Or a good dose of the Golden Age between the wars
Although I've just gone off on a Captains Scarlet trajectory, I have to admit that period is fascinating and there are a number of oddities that I would like to have a go at along with doing justice to the HP42 which I was going to do before the Southampton. Anyone know of any good references for the HP42 ?
I need to kept in check or I go off on one like below...
Toxic Thomas
Stories of Thomas the tank engine have been enjoyed by generations of children and many an image of busy little Thomas working his branch line are conjured upon hearing his name. Of course, Thomas is only one of several engines that work the preserved steam engine railway on the Isle of Sodor which lies just off of Barrow-in Furness in the Irish sea.
Linked by bridge from mainland England, Sodor, is a popular tourist attraction not only for the railway but for its beautiful country side and old world appeal. However, it has not always been this way. In the late 60’s with steam being a reminder of the grey past and cheap package holidays abroad beginning to lure away holidaymakers in search of something different, the Government of Sodor found themselves in something of a financial slump. This was not helped by the seemingly endless industrial unrest taking place on the mainland and as time went by Sodor was on the point of financial collapse by the early 1970’s.
All manner of meetings and talks took place many of which were reported in the daily newspapers but some, and in particular, one “special” meeting took place in secret. As is often the case, those in high places often have subterranean morals especially in times of dire financial need.
And so it came about that in a very secluded gentleman’s clubs where cigar smoke is thick and expensive spirits seem to be in a never ending supply, an influential yet low profile gentleman just happen to mention a potentially very lucrative deal to a vising official of Sodor.
It seemed that a certain party had some industrial waste materials that were ever so slightly hazardous and needed somewhere to store them for a short while. The Gentleman was quick to add that when he said “Hazardous” it was just a term used by the boffins and that the boffins like their drama and really there was nothing to worry about.
There was in actual fact much to worry about but the size of the suggested advance took all such concerns away. Some six months later the first of what would become monthly shipments crossed the Sodor bridge in the dead of night. This unmarked train from the mainland was taken as far as Knapford where Thomas was waiting to be coupled to the wagons and take them to their final destination.
Thomas’s branch line, as many of you will know, runs from Knapford to Ffarquhar in the North. However, the line does not stop there but continues for a further three miles or so before the track ends. The line used to be a link with the Mid Sodor Railway which served the many mines in the area but was closed in 1947.
A few weeks after the meeting in the London the old line was secretly reconnected to the mining lines and one of the old workings was reopened. The site was codenames Rabbit 1 and would become the hub of “the warren” which was made up of several other “rabbit” sites numbering no less than 13 by the late 1980’s
There were many old mining galleries beneath The Warren now filled to capacity with all manner of toxic wastes from around the world all packed in containers designed to lasts hundreds of years. However, not all safety containers are created equal and in some cases, especially where a saving or two can supplement the income of the dishonest, they are none existent.
This practice was at its worst in the early days as later into the present century global environmental policies are much more stringent. Some of those early containers were just a slow motion accident as year by year casings rotted and contents oozed and bubbled out hastening the deterioration of other casings and undermining the more hardy ones from later shipments.
The early waste shipments were placed in the southern most galleries under Rabbit 1, parts of which extended out and under the very rails of the service railway. In the autumn of 1997 there were especially heavy rains and a combination of soft wet earth above and corrosive waste eating away at the rock below meant that at some point all 52 tons of Thomas was going to cause a problem and it did on the night of the 31st October.
Thomas was pulling the month’s shipment to The Warren in driving rain and was not a happy little engine. Something was not quite right. The rails felt all wrong, he couldn’t see a thing and his train seemed to be unusually heavy this trip.
Moving slowly Thomas again had the feeling that something was wrong with the rails and all at once they seemed to be no longer there. The gallery roof had collapsed and down into a boiling cauldron of glowing green gunge Thomas, his driver and Fireman plunged. The whole train was pulled down with Thomas which on that night contained several radioactive horrors and bio hazardous nasties.
Of course none of this happened and the site was quickly sealed off and tons of concrete pumped into the old workings. Those that did know something were compensated handsomely for their amnesia.
It is best not to dwell too much on what happened to Thomas that night but it might be worth mentioning that on the night of the 31st October the following year there were many reports of a ghoulish ghost train on Thomas’s branch line and it has been the same every year since. There are even those that say there is a horrible grinning 6 wheeled monster that roams the Branch line and only the brave travel to Ffarquhar station on Halloween in case they should meet up with a ghostly toxic Thomas.
EEK!
