Traintober 2025: Day 29 - Overhaul
A fine place for sick engines, eh?
Henry went to Crewe Works early in January, after his accident with the Flying Kipper. He left on a flatbed, pushed behind a foreign engine by a distraught Percy. “Get better soon, ok?” called Percy. “I… will…” groaned Henry, clearly feeling his injuries.
Percy puffed solemnly away, and Edward sidled forwards, looking pensive. “Do try and come back to us,” the old engine murmured, just softly enough not to be overheard. “I’ll… try…” Edward sighed. “Farewell, Henry.”
The foreign engine started, slowly at first before speeding up, taking his train - and Henry along with it - away on the long journey to Crewe. There, hopefully, Henry would get the overhaul he so desperately needed.
Of course, Edward wasn't entirely sure. He had seen the damage done to the big green engine. He had seen the shards of steel wrenched from their proper places to rip through Henry and leave him aching and goraning, barely clinging to consciousness.
Edward got the sinking suspicion that the Henry that would return from Crewe would be a very different engine to the Henry who left on the flatbed.
** ** **
Henry returned to Sodor on a warm spring day, when the flowers were in full bloom. He was stronger than before, faster too. He thundered along, a bright beaming smile on his face. He whistled hello to everyone he came across.
To most of the engines, it seemed as though their Henry had returned, healthy and better than ever. Percy could only grin, chatting idly with Henry by the water tower.
Gordon and Edward, however, sat off to one side. "He seems… off," grunted Gordon. Edward hated how much he agreed. "He whistles too much," Gordon went on, glaring over at the big green engine, "and he is smiling like an idiot. I haven't heard him complain once since he returned. Not even when that lorry jeered at him!" "Maybe he's just that excited to no longer be in so much pain - we both knew his old shape wasn't good for him," Edward tried, but he sounded weak even to himself.
Gordon lashed out at Henry that evening in the sheds. He could not stop himself, picking the one biggest difference - the penchant for whistling. Gordon went on his tirade, and all it did was push the others towards Henry more.
Percy comforted Henry, James confronted Gordon later that day, prior to his express run. Gordon felt like screaming, wanting to rage and hiss and demand the truth, why Henry felt so different!
For Edward, it was quieter.
The old engine noticed the smaller things, the things only he had ever noticed about Henry. The way his lip used to quirk when he smiled, now gone. The way his eyes had twinkled when he saw particular passengers, now replaced by an almost blank positivity.
Edward hated it. But this Henry did remember his old life. He remembered it perfectly. He just wasn't quite right.
The two blue engines spent nights speaking to each other in soft tones, watching Henry from a distance. Edward was there in the aftermath of Henry's sneeze, trying his best to figure out why Henry had gone from being unusually tolerant of childrens' misdemeanours to the first to punish them, drenching them in soot and smoke. Gordon listened in on Henry's argument with Percy, being stunned when Henry completely ignored the hidden injoke he usually had with Percy. The two had always teased each other like drivers in the locker rooms, it was how they had become friends.
But Henry simply ploughed onwards this time, leaving poor Percy confused and a little hurt. It was why Gordon did not give Percy and grief over the trousers incident - he knew all too well how distracting it was to have an engine who in every way seemed like Henry, only to be revealed as someone just slightly different.
Like a picture frame that was crooked, and everyone was simply pretending it wasn't, even as the painting began to crack.
Edward and Gordon tried speaking to the Fat Director about their concerns, only to be met with uncharacteristic stoniness. "Henry has made a miraculous recovery at Crewe," the Fat Director said. "We should be thankful they were able to repair him at all." "Sir…" Edward said softly. "He doesn't act like our Henry. I… I just want to know what happened."
The Fat Director placed his hat onto his head, and stared his two engines directly in the eyes. "Henry has spent three months at Crewe, being completely overhauled. While there, a number of further defects with his original shape were found, and those two were fixed. Henry no longer feels a number of chronic pains. He is better, he's just a little different while he gets used to feeling so much healthier. I need to go, have a good day engines."
He tipped his hat, and strode away.
Edward and Gordon shared a look.
Over time, Edward and Gordon would drift apart. Edward could no longer look at Henry without feeling an intense pain, shifting more and more onto his branchline until he had almost fully vanished from the goings on at Tidmouth. With the new, healthier Henry, it did not change much. Over the next twenty years, Gordon got used to Henry. They were forced to spend nearly every waking day with each other after all.
By the 1950s, Gordon and Henry had recemented their friendship, while Edward reorientated his life to focus on his branchline. He would never be quite as close with Gordon or Henry as he was, but he found new friends and family in engines like Thomas, Percy, the Caledonian twins, Duck, Bill and Ben, and BoCo.
Edward never did forget though.
He just never really knew what to do.
** ** **
William A. Stanier sat in his sketching room, staring down at the plans. He had always wanted to build a high-speed streamlined express engine to rival that of the LNER, and he had finally gotten the funding to do so.
There was only one small issue.
The phone rang. Stanier lifted it up to his ear, taking his pen out of his mouth. "The office of William Stanier, how can I help?" "Evening Will." "Ah, Topham! How's Henry doing?" Stanier asked, leaning forward in his chair and adding a new line to the sketch in front of him, changing the way the cab roof was set by the smallest increment. "Two of my engines have noticed… differences. You promised this Henry would act just like the old one."
Stanier sighed, pushing the streamlined engine plan to one side, revealing a different, equally new set of schematics. "We completely checked that engine over - he was in no state to be rebuilt. Replacing him was the only option - we did everything we could to make sure he was just like the old Henry." "And mostly, we have been successful," Topham Hatt replied. Stanier placed down his pen, and gazed out his window at the shop floor. Dozens of engine boilers lay about, in various stages of completion. Most of the workmen had gone home for the night, leaving only a skeleton crew who were determined to finish a couple bits of soldering before clocking off.
"There is no use in arguing now. I have held up my end of the deal - you will keep it quiet." "I know about the Great Bear too, Stanier."
Stanier slumped back in his chair, stony-faced.
"No…" "I do. I know it was your tweaks that ruined it. I have the plans in my possession." "What do you want, Hatt?" "Ah, so now I am no longer Topham," chuckled the man on the other end of the phone. Stanier sneered, keeping quiet all the same.
Topham Hatt was a man who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals, even if it involved hurling friends under the proverbial locomotive.
"My LNER engine - Gordon - he's a big Pacific who needs an overhaul shortly. I heard you were planning on building a new fleet of high speed streamlined engines." "How — no, it does not matter. What, you want me to rebuild Gordon to look like one of these engines?" "No, no - not at all!" laughed Topham Hatt. "I just want you to use him as a test engine. Rebuild him for his next overhaul - a proper rebuild, not a replacement, or too many engines will get suspicious - and put all your concepts into him. Use him as your guinea pig, and in return…" "Yes, Topham?" "Half off the overhaul price. And then it'll all go up in flames, making sure none of your… less than desireable past incidents at Swindon ever see light." "I can agree to that - but I will be there to make sure it happens." "Alright, see you then. Talk to you another time, Will." "Goodbye, Topham."
Stanier rose from his chair, and stepped out through the workshops, making his way round to the back, where one engine looked very much like he did not belong. A very green engine. "Sorry to say, but your owner doesn't really want you back," sighed Stanier, gazing up at the frightened eyes of Henry the green engine.
The original.
"Well, it's alright - I'm not quite like ol' Topham. How do you feel about the idea of being an express engine?"
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