Work Text:
July 24th, 2003
“Luke! Wake up!” called his driver, Tom. “It’s quarter past six now. We can’t miss Thomas at the transfer yard,” Luke suddenly opened his eyes and saw his driver. His fireman, Alex was in his cab, trying to get him started.
“Oh my!” remembered Luke. He had completely forgotten that he needed to go to the transfer yard this morning with the limestone trucks, but he was too busy listening to Rheneas’ story last night, that he had completely forgotten about it. Luke looked around to found him, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Rheneas?” he asked.
“He has already left with his crew.” Tom explained. “Come on, let’s show a wheel,”. They quickly oiled and greased up Luke, while his fire started to burn up nicely. So enough, he was sizzling comfortably. Tom pulled open his regulator and Luke headed towards collecting his trucks.
As Luke was coupled up to the Limestone trucks, the yard manager came up to him.
“Sir Handel has been delayed at Rheneas’ Station on the left-hand track, and Rusty and the workmen are doing work on the other side, so you might be delay,” she explained.
“Bother!” Luke muttered crossly. “Now, Thomas will have to wait for me,”. His crew were cross too, they didn’t want to wait, and it was going to be very hot today as well. Just then, Alex got an idea.
“Why don’t we take the old line that runs through the forest?” he asked. Tom looked at him confused.
“What old line?” he asked.
“So, you know how there is those two track lines. The right one takes you down to the M.O.D base south of Skarloey Station?” Alex asked.
“Yeah?” replied Tom, still unsure on where this was going.
“Well, there is one that goes straight ahead, and it runs through a forest. I’ve been through there before, and it takes us to the Transfer Yard, it’s much quicker as well,” Alex explained. Luke was overhearing the conversation.
“Hmmmm. Maybe we could. But do you think it would be safe?” Tom asked.
“It should be. The line is stable enough to hold an engine like Luke and the Limestone trucks,” replied Alex.
“Hmmm. Alright, we’ll do it,” Tom said. The two went up to Luke and explained the plan, and then went to the yard manager, who told Mr Matthews the quarry manager. Tom and Alex returned to Luke soon after.
“We are leaving now Luke. We will take the old forest line,” said Alex. Luke was unsure if he wanted to go now this old line, he had never heard of this old line since he had been here.
When they got to Skarloey Station to head south, Duncan was there with his passengers. He was very surprised to see Luke.
“Luke? What yer goin’?” he asked.
“To the Transfer Yard at Crovan’s Gates,” Luke replied, as he puffed past him, with his trucks of Limestone.
“But… But you canny go that way!” Duncan called out.
“Yes, you can,” Luke called back, as he disappeared out of side, leaving poor Duncan confused and wondering what Luke was up to.
Luke puffed along the line smoothly until they passed the M.O.B base, and the forest line was just in view. Luke looked beyond the line. It was dark and creepy looking. There were small branches on the line and the naked trees’ branches look like old lady’s fingers. Luke was very nervous, but he took a deep breath and slowly began puffing into the lines.
“Go slow Luke. These lines do look a fair bit old,” called Tom. Luke rolled slowly and carefully, as he made his way through the forest. It was nice and cool with the shadiness of the area but still felt unsettling.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Alex?” asked Luke.
“It will help us save up for lost time,” replied Alex. Luke sighed. Suddenly, Luke notice something on the line.
“Deer!” he called out, as he braked hard, and blew his whistle loudly. The deer looked up and saw Luke coming towards them. It jumped out of the way, just in time for him to stop. Luke slowly opened his eyes, and looked around, the deer was gone. Alex got out of his cab and checked under Luke’s chassis, and wheels.
“Luckily you didn’t hit the deer, Luke. Otherwise, you would have had a lot of blood on your wheels, and it would have gotten all over your wheels, making it hard for you to move,” he explained. Just then, the guard came up, asking why they had stopped. Alex and Tom explained what had happen, as Luke sat waiting. As he sat waiting, he couldn’t help but feel as if someone was watching him. Luke felt a chill go up his frames. Suddenly, a faint whisper came creeping in. It was hard to hear, but Luke could make out one word.
“Help…” it was. Luke was surprised. It didn’t sound like Tom, Alex or the guard, and it was so deep and croaky sounding.
“Tom… Alex… Is that you?” Luke called out.
“What did you say?” asked Tom.
“Did you called out for help?” asked Luke. Tom shook his head.
“Nope,” he replied, and neither did Alex. Luke was a little scared. Was he hearing things? Was he going crazy? He couldn’t stop thinking about it until they arrived at the Transfer Yard, where Thomas was impatiently waiting.
“About time you got here,” Thomas said rudely. The Thin Controller, Mr Percival was there waiting.
“Luke. I expected better timing from you. Next time, don’t be late, or there will be consequences,” he said sternly.
“Yes sir. Sorry sir. It won’t happen again, sir,” said Luke.
“Now, I need you to fetch the coaches for Ivo Hugh now. He is running late too, and he needs to get to the station at Crovan’s Gates for a brunch special. Go quickly please,” Mr Percival instructed. Luke was quickly uncoupled from his train and sped off to collect the coaches.
Luke collected the coaches, Jemima, Lucy, Ruth and Cora, and quickly made his way to the bottom station. As he was doing so, you couldn’t help but think about the voice he heard.
“Is there someone lost in the forest?” he asked himself. But if it was a person, surely, they could have just, walked up to us… or maybe I am hearing things after all, he thought, as he rolled to the platform. The passengers for the brunch were waiting.
“Ivo Hugh won’t be too long from now,” The guard told the passengers. “You are welcome to stay in the coaches until he arrives,”. Luke was uncoupled from Cora, and he made his way to the water tower at the sheds. When he arrived, he was still thinking about the voice he heard and trying to figure who it was.
“Who could it be?” he wondered. Skarloey was at the sheds, getting a wash down. He had been at the quarry and got dust all over him, and he was due to take a passenger train this afternoon at 4 pm.
“Hullo, Luke. Whatcha thinking about?” he asked. Luke looked up from his buffers at Skarloey who was covered in soap bubbles. Luke sighed, disappointedly.
“Well, I was taking some Limestone to the Transfer Yard, and I swore I had a voice call out for me,” he explained. Skarloey looked at Luke like he was going mad, but he smiled sweetly at him.
“You probably were just hearing things Luke,” assured Skarloey. “Besides, I doubt you heard just more than one voice. It’s a very busy day today. It’s only the beginning of the school holidays and there will be a lot of families and friends, and it’s hotter than yesterday,” he said. Just as he said that the Thin Controller came to him.
“Rusty’s diesel engine has overheated. Again! I need you to shunt them to the transfer yard. I have arranged for an engine to take them to the Diesel Works at Vicarstown,” he explained. “They are up at the Lakeside loop, please head up their quickly please, Skarloey,”
“Yes, sir,” said Skarloey. So, her fire was lit, and he quickly heard up the line to found Rusty, leaving Luke alone, watching the Thin Controller look down at his hardcopy timetable and sighing.
“This year will be exhausting,” he muttered to himself. Luke felt sorry for him, and he wanted to find a way to make it easy for him, but all the same, he wanted to tell him about the secret line.
Luke went on about his work the rest of the day. He was at the quarry all day, helping Duncan and Sir Handel with trucks of limestone and other minerals the miners were founding. Duncan was helping the men mining, Luke shunted the trucks for Sir Handel, and he would bring them down to the transfer yard. They were going backwards and forward all day, until their axels and wheels aced.
“This is the last train, Sir Handel,” Luke said, buffering up the train to Sir Handel, as the sun was setting, and he set off with the last train. Duncan was to take the workmen home, and Luke was to head back to the sheds. As he was taking on some water and was thinking about the secret line.
“Maybe I should mention it to the others?” he told himself, as he continued to think.
“Or maybe… we could through it right now?” he thought, then he asked Alex about it.
“Are you sure, Luke?” he asked. “It doesn’t take us straight to the sheds,”. But Luke was sure of himself. He wanted to go through that line again. Once his tank was full, they set off.
Luke puffed past the entry of the M.O.D base and was soon face-to-face with the forest line. This time, he felt even more scared. It was 6:05 pm and soon it would be getting dark, and the line looked spooky, but Luke wore a brave face and puffed along. He was careful as he puffed and was aware of his surroundings. He could hear the sounds of crickets and insects singing, and crows squawking. One flew right in front of Luke’s face and startled him. As he puffed along the line, he couldn’t hear a voice. No person, no animal crying out for help… no one’s voice.
“Maybe I was imagining it…” Luke sighed with disappointment, but he still wanted to tell the others about the line.
When Luke arrived back to the sheds that night, he found Rusty and Rheneas were absence, but he found Ivo Hugh with them. He wanted to spend the night the others, since he had an early train tomorrow morning for a morning tea picnic. They were talking about their day, just as Luke puffed in.
“You’re back late, what took ya so long?” asked Duncan.
“Please, I can explain,” said Luke. Everyone went silence, all looking at Luke confused.
“Do you guys know that where is a line that runs through a forest?” Luke asked. Every engine looked at him like he was crazy.
“A what?” they asked.
“There is a line, where it runs through a forestry area,” Luke repeated. Everyone looked at him and each other, looking for an answer.
“I’m sorry, Luke, but we have never heard of a line such as that,” said Ivo Hugh, the others didn’t know either.
“I think you have been overworked, Luke,” said Sir Handel. “I think you need to rest early tonight,”
“But I’m not crazy. I’ve been through it before, twice today,” he explained. But the others were shutting it down.
“Oh, not now Luke, please. We are all so tired,” Duncan groaned. “We’ve never heard of this forest before, even if we have been here for a long time,” added Adelia. Everyone agreed, expect for one.
“I do,” came a voice from the back of the sheds. It was Skarloey.
“You know something about Luke’s woods?” asked Duke.
“Of course, I do,” he said. “I have been through it before, but not in a long time,”. Everyone looked at him.
“What do you mean, ‘a long time’?” asked Sir Handel. Skarloey took a long deep breath.
“Well, in 1898, slate was discovered south of Skarloey station, and the founder, Mr Newman, wanted to slate mine, which did end up happening along with Mr Mack and Sir Brown’s consent,” Skarloey began. “However, there was a problem. If they wanted me and Rheneas to help transfer the slate to the while doing passengers at the same time, would be difficult, since we only had one line running up the line, since we were used to having us going out on at the time,”
“Not difficult, it would have been impossible,” said Sir Handel.
“I agree,” said Duncan.
“That’s exactly why they constructed that line through the forest. It was built just as the mine opened, and we were instructed to go through that area when hauling the trucks,” explained Skarloey.
“But why though?” asked Ivo Hugh.
“Because it’s quicker to get through there to get to the Crovan’s Gates’ transfer yard. If you went through that area, you end up at the transfer yard,” replied Luke.
“Exactly,” said Skarloey. “We always went through their, even Proteus did,”. Everyone was very surprised by this new found information that was being told to them.
“But how come they didn’t want to construct the second truck up the line then?” asked Sir Handel.
“Because Sir Handel, they thought it was unprofessional to have grand little engines that were used to pulling passengers to haul goods work,” explained Skarloey, “Unless that’s what Mr. Taylor told us,”
“Who?” asked Peter Sam.
“Never mind,” said Skarloey as he cleared his throat and continued.
“If we were doing late night runs, we would sometimes go through the stations, but during the day, we had to go through the forest,” explained Skarloey. The others listened very intrigued.
“But how come me and Stuart never heard about it till now?” asked Sir Handel.
“I’m not too sure, but this is what Rheneas theorised. We believed that Mr Peter Sam saw no use for the line or believed it was too dangerous since the trees are so close to the line. So, we closed it off,” explained Skarloey. “I’m guessing he never told Peter Sam or you, Sir Handel about it,” he concluded.
“And probably forgot about it,” said Ivo Hugh. “Since we now have two lines now, to make the traffic run smoother,”. Just then, Adelia spoke up.
“I think I have seen this secret line before,” she said. The others were confused.
"What?! Wait?" asked Sir Handel.
“Well, the sign for it,” she added. “I remember when I worked up at the M.O.D based in the 60s and I remember seeing a sign that said, ‘Track Closed!’ and just beyond it was a line leading into the forest.”
“Did you go through it?” asked Ivo Hugh.
“I wanted to, but my driver, Ivan wasn’t too keen on it,” Adelia replied. "But one night, I was heading home from the base, and went to go fill up at the water tower near the line,”
“But there isn’t a water tower there,” Luke interrupted.
“At the time there was,” added Adelia, as she continued. “And as I went to go fill up on water, the ‘Closed Line’ sign was gone. I wanted to tell the Thin Controller, but it may have been a good thing that I didn’t, because I see that he was very secretive about the whole thing,” she said, looking at Skarloey, who was very confused and surprised.
“But who could have moved it?” asked Skarloey, as the others began to think.
“I did..” came a voice. Everyone’s eyes turned to find the face, the voice belongs to. It was Peter Sam. He had been strangely quiet the whole time they were talking and feeling rather uncomfortable about the whole topic.
“Do you know anything about this line, Stuart?” asked Duke.
“Yes Grandpuff,” replied Peter Sam, feeling like he was confessing to a crime.
“I discover the line in 1956, when I had to take slate from the old quarry to the transfer yard at Crovan’s Gate. It was just me out that day, others were in the sheds, and I wanted to get the transfer yard quicker, so I could get my afternoon train. When you entered the old quarry, there were two points, one was left, which would take you back up the Skarloey Station and the other turned right, and I didn’t know where it took me, so I decided to find out,” Peter Sam paused.
“What happened?” asked Adelia.
“I found the old line and met with the sign out along with it too. My driver and fireman didn’t seem like it was a big deal, so we puffed along it, and surely enough, I was at the transfer yard, and early too,” Peter Sam explained. “And I took that way ever since, and never told Mr Sam about it, ever,” he concluded.
A blanket if silences fill in the sheds. It was a lot to take in. No one had ever heard of the line before, and no one had dared to go near it, until now. No one really knew what to do, or if they should tell the Thin Controller, or Mr Hugh.
“Should we tell Mr Percival about it?” asked Ivo Hugh.
“I doubt it, Ivo. He has been very busy lately, and it’s surely wouldn’t be necessary-,” just as Luke was explaining, he had a thought that had just came across his mind. The others note this and want to know.
“Everything alright, Luke?” asked Peter Sam, as everyone looked at him, waiting for his response.
“When I was coming through the woods this morning, I had to stop because a deer was on the line,” Luke began. “We stopped just in time before we could hit it - the deer moved out the way before I could hit it - but as the guard from the brake van came up to see what had happened. I swear, to all the Lady, I heard a voice,”. Everyone looked at Luke. Some with confused looks, others had worried looks painted on their faces.
“It was very faint, but I swore it was calling out for help,” he said.
“Calling out for me?” said Sir Handel.
“Like an animal would?” asked Peter Sam.
“I think he is talking about a person, Peter Sam,” replied Duncan. “Not a cry, a call,”.
“It couldn’t have been a person, I didn’t see anyone come up to me,” said Luke. “And the area didn’t look so rocky and hilly either, or it certainly wasn’t an animal crying out for help,”
“But what if it was a human?” asked Adelia.
“If it was, then my driver and fireman would have heard it too,” replied Luke, explaining that when he went to go ask Tom and Alex about the voice, they recalled not hearing anything. The others were confused.
“I do know there is the MacDonald’s farm there. But I doubt it would be John, him and the missus are out of town for the week, it’s only the children there, but I can’t imagine them going into the forest,” explained Peter Sam.
“Okay… so this forest is haunted, like we didn’t need anything else to scare away the visitors,” said Sir Handel.
“I don’t think it’s haunted, Sir Handel,” said Luke. “I just have a feeling that I wasn’t the only steamy in there,”
“What are you trying to say, Luke?” asked Duncan.
“What I am trying to say, is that maybe, they are someone in the woods, that we have been talking about, a lot recently,” he replied.
“And who might that be?” asked Duke
“Proteus…” Everyone looked at him surprised. They had al forgotten about Proteus from the story that was told nearly 30 years ago by Skarloey, but Rheneas’ perspective on the story, had really changed something in Luke.
“I think he might be in the woods, and he is calling out for help,” Luke said.
“Oh, d-don’t be so daft, Luke,” Duncan stuttered, a little bit shaken from the idea. “I don’t think it could have been Proteus... plus, he is mostly dead after being missing from a whole century,”.
“Dead?!” asked Luke.
“Duncan, shut it down, please,” said Adelia.
“Well, I’m sorry it’s the possible truth,” he said.
“But how could Proteus be ‘dead’?’ asked Ivo Hugh. “I mean, us engines don’t age physically,”
“Well, it might be possible he was scrapped?” asked Sir Handel. The others shutter at the thought.
“Don’t say such a thing, Falcon!” said Peter Sam. As an argument started to brew, and everyone was sharing their thoughts and opinions about what most likely happened to Proteus. Luke felt silly and disappointed in himself for even mentioning the name. Then he turned his attention to Skarloey, who sighed.
“Quiet!” he shouted, with he loud and deep booming voice. Everyone did as they were told and turned to Skarloey, as he looked directly at Luke.
“Look Luke. I haven’t been down that line in a long time. The last time I went through was before I was sent to my shed, and through my time, I have never seen or heard the voice of Proteus ever,” he said. “But it’s possible that maybe – no promises – but maybe, he could still be out there,”
“But you have been here since the beginning, Skarloey. Surely you and Rheneas have tried looking for Proteus yourselves,” said Ivo Hugh.
“You may think that Ivo, but it wasn’t like that. When Proteus went missing it wasn't us two looking for him, it was the people, the staff and workers on the railway. They were keen on finding him for me and especially Rheneas, but they never found him,” explained Skarloey. Everyone looked a little disappointed in the answer Skarloey gave, but it made a lot of sense as to why he was never found. A long silence fell in the sheds, as everyone stood there thinking about what had been sent.
“Look, I think we should all get some rest now. We all had a busy day today, and we all will have a busy day tomorrow,” said Adelia. Everyone agreed and said their goodnights, expected Luke. Skarloey had notices this, Luke’s interest and eagerness to know more about this missing engine and what happened to him, or if he is still around.
“Luke. We are all very busy right now it’s the time of the school holidays, maybe put off the time of Proteus for the time being,” he said.
“Alright then,” Luke sighed, as they both fell asleep.