Patrick's Trouble with Trucks

Transcript
Patrick is a 4-6-0 castle class steam engine and tender. Sir Topham Hatt brought him to help out on the "Little Western". Duck and Oliver run the line along with Donald and Douglas. But this day, a change with Toby and Mavis was a bad idea because he knew nothing about trucks or even loaded quarry trucks. They can be a bother for even experienced engines such as Toby, Edward, Percy, Bill, Ben, Daisy, Thomas and others.

The shunter gave the trucks a stern word about paying new engines out. They ignored it and the shunter said crossly, "Fine! Get smashed, when I hear the news, I'll laugh right in front of you buddies." The were offended, but they said nothing to him. Patrick arranged the trucks for his train. The line is steep and twists up through the hills and is dry.

There is a sign that says "ALL TRAINS STOP TO PIN DOWN BRAKES" and trucks see that as an opportunity to cause an accident and not get in trouble. The trucks plans usually backfire when an engine such as Toby or Oliver biffs them about the goods yards. This makes all the trucks very cross indeed, but they learn not to do anything stupid again. Today was the worst day to head to the quarry. It was cloudy, and wet with rain.

The rails going down were slick and dangerous. A branchline/mainline railway crossing junction was at the bottom and a level crossing was sitting right at the end of the railway cross track. After the level crossing, the line swung round and went past the engine shed and sharply curved into the goods yards where a trains of loaded trucks of stone, coal, ore, timber, rails, gravel, earth, crates of strawberries, chocolate chips, bags of flour, milk churns, barrels of honey, boxes of butter, eggs and cheese, churns of cream, and even loaded trucks of feathers. A train of iron ore trucks sat on the through line. Trucks thought that playing tricks on the new engine was a great part of their job as rascals.

Patrick was arranging his train and shunting the trucks in the quarry with Duck, BoCo, Bill, Ben, Derek and Edward. "You are really good," Duck said as he pulled some trucks passed. After Patrick had shunted the trucks into sidings, he backed down onto his trucks and set off for the yards. He trundled along the steep and twisted line till his driver saw the board. His driver pulled the whistle cord and the guard heard the signal and tried to the pin the brakes down but the trucks saw it as an opportunity and surged against him. His driver locked the brakes, but it did no good.

The rails were wet and Patrick along with his crew were taken by surprise. The man on duty haulted all mainline and road traffic. Bertie was waiting at the level crossing when Patrick slipped past, with his driver on the whistle cord, and Patrick whistling till he was red in the face. His crew tried everything from putting sand on the rails to slipping his wheels into reverse. Fergus was shunting cattle trucks in the yard as Whiff returned from the dairy after delivering some cream and milk tankers for the deliveries to the town.

Whiff looked at the stationmaster who had jumped when he heard a tremendous racket. He was doing some paperwork when he heard the shrill whistle. He was startled, he flung the door wide, banged it shut and was standing up on the running board. Patrick slipped past the engine shed and when he saw the brake-van of the waiting train, he shut his eyes. The driver, fireman and guards of both vans jumped clear. He had overtaken the runaway siding. Toby had just arrived with Annie, Clarabel, Henrietta and Victoria when he heard a ear slipping crash and all the crewmen headed for cover as wood splinters and fragments were flung about the yards.

Daisy backed away and so did the other engines. The wood from the van and several trucks piled up on the lines, cause trouble. Mavis, who had been shunting coal trucks hurried over to the accident. The next day, Harvey the crane engine arrived with the two breakdown cranes, Rocky and the works coach. Sir Topham Hatt had arrived by car. He looked at Patrick with an expression that was not to be sneezed at by any of the engines.

"Uh sir," said Edward, who had brought down loaded stone trucks. Sir Tipham Hatt ignored him and Edward's driver lost his cool. "LISTEN HERE SIR," bellowed Edward's driver. Sir Topham Hatt turned around and looked at Edward. "The trucks pushed him down the hill for no apparent reason," said the old tender engine sternly.

After Sir Topham Hatt left for home, Rocky and the two cranes set to work moving Patrick and his tender onto two low loaders Neville had shunted into place. James and Molly had arrived to help clear the unhurt trucks. The trucks tried to play tricks, but James bumped them hard and so did Molly. Dennis pulled the third lot of trucks away and banged them when they tried their tricks. Rosie, Billy and even Daisy collected the last of the unhurt trucks and banged them, putting them into their proper places and giving them a hard time and also letting the trucks know whose boss and to have respect for others.

The very next day, Murdoch pulled Patrick to Crewe, Oliver shunted the trucks into sidings and Stanly brought some empty open wagons to load the rubble into and take away to the dump. Whiff stayed in the yards to help with the trucks. The trucks though it was a great joke. Some of the stone trucks that Patrick had been pulling were destroyed. Donald and Douglas took the loaded trucks back to the quarry and when the shunter heard the news, he laughed along with the Caledonian twins as they arranged the trucks.

The trucks just never learn. They will one day, but that's another story.