A Troublesome Engine

**A Troublesome Engine** is the fourth episode of The SCPs of Sodor and the seventy-fourth episode overall.

A Troublesome Engine/Transcript

## Plot

In 1945, in Germany, Agent Potter is overseeing a loading of an 8F’s train. He reports to Dr. Pierce that everything is ready. He then tells Oliver and Toad that as soon as the train has departed, they can return to their front lines, even though Oliver is running low on coal. The 8F offers to give Oliver some of his, but Dr. Pierce tells him he’ll need as much as possible to reach the coast. Oliver also points out the 8F's train is more important. The 8F, Agent Lang, moves out. Lang makes good time to his destination, but lurking in one of the sidings is Jonny Cuba, who telekinetically uncouples Lang from his train. When Lang stops and reverses back to his train, Cuba teleports in front of the train and reverses away. Lang gives chase, but Cuba sets the points against the 8F and he derails.

As the years went by, Jonny Cuba worked in several countries around the world. In 1953, while he was in the United States, he showed three men he could fill up on coal and water all without a crew. One of the men told Dr. Pierce and Agent Potter about the engine’s supernatural abilities, and the SCP began pursuing Cuba throughout the British Isles, with him successfully evading them in Ireland and Scotland.

By 1956, in England, the SCP had successfully caught Cuba by having Agent Lang chasing him and having him diverted into a siding, where he crashes through a set of buffers. While they were cleaning up, Cuba had been detached from his tender and troops surrounded him. Dr. Pierce tries asking him questions, but Cuba simply dances around them. Pierce instructs Lang to bring Cuba to Site 42 once he is put back on the tracks. However, once Cuba is back on the rails, he teleports away and takes his tender with him, much to the SCP’s shock and frustration.

Seven years later, Dr. Murphy, Hatley and Pierce are talking about Jonny Cuba’s powers, and the latter has theorised that Cuba gets his powers from the rails and he can’t use them when he’s derailed or pulling a train. Dr. Murphy then brings up the file on Cuba and shivers at the thought of how many people killed themselves to summon him, and Dr. Pierce remarks how no one in the foundation has done so. Meanwhile, a man has killed a workman who had cancer and wrote “WAGR” on the side of his face. The workman then disappears, and Jonny Cuba appears in his place, to the man’s amazement.

Presently, Dr. Pierce tells Agent Potter that Jonny Cuba has been contacted by a group of Irish terrorists who had been apprehended and were planning to rob a supply train from the Ministry of Defence. Agent Lang had spoken to a witness who had seen Cuba lurking around the Midlands. With the MoD supply train scheduled to pass through in a few days, they prepare. On that day, the SCP has prepared for the operation, with Railway Inspector’s Unit Engines on standby. They plan to divert Cuba onto an old branch line where the damaged tracks will have him derail, and the train’s load had been swapped out with replicas. Dr. Pierce leaves, and Agents Potter and Lang wish each other good luck.

Soon, Theodore is making his way through the Midlands with the supply train. The diesel’s faulty engine forces him to stop just as Jonny Cuba appears next to him. He swipes the train away from the diesel and makes his escape. Theodore then alerts the soldiers and police, and they set off in hot pursuit. Cuba knocks one of the police engines aside and evades Lenny and Eliza by taking another track around them. Next, Cuba narrowly avoids a collision with the Flying Scotsman. Agent Lang then sets off and he confronts Cuba at a bridge. After a ferocious back and forth battle, Cuba forces Lang off the bridge and into the water below. With the police hot on his tail, Cuba continues fleeing. Later, Agent Potter tells Dr. Pierce that the dive had killed Agent Lang when he came into contact with the water and Cuba had escaped.

 Cuba had made his way to Barrow-in-Furness, and an Irishman tells him to take the train to the abandoned Fort Sudrian with the strike there ending soon. During this time, a storm battered Sodor and after helping with the passengers, Arthur had gone off to check on the line to Barrow as the strike had ended. An hour and a half later, Arthur hadn’t returned and Edward set off to look for him. He found Arthur going to Fort Sudrian and came over to find Cuba there. Arthur had stopped Cuba from escaping by making him derail.

After the storm passed and Edward and Arthur had left, the SCP Foundation had arrived. Agent Potter tells Dr. Pierce that a cover story is out about Cuba going to Rail Gate Prison, with the ship on its way. They know they need to re-rail Cuba to bring him closer to the dockside, so they decide to inject Cuba with green water, with lots on standby. They begin pouring the liquid into Jonny’s tank when he suddenly starts billowing steam. They are confused as to how Cuba is reacting to this, when humans see that Cuba’s face has disappeared.

In 2015, Edward explains that the foundation had mistakenly put black water into the barrels instead of green water, and the SCP Foundation had apparently manufactured the two liquids. Edward says that Jonny Cuba might’ve been sent to Rail Gate or it was a cover story, as well as him frustratingly admitting he never thought about asking Peter if he saw Cuba in Rail Gate until now. After Brian had told them about Peter’s brother, Alan, Sir Topham Hatt looked up his files. Alan’s first firing was a week after Peter left Crewe and they never met, and he had been skeptical of Alan dying in 1963 from metal fatigue. He also brings up that Oliver and Toad’s mission being partially declassified in 1987, where they were apparently assigned to a task force to track a ‘special train’ the Nazis created, and Oliver had only said that dodgy intelligence sent him and Toad to the wrong area. Salty then asks where Cuba came from, and Edward says they may never know.

One rainy night in Australia, in 1935, a group of men have gathered around a faceless Jonny Cuba and perform a Satanic or Aboriginal ritual when they are killed by lightning bolts. Cuba then gains a face. He looks around at the ashes left from the humans before puffing away.

## Characters

* Edward
* Oliver
* Diesel
* Barry
* Iris
* Salty
* Alan Lang *(death)*
* Jonny Cuba *(death)*
* Toad
* Gwen Hatley
* Gavin Potter
* Angus Murphy
* Rodney Pierce
* Brian *(does not speak)*
* Henry *(cameo)*
* Toby *(cameo)*
* Donald *(cameo)*
* Eric *(cameo)*
* Arthur *(cameo)*
* Peckett *(cameo)*
* Molly *(cameo)*
* Whiff *(cameo)*
* Eliza *(cameo)*
* Lenny *(cameo)*
* Flying Scotsman *(cameo)*
* Hank *(cameo)*
* Theodore *(cameo)*
* Peter *(mentioned)*
* The Fat Controller *(mentioned)*

## Trivia

* Some of the events of the episode take place during Atrocity and Storm.
* The leader of the group that summons Johnny Cuba's spirit uses the same model that would be used for Robert Hall. This, however, is not Hall, as he was a child in 1935.