, and you were very brave while doing so; I’m proud of you!” “Yes, sir; thank you, sir,” said Thomas as a tear or two escaped his eye. “Bother those freight cars!” Gordon and James exclaimed in unison as Thomas passed by. “We’re just glad you are okay, Thomas.” “Thanks, Gordon. Thanks, James.” ------------- Given the circumstances, Thomas had to have his brakes updated just as James did (as well as get a new coat of paint). It took about three or four days to do the entire job, but when it was finished, Thomas was as good as new, and was very happy to be back to work. The engines all gave him a rousing welcome on his return, and Sir Topham Hatt returned him to his branch line. Annie and Clarabel were most of all pleased to see him again, and his passengers all said hello to him as he drove along the branch line. James then had to pull the troublesome freight cars, and this time, they were filled with fruits and vegetables. The cars still wanted to play tricks, but didn’t bother to do so this time. They were always quick to warn one another: “Take care with the whole team here; if you play tricks on any of them, you will never be the same car again!” If they were causing any problems, it was all in the jokes they were making, particularly aimed at Gordon. (One of them was a repeat of a joke Diesel had made up, although he lied to the cars and said Duck told him the joke.) However, Gordon said nothing, and just continued to pull the express as usual (when he wasn’t pulling a freight train). At a station where they had to let off passengers, Sir Topham Hatt spoke to Thomas. “How do you feel right now?” he asked. “Much better; thank you, sir,” said Thomas as the fireman began to give him a long drink. “I never want to go through that again.” “I don’t blame you,” said Sir Topham Hatt. “Those troublesome freight cars have been nothing but a disappointment since the very first day. To tell you the truth, I just don’t know what to do with them anymore. I don’t want to lose them because of the tasks they do help us with, and because we don’t have the money to purchase newer freight cars. Not right now, anyways. I am just barely staying in the black having to pay for all these accidents.” “I do thank you for realizing that I wasn’t doing that on purpose; I know better than to go past a signal set at danger, sir.” “I know you do, and I’m glad to see that. Those cars are the ones that made you disobey the rules; it wasn’t you doing it yourself.” Then the whistle blew, and Thomas had to start again. “Oh; time for me to go now,” said Thomas. “Thanks again, sir.” “You’re welcome, Thomas,” said Sir Topham Hatt as his number one engine began to drive off. “You’re a really useful engine!” -------------- [color=red][b]THE END[/b][/color]