Kindred Spirits

**Kindred Spirits** is the eighth and final episode of the series.

## Summary

'The time of the National Steam Gala has arrived on the Waterdown Railway, and all of the engines are excited to be reunited with friends from across The Region. Atlas in particular is excited for the event, but when it's put in jeopardy from an unexpected arrival, Atlas must learn from his past if he is going to help save the railway's future. The final episode of Crossed Lines.'

## Plot

The day of the National Rail Gala finally arrives on the Waterdown Railway as Sherlock Hill escorts Atlas back to Waterdown after his final test run with Sherlock informing Atlas about the Gala. Quick to get back and enjoy the festivities, Sherlock And Atlas races past Ince Castle and sends a poster flying into his face, annoying Castle. Back at Waterdown, Mr. Traverse bemoans the amount of steam locomotives at the gala to Issac Reginald until he spots a visiting Class 52 Western diesel backing a train into the station. The engine introduces himself as Levi from the Valentine Preservation Trust and Traverse praises his politeness and modern appearance, suggesting that an engine like Levi could replace all the steam locomotives until Issac promptly reminds Traverse that the steam engines are part of his grandfathers legacy. Zebedee soon arrives and its pleased to see Levi again. The two begin to catch up as Valentine (Levi's eccentric curator) proudly offers Issac, Charles Crawfoots, and Traverse (who begs to come along) an excursion behind Levi along the line. After listening to the conversation, Zebedee offers Levi a chance to relax and catch up with the other engines at the sheds.

With a chance to relax as he was fitted with a control unit, Levi begins to catch up with Clay, Daw, and Ramona. After finishing a conversation with Clay, Levi notices Ember in the sidings nearby and noted that she looked familiar. Ramona mentions that Ember had recently escaped from the scrapyard at Masonry Bridge, which Levi remembers as a 'ghastly place' where he operated for a short time. Zebedee decides to check up on Ember, who comes around after another blackout, much to Zebedee's concern and decides to take Ember to the workshops. Levi soon leaves as well to begin preparing to pull the excursion, wishing Ember luck as he departed. Not long after, after about 5 seconds, the distinct horn and the sound of complaining herald the arrival of Cojak with a brake van special. Much to everyone's annoyance, he begins to complain about the event and scoffs at Dawn's suggestion that the Crawfoots had been planning the event for 4 months. He soon mentions a guest who was in a restricted area of the yard and when he told him he was in the wrong place he received verbal abuse. Suddenly Killian Hargraves emerges from the first brake van. He demands the engines hand over Ember. The engines refuse and Hargraves warns the engines that there will be trouble if she wasn't returned. The engines don't give in however, with Ramona threatening him in particular and he walks out of the yards towards the station, leaving the others relieved.

In the workshops, Wurzel gives Atlas the all clear just as Zebedee arrives with Ember who comments on Wurzel's size. Suddenly both Atlas and Ember notice each other and both engines are overjoyed with the reunion until Ember suffers another blackout. Wurzel, concerned, decides get her into the workshop immediately as Zebedee asks him to keep her blackouts in check. As Atlas shunts Ember inside, Zebedee gets a frantic call from Ramona, Dawn, Cojak, and Clay about Hargraves planning on attacking the gala. He instructs the engines to stay alert and continue as normal, and informs them that he will stay alert for anything that may happen. Ember soon comes around from her blackout after seeing a vision of her and Atlas from their days at Masonry Bridge. Atlas feels she's in pain but Ember reveals about worse times at Masonry Bridge, to which she learns through Wurzel that Atlas had lost parts of his memory when he awoke. Ember then proceeds to tell him about their time at Masonry Bridge.

In the flashback, Ember is revealed to be Masonry Bridge's No.1 and Atlas was Masonry Bridge's No.2. Ember's favourite trains was the Masonry Bridge Express which made her feel alive. One day after arriving with the express and greeting each other Ember mentions to Atlas that she had seen a long line of steam engines in the sidings on her latest passenger run. At first, Atlas believes the engines were just there waiting for repairs but Ember mentions that the engines appear to have been there for a while which Atlas is curious about. Then, the voice of Ferrus, who was now a stationary boiler could be heard from the workshop nearby, warning them that the end of steam was coming and the railways will favour shinier newer diesels. They pay no attention to him as Ember departs with the express stating she'd always run the express to time. Several days later, Ember races back through the yards after having difficulty getting steam up that morning, only to see a diesel taking over her express train. Ferrus threatens her about the express running to time to which Atlas promptly shuts up the stationary engine. Confused, Ember goes over to the Masonry Bridge Controller and asks why the diesel is taking the express.

When Ember tries to explain that the train taken was hers, the Controller interrupts explaining the rest of the region was modernizing and informed them both her and Atlas would be relegated to utility engines and would be used until they were no longer of use and would be placed with the other engines in storage. He then departs, leaving Atlas and Ember disgusted at the thought while Ferrus taunts them continuously. Determined to find a way to survive, they both try to come up with a plan. Ember suggests staging an accident with one of the diesel pulled trains to prove the controllers they were wrong, much to Atlas' shock who prefers to take a more cosmopolitan route. They soon noticed smoke coming out from the workshops nearby and wondering what was happening, they went over to investigate. They discover to their horror that the workshops, where they had been built, had been converted into a scrapyard where engines were already in the process of being broken apart. As Atlas leaves mentioning how Masonry Bridge will be their End Game, Ember states that they won't go "Without a Fight!!!"

Ember soon afterwards experiences a series of visions and then blacks out again. Wurzel and Atlas become concerned that if it continues, her condition could worsen and hope for the best. Meanwhile, at Waterdown station, Levi prepares to pull the excursion as Issac and Traverse board the train. Valentine is then called over by the station master to talk with Charles. As he is led away, Hargraves sneaks around the corner andclimbs into Levi's cab. Levi feels movement in his cab but Hardgraves opens up the throttle using Levi as leverage to get "the criminal" and hijacks the train, much to Charles' shock and Valentine's horror. Charles immediately springs to crisis mode, informing his staff to stop all trains and commanders Cojak's brake van special before informing Tabitha of the situation and beginning to pursue Levi which she agrees too, Valentine compliments him for being very quick in thinking and offers to come with Charles and Cojak to stop the runaway Levi. Cojak is initially against the whole ordeal but eventually Charles bribes him with no ballast work for 3 months (initially 3 weeks) delighting the Diesel promoting him to chase the handicapped Levi with Valentine cheering on the whole event. Ember soon starts to come around, seeing the same vision as before and hearing Atlas make a promise to always stick together. She soon comes around and Atlas reveals that she had been out for about 2 hours and then resumes telling the story.

Ember tried a series of plans, which grab headlines in the local newspaper and began to infuriate the diesels, the controller and other railway staff. One day she was shunted back to the shed as Atlas was being prepared for an evening train who was both annoyed and appalled. Her latest act was causing a fire at an abandoned station, which shocks Atlas informing her that people could have got injured, but Ember insists that she only stopped a few trains and got caught by the signalman. Atlas tries to get her to see that she is now the only engine now participating in her plans and too see sense by moving on with the world but Ember remains too stubborn to listen. She then notices Atlas' headboard and he reveals that he was selected by the manager to pull the final steam hauled express and that a group was looking to come to the railway to purchase some of the engines. Ember dismisses the group, saying they were not objects to be bought and sold, and expressed some jealousy at Atlas being selected. Atlas, overcome by frustration, lashes out at Ember, stating that he wanted to leave Masonry Bridge didn't want be scrapped like the other engines who trusted her. Realizing what he had just said, he tries to backtrack but Ember upset, shocked and angered at Atlas claims that he is selfish and shouts at him warning him to stay out of her way while he steals her express, before angrily departing the yard leaving a guilty Atlas trying to apologise. After reminiscing through her thoughts, she decided that night to put her final plan into action that night and an awoken Ferrus watches her disappear into the night.

Later on Atlas prepares to depart with the express however he had told his driver to put away the sign after feeling guilty on how he spoke to Ember but his enthusiastic Fireman compliments him reminding him to make the Enthusiasts happy with the headboard which he agrees too before departing. Meanwhile Ember purposely stalls with a goods train on the main line and remains there despite warnings from her crew. They run back to the signal box to inform them of the stalled train, only to come too late as a high speed goods train smashes into the rear of Ember's train, destroying the diesel and colliding with a large tank engine on a nearby siding. After she had realized what she had done, she hears Atlas' whistle in the distance and tries frantically to stop him. It was too late as she watched in horror as Atlas collides with the derailment causing his fire to go out, losing parts of his memory. The next morning, she is taken past the scrapyard where Ferrus, revealed to be a GNR N2, taunts her for causing the accident and supposedly destroying 2 engines and declares that steam was dead. Ferrus then reveals to Ember that since both her and Atlas replaced him, and showed no interest, he would want to see both of them cut up but that is unlikely to happen as he will be scrapped the very next day. Ember continued to resist this at first but eventually she realised that she needed to make things right and stood guard over Atlas for many days until one night he was taken away from the shed for what she thought was scrap. Soon after, she was taken by Hardgraves to the Masonry Bridge Scrapyard, depressed at the thought that she would never be able to apologize to him.

She lamented about causing the accident that still haunts her and asked for forgiveness from Atlas. He does and asks for it in return for his outburst, saying that he had felt incomplete without her and now they could make everything right. They are soon interrupted as Hargraves comes over the Control System, declaring that he had captured Levi and the train with Issac and Traverse on board and saying that if Ember wasn't handed over, he would send the train into Dragon's Wharf station at full speed. After Hargraves finishes his announcement, Ember decides to turn herself in, despite protest from Atlas but Ember states that one life does not count for many. In the middle of the line, she comes face to face with Hargraves, still at Levi's controls. Ember informs Hardgraves to release Levi and take her instead. Hardgraves then reveals that he intends to destroy her immediately and does not care about the people of Dragons' Wharf. He then proceeds to put Levi at full throttle, slamming into her. Ember tries to hold Levi back, but her brakes give out and she begins to black out again. She suddenly comes around as Atlas bumps into the back of her and applies his brakes to slow the runaway. She soon regains her braking power and the train begins to slow. Behind the train, Cojak finally catches up and Valentine and Charles shout for Traverse and Issac to pull the emergency brakes, which Traverse does. Cojak's laziness overcomes him, having run for further than he'd ever done before and stops needing to catch his breath. Soon, the runaway enters Dragon's Wharf as Ember and Atlas slam their brakes on one last time, with Levi now nearly out of fuel. Zebedee watches as the runway train finally slows until it is stopped by the buffers at the end of the platform commenting on how they saved the Gala.

Hardgraves emerges from Levi's cab and is surrounded by Tabitha, police and the railway staff as Traverse and Issac emerge from the coaches. Traverse instantly recognizes Hargraves on the platform and sees Ember for the first time, referring her by her nickname "The Witch of the Wastes". Isaac insists on an agreement as Cojak arrives. Hargraves protests are promptly silenced by Traverse, who is now the owner of the scrapyard and has the final decision. After a plea from Atlas, Traverse stuns everyone by allowing Ember to stay, before reminding them to not disappointing him relieving Charles, that he is still the same before he informs the Police to take away Hardgraves. An irate Hardgraves is escorted out of the station cursing Ember and the railway until silenced again by Atlas. As the engines gathered around the sheds at Waterdown, Atlas still had a question in how he got to the railway. Levi reveals that while at Masonry Bridge shocked at how steam engines were treated, he discovered Ember guarding Atlas and, after bribing Whistler, took Atlas to the Waterdown Railway. This angered the Masonry Bridge Controller who sent Levi back to the Western Region and allowed Hargraves to send Ember to the scrapyard. Ember surprised felt happy that it was a diesel who helped her then questions about Masonry Bridge's Legacy to which Atlas states that they are the legacy and with both Ember and Atlas reunited in Waterdown, the legacy of Masonry Bridge lives on at the Waterdown Railway.

## Characters

* Atlas
* Ember
* Zebedee
* Clay
* Cojak
* Dawn
* Ramona
* Ince Castle
* Sherlock Hill
* Wurzel
* Levi
* Charles Crawfoots
* Mr. Traverse
* Killian Hardgraves
* Tabitha Crawfoots
* Isaac Reginald
* Valentine
* Whistler (f*lasback*)
* Ferrus (*flashback*)
* The Masonry Bridge Controller (*flasback*)
* Benjamin (*cameo*)
* Boomer (*cameo*)
* Tamarind and Marisa (*cameo*)
* Bard (*cameo*)

## Cast

* Haydn: Atlas, Clay, Wurzel, Isaac Reginald and Others
* Daniel: Charles Crawfoots and Mr. Traverse
* George: Cojak
* Lauren: Ramona, Tabitha Crawfoots and Ember
* Jake: Zebedee and The Masonry Bridge Controller
* Joel: Sherlock Hill
* Bradley: Ince Castle
* Sam: Whistler
* Matt: Atlas' Original Fireman and Others
* Louie: Killian Hardgraves
* Mayoorhan: Ember's Original Driver and Others
* Lorna: Dawn
* Neil: Ferrus
* Stuart: Valentine
* Trevor: Levi

## Trivia

* Stuart and Trevor join the voice cast. Stuart takes on the role as Valentine and Trevor takes on the role of Levi. Neil takes on the Role of Ferrus.
* This is the final episode of Crossed Lines
* The gala program Traverse holds when Levi arrives features Flying Scotsman and Stepney, as well as Maude from North British Productions' *Auld Lang Syne*.
* Other engines on the cover include Levi, Evening Star and Gallant Knight.
* The head board Ember wears comes off the Hogwarts Castle model that is seen behind Atlas in one of the shots.
* Posters for tardisrescue's The Gravy Train can be spotted in several shots.
* The Child that talks to Atlas before he takes the railtour at Masonry Bridge is Killian Hardgreaves' son.
* The GWR Prairie tank engine involved in the crash wears Dawn's face from earlier episodes.
* A female Class 14 diesel can be seen in many shots with Cojak's basis.
* This is the first episode since From Dusk Until Dawn in which "Hare Hare Yukai", the closing theme for the anime *The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya*, is used.
* This is the first episode since Public Enemy to frequently use Photoshop.
* Zebedee has the final line of dialogue in the series.