Furness

**Furness** is the ninth episode of the second season of the Stories of Sodor and the twenty-fourth episode overall.

Furness/Transcript

## Plot

The episode starts off immediately where the previous episode left off, with Gordon in disbelief and Joey has explained to him the situation. Gordon still believes Geoffrey's train had the smuggled goods, also denying being complicit in the crime, even though his guard is. Gordon protests that he has never been in trouble for the law, but Joey tells him everyone has the capacity for law breaking. Joey tells Gordon if he is innocent, he will be released with an apology before they start.

The night afterwards, Gordon complains about being held in custody for 24 straight hours, and James tells him to stop as he wasn't sent to Rail Gate. Desperate to change the subject, Toby asks Edward if he has any stories about the Furness Railway to tell. Edward was about to start one when Percy asks him why their old line closed. Edward decides to do it because it needs to be said.

Furness is an area of Cumbria, located in Northwestern England. Between 1844 and 1907, it was serviced by the Furness Railway. All locomotives who worked on the railway were faceless, except for Edward, Winston and a 2-4-2 tank engine station pilot, Albert. At its peak, the Furness Railway owned or worked on over 190 miles of railway lines, ensuring the engines were kept busy. Edward, Winston and Albert mostly worked around the city of Dalton, which wasn't too far from Barrow, where the Furness and Sodor and Mainland Railways met. Edward and Winston had gotten to know the Sodor and Mainland Railway's three engines before arriving on Sodor, as they would normally take passenger and goods trains respectively to there. Albert mainly worked as Dalton's station pilot as well as on a small branch line, Scarborough, which ran to the west of the yard. On this branch line, was the Parker Bros. Coal Mine, which provided the railway with cheap coal. One March morning in 1907, Albert returned to Dalton with a coal delivery as Edward and Winston were discussing the then-recent events in Russia. Albert arrives and Edward and Winston explain what they are talking about.

Presently, the manager, Mr. Pettigrew, walks towards the three engines and announces to them that because of their friendly relationships with the Sodor and Mainland and Midland Railways, he has been talking with their executives to potential merge all three companies together into a single railway, which would significantly increase their revenue. Mr. Pettigrew says that he's only mentioned the offer but they have agreed to preliminary discussions, which would happen the following Thursday when the representatives of the respective companies will arrive. Edward is tasked with bringing the representatives from Sodor.

The next Thursday, Edward arrives with the directors from Sodor. Mr. Pettigrew took the Sodor and Mainland representatives from Edward's train to meet the executives from the Midland Railway who had arrived earlier that day. Mr. Pettigrew began showing the representatives around Dalton Yard, as well as demonstrating the efficiency of his engines and that they could share with the coal from the Parker Brothers, which the representatives wanted, since every railway at the time wanted their own cheap source of fuel. The visitors were about to agree to the merger when suddenly a crash is heard and Mr. Pettigrew hurries over to see what happened. Pieces of a crate were on the tracks and one workman looked injured. The man in the black suit claims he told the four workmen to get a trolley to move the heavy crate, but the workmen claim he told them to carry the crate by hand. Mr. Pettigrew stops their argument and tells them to get the injured workman to a hospital at once.

The injured workman would recover, however, an investigation was carried out and many workers were questioned. Practically all had blamed the incident on harsh working conditions. A strike was arranged and the Furness Railway's manpower was halved overnight. Mr. Pettigrew struggled to reach an arrangement with the unions despite his best efforts and any agreed he had hoped to make with the visiting executives went up in smoke.

A week after the incident, Dalton yard is a complete mess. The furious three engines argue with each other about who is to blame and Albert claims it isn't his fault the workers went on strike. Later, while Albert is shunting, the yardmaster tells Albert to take two flatbeds to Track 2, despite Albert remembering the yardmaster had told him Track 1. Meanwhile, two workmen near two crates ponder whether they should straighten out the top crate, although they would need two more to help move it and they were already behind schedule. As soon as they leave, the top crate falls onto the tracks just as Albert was approaching it with the two conflats. Albert braked, but the conflats derailed and damaged the legs of a nearby crane. The legs of the crane begin cracking and the workmen and Albert get to a safe distance just before the crane falls onto the fuel tank next to the shed.

Miraculously, the fire that was caused by the exploding fuel tank had been contained and extinguished by sudden heavy rainfall. An investigation by the railway board followed and saw that negligence was the cause of the accident and the Furness Railway got hit with a heavy fine that crippled their finances. The engines tried their best to carry on, but their railway had to close down by that October. While Edward, Winston and Albert disagreed who was to blame for the closure, Mr. Pettigrew had already found homes for the three engines; Albert went to work on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway which would later become part of the Southern Railway, Winston was sent to the Great Eastern Railway, which would be absorbed into the LNER and Edward went to Sodor to become part of the Elsbridge and Knapford Railway.

Mr. Pettigrew retired and lived to 93, spending his last years with his grandchildren. Percy thanks Edward for sharing the story and Winston asks about the Lucky Lamp Edward mentioned, and Edward replies that it is an interesting subject, but it's a story for another day. Gordon says he hates it when Edward says those words, and Edward responds, "Why do you think I say it so often?" Gordon groans and the others laugh heartily.

## Characters

* Edward
* Gordon
* James
* Percy
* Toby
* Joey
* Winston
* Albert
* Mr. Pettigrew
* Geoffrey *(does not speak)*
* Clive *(does not speak)*
* Neil *(does not speak)*
* Matthew *(does not speak)*
* Stepney *(cameo)*
* Molly *(cameo)*
* Midland Railway Number 24 *(mentioned)*
* Other FR locomotives *(indirectly mentioned)*

## Trivia

* The Furness Railway in this universe opened in 1844 and closed in 1907, while in real life, it actually opened in 1846 and remained open until it merged with the LMS.