Maintenance

**Maintenance** is the eleventh episode of the second season of the Stories of Sodor and the twenty-sixth episode overall.

Maintenance/Transcript

## Plot

In order for a vehicle to have a long and serviceable career, it needs regular maintenance. An advantage non-faceless vehicles have over the faceless ones is the former can tell technicians about a specific problem they might have, eliminating the need to find the problem first and makes the process faster. Non-faceless vehicles also feel pain, so how do they tolerate the repair process if it often involves cutting, welding and sometimes dismemberment? The answer is a chemical agent known as green water, which puts the engine into a deep sleep before the repair process starts. Their engines are restarted by igniting the form of combustion that powers a vehicle.

At Crovan's Gate, Skarloey is talking to one of the railway's coaches who has just gotten new wheels when Duncan arrives, grumbling, because he has found out the Franks and Son Munitions Factory is being relocated to Cros-ny-Cuirn, which is news to Skarloey. Aside from complaining about having to do more work, Duncan predicts he will get stuck with the worst jobs and will tell the manager about his thoughts on the news when he sees him. He did so, in his regular abrasive way, and promptly gets scolded. To add insult to injury, during the project, Duncan had predictably been given most of the undesirable jobs.

Edward then retells the events in Trapped, and the consequences that came with the destruction of the boulder; First, the destruction of the track had stopped Sodor's rail traffic. The repairs to the track were given top priority and carried out day and night, but took just over a week to finish the track. A big backlog of work had developed in that time and it took the engines almost two weeks to catch up. Franks and Son also had to pay for the repairs to the main line and they had to layoff the majority of their staff, including Billy Shoepack, who was given two years in prison on a number of charges. Franks and Son tried to carry on with the limited resources they had, but they had finally decided to downsize their operations and move to the riverside town of Cros-ny-Cuirn on the Skarloey Railway. The Midis delivered machinery and other supplies to the Skarloey Railway and their engines took the supplies up and down their line. Throughout the rest of winter and the early spring, the four engines worked hard and completed the project in March of 1939.

On the day of the completion, Rheneas and Ivo Hugh are at the new building and are confident of how beneficial the business will be. The first shipment will be going out the next day, in vans strong enough to prevent an explosion in case of an accident, but they don't want to find out how effective they are, as Duncan has been assigned to take the first load. Rheneas is about to go when he suddenly feels a cramp. He reveals the last time he had maintenance was, at most, seven or eight months before; it wasn't really by choice, since the project had taken up a lot of their time. Ivo Hugh advises Rheneas to return to Crovan's Gate, but he can't because he has a full day ahead of him. Rheneas declines Ivo's offer to help and promises to go in for repairs tomorrow.

Later that day, Rheneas is still feeling the cramps as he backed onto one of his passenger trains. Rheneas departs, hearing thunder rumbling in the skies above. Soon, it begins raining. Eventually, Rheneas' valve gear jams and he can't move. Since the Ballast Mine is nearby, Rheneas suggests to his driver to go over there and telephone for help but before he can, a tree suddenly creaks and is about to fall. Rheneas painfully reverses out of the way of the tree, just before it falls onto their line. His driver and the coaches praise him for his heroic actions. Rheneas earned his well-deserved maintenance, as well as praise from his peers and passengers. Duncan was also tasked with repairing the track where the tree had fallen near Boxford, much to his chagrin.

Edward admits he can understand Duncan's feelings and explains about rail maintenance, since while rolling stock and engines need to be in top-working order, they still need reliable rails to run on. Similar to garbage collection, rail maintenance is very important, but tedious. Very few engines enjoy being assigned to this duty, as they either wait for hours or roam back and forth with ballast trains.

A few days after Rheneas' gallantry, Thomas and Terence are on maintenance duty. Thomas apparently remembers doing this section of the line before, and while Terence doesn't remember too clearly either, the work still needs to be done, much to Thomas' disdain. He likes working with Terence, but waiting around for hours makes him feel like he's in RailGate. Presently, Percy arrives with a small goods train. Thomas tells Percy he could be occupied with rail maintenance for the rest of the day and he knows he will have to pick up the Vicar's excursion group at Tidmouth later that afternoon. Percy offers to do the job for Thomas since he's heading to Knapford and will ask Mr. Star. Terence warns Percy that the stormy weather they had a few days before could make a comeback berfore he departs to Knapford.

After the Nor'Easters and Midis had received their new branch line coaches, their old ones were scrapped, except for Annie and Clarabel, but they had limitations on practicality on passenger services because of their size. Mr. Star had hired out the two coaches out for parties, day trips and other small-scale events which helped to make a small profit for the LNER and a nice tax deduction for the Vicarage.

Later, Percy has arrived at Tidmouth to pick up the Vicar's excursion group. The Vicar remarks how lovely the weather was, and just before the storm could arrive. Percy departs from Tidmouth, with the sun still shining. The storm soon arrived and all across Sodor the engines had to adjust their speeds, as there are only few things more dangerous them than wet, slippery rails. Marston Heights was the most damaged by the downpour, which made its waterfall turn into a raging torrent. Percy passed through the station, where the canal had risen sharply from the rain and also washed away a section of track that ran beside it. Percy noticed, and although he was going at a safe speed and braked hard, his wheels slipped on the wet rails and plunged into the flooded paddock. Percy can't reverse out since the rails had been swallowed by mud and they would have to get help. Just then, Diesel arrives from the Lumber Yard at Carldon because the people there apparently heard something so Diesel decided to go look. After teasing Percy, Diesel goes off to go get Mickey.

Luckily, the rain would die down, which made it easier to get Percy out of the water. His passengers had safely made it back to Wellsworth, and Diesel would get his comeuppance a few weeks later.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Percy
* Diesel
* Skarloey
* Rheneas
* Duncan
* Ivo Hugh
* Terence
* Annie and Clarabel
* Cassandra
* Robert
* Jerry
* The Vicar of Wellsworth
* Workmen
* Edward *(narration only; cameo)*
* Sir Handel Brown *(not named; does not speak)*
* Mr. Peter Sam *(not named; does not speak)*
* Mickey *(does not speak)*
* Mr. Star *(does not speak)*
* Billy Shoepack *(does not speak)*
* Henry *(cameo)*
* Gordon *(cameo)*
* James *(cameo)*
* Toby *(cameo)*
* Donald and Douglas *(cameos)*
* Eric *(cameo)*
* Reginald *(cameo)*
* Colin *(cameo)*
* Lily *(cameo)*
* Adam *(cameo)*
* Peter *(cameo)*
* Whiff *(cameo)*
* Kate *(cameo)*
* Winston *(cameo)*
* Trevor *(cameo)*
* Murray *(cameo)*
* Mr. Zorro *(cameo)*
* Burke *(cameo)*
* Duck *(mentioned)*

## Trivia

* This episode adapts the Railway Series stories "Gallant Old Engine" and "Percy's Promise".