Work Text:
September 25th, 2025
“Uhmmm, Excuse me, Skarloey,” came a whisper in the sheds early this morning. Skarloey open a sleeping eye, and saw a little boy, who he recognised.
“Hello, Alex. What are you doing here?” he asked. “Won’t Gran be worried for you?”
“Don’t worry, you ol’ fusspot, he’s with me,” came another familiar voice. Talyllyn woke up slowly as she saw a little boy in front of her brother.
“Oh! Hello there. Sorry, I didn’t hear you before. I swear, I might be going deaf these days,” she apologies. The little boy’s face lit up, with gasp and shocked.
“No way!” he shouted. “You’re the famous Talyllyn!” he exclaimed. Talyllyn smiled and a faint peachy blush fell on her cheeks.
“Indeed, I am, my dear. I honestly didn’t think train boys would be so excited about little narrow-gauge engines like us. I thought you would like Flying Scotsman, or the Rocket, or even Thomas the tank engine for that matter,” she smiled. The little boy smiled back at her, staring at her beautiful blue paint, the shone in the morning sunlight.
“Oh! But I love all types of steam engines, expect the diesels, they’re mean,” he added.
“Hey! I’m not that bad,” retorted Rusty, as Duncan tried to hold back his laughter.
“Apart from you, Rusty. You’re cool,” he said.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said with a pitch of sass, as him and the boy poke their tongues out at each other, and the others laughed. Talyllyn didn’t say anything, she just smiled. She never realized how family and homey the Skarloey Railway was with its people and engines. Then, her little brother whispered to her.
“That’s Alex Bairington, he is a funny little chump, isn’t he?” said Rheneas, as Alex was talking to the others, he grabbed a bottle of polish and a rag and started to polish Rusty.
“He seems like a cheerful one at that too,” added Talyllyn. “He seems so comfortable around you guys, it’s honestly adorable,”
“That would be thanks to his amazing grandma,” said an elderly lady, who was standing next to Skarloey, resting an arm on his smokebox. Talyllyn looked at the woman confused, for she didn’t recognise the woman.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m ever met you before,” she exclaimed. Skarloey smiled.
“Remember Nancy Rushen?” he asked. Talyllyn thought for a moment. “The name sounds familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it,” she said, then the elderly woman cleared her throat.
“Wake up lazy bones. Your brass is filthy, aren’t you ashamed?” she asked. Skarloey prepared to fall asleep, by making fake snoring sounds, as every engine around chuckled.
“Nope,” he yawned. “You’re just an old fusspot,” he replied, then felt asleep. Alex handed a rag to the woman. Then, she processed to wack Skarloey on the nose, which hurt.
“Ouch! That hurts y’know?” he said, as Alex laughed, even Talyllyn had to laugh at how funny it was.
“Now look who is an old fusspot,” she said, as she gave Alex back the rag, and he went straight over to Rusty to polish them.
“Now, do you recognise me?” asked the lady. Talyllyn, then got a shock of realization.
“Ohhhh. Nancy Rushen, the Guard’s daughter.” She spoke, as Nancy smiled at her. “Oh yes, Skarloey told me all about you when he was getting mended in Gibbson’s Works. He says your favourite,” she explained. Duncan overheard the comment.
“Oi! I heard that,” he said, fuming, as the two old ladies laughed.
“Alex is my grandson, and he loves trains. Every time he comes up here for holidays or long weekends, he always asks me to bring him to the Skarloey Railway, so he can see all of you,” Nancy explained. “He likes to polish you guys, just like I used to when I was his age,” as she watched her grandson polished Rusty’s orange livery to the point where it would shine so brightly in the sun, you would think they are a sun as well. After he polished Rusty, he was about to move onto Duncan, when Nancy reminded him on why they were down here in the first place.
“Oh yeah. Uhmmm. Excuse me, Miss Talyllyn, but may I ask you a question?” he asked.
“Of course, my dear,” she replied. Alex put the bottle of polish down on Duncan’s running bored and the rag was left on his funnel, as it swung in his face, which irritated him, while Sir Handel giggled at how silly he looked.
“When me and Gran were at the Big Station yesterday, and you were talking to the Percivals and the Hughs about who was the oldest twin,” he explained. “So, I was wondering, could you tell us the story about it?” Alex asked. Talyllyn smiled.
“Of course, my dear. I would love to,” she said.
“A-hem!” Skarloey cleared his throat. “You mean ‘us’?”.
“Oh right. Allow us to tell you the story,” she said, as she began.
“Well, around the early 1860s, a man named Mr McConnel bought the railway to use the Slate Mines to make a profit out of it, and he wanted to improve the Bryn Eglwys Mines output. So, Mr McConnel had a railway line constructed, that would fit a 2ft 3inch gauge, which is classified under the narrow gauge?” Talyllyn paused for dramatic affects.
“He built the railway for the transportation of slate from Bryn Eglwys Quarry to the coast at Tywyn port or Tywyn Wharf as you guys might know it as.,” Talyllyn paused.
“Where do you hear all the stuff from?” asked Rheneas.
“From people that visit the railway. I like to eavesdrop on conversations. They knew more about my railway then I do. The only remember the day I arrived, and the events that occurred,” she explained. “They get it from this thing called ‘Google’ It’s particularly the best thing since slice white bread… Maybe we should use it,”
“What? Slice white bread?” asked Peter Sam.
“No, silly. Googie, or whatever it’s called,” Duncan said.
“Particularly better than that AI crap people are going on about nowadays,” said Sir Handel.
“What’s AI?” asked Luke.
“Something to do with the internet or something close to that, Frank thinks his daughters are too depended on it, it’s pretty much doing the work for them now,” explained Sir Handel.
“You would like that won’t you Duncan?” joked Duke.
“Oi! I can do my work on my alone thank you very much,” Duncan retorted, then Talyllyn cut them off.
“We can talk AI another day,” she said sternly. The others stayed quiet, as she continued. “Anyways. So, the Talyllyn Railway was formed, and Mr McConnel commissioned two steam locomotives to be built from England.” She paused, as Alex looked up at the old engine, he raised his hand again.
“Yes, Alex?” she asked, politely.
“What happened at the works?” he asked. “And which one were you built at?” Talyllyn smiled, as her old eyes winkled, remembering those first few hours of her being completed and ready to be steamed.
“We were built in England,” said Skarloey. “At Fletcher Jennings and Company. It’s in Whitehaven, just north of Barrow-in-Furness, and Mr. Henry Fletcher was our designer, but we were built by the workmen there,” he added.
“Ohhhh,” realised Alex. “Is that why you have a funny accent?” he asked the twins. The pair looked at each other with bewiled expressions on their faces, as they others in the shed laughed.
“Ho ho!” laughed Skarloey. “It’s a northern accent, I’ll have you know, Alex,” he said.
“I’m not talking to you,” he said, Skarloey looked give Alex his look, but he ignored him, for he was looking up at Talyllyn.
“I don’t think I have an accent,” she said.
“Well, you sound very Welsh to us,” added Sir Handel. “Which isn’t a bad thing. It just that, some people or engines, when they are talking, sometimes, don’t hear themselves talking with an accent, but others will,”
“Falcon, does have a very good point,” said Adelia. Sir Handel was surprised.
“Really? I just pulled all that out of my rear end-,”
“Falcon! Don’t be gross,” said Duke, as the others giggled among themselves.
“But how did they end up with the two of you?” asked Alex, looking at Talyllyn and Skarloey.
“Well, we are up to that part… I was the first built out of the four of us. When I was finished being built, I looked over and saw another engine like me. He was being painted a dark red colour, close to a maroon, as was I,”
“Wait- I thought you guys were painted green?” asked Peter Sam.
“Nope.” Said Talyllyn. “Me and Dolgoch were painted dark red. It was our factory colours, like how Edward Thomas is a grey colour, it was the one I wore when he worked on the Corris,” Peter Sam now understood, after all, him and Sir Handel were painted to blue and green, not only to match their TV personas but their own liveries when they worked on the Mid-Sodor. Talyllyn continued.
“We looked just like each other, a lot, from face to wheels. We were 0-4-0 back then, and have no cab, but a weatherboard.
“Why?” asked Alex.
“I’m not entirely sure, but my first crew, would complain about the lack of protection it gave them when they work during the rain and snow, I wasn’t fitted with a cab till 1866, but that was because I had to be fitted with 2 back wheels to help me not bound as much, when I hauled passengers, and I was a very rough rider back then,” she explained.
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Rheneas said, turning his gaze to Skarloey. Skarloey rolled his eyes.
“But what happened to Skarloey when you were built?” Alex asked, again.
“Right. Jeez, this is taking longer than I thought it would be,” she said, starting up again.
“As the workers were about to put a name on my boiler. ‘Tal-y-llyn’ the supervisor shouted. ‘Stop! We made a mistake!’ at the workers and they stopped what they were doing and turned their gaze to him.” She said
“What happened?” asked Duncan.
“They found out that the Talyllyn Railway want two different designs from Fletcher, not of the same one.” Talyllyn explained. “A miscommunication, that was on the supervisor’s hand. He had talked the workers to make me and Skarloey, when it was met to be me and Dolgoch.”
“So, what did they do with Skarloey?” the other’s asked.
“I don’t remember, because I was officially delivered to the Tal-y-llyn railway in April 1865,” she said. “But I don’t remember much of my time at the works… and I don’t think I talked to Skarloey much either when I was there,” The others looked a bit disappointed in her answer, especially Alex, who thought that they had talked a lot during their first few months of being together.
“Perhaps, I could tell my side of the story,” said Skarloey.
“Please do, Skarloey,” said Alex, even Nancy was interested with the story. Skarloey smiled and began.
“When Talyllyn and I were finished. I wasn’t given a name. If they didn’t realise that I was an error, they would have named me Dolgoch, and I would probably be working in Wales right now, not on Sodor,” he began.
“Imagine how that would’ve turn out?” asked Duncan.
“In some universe it does… and I don’t wanna be apart of it,” replied Sir Handel.
“As I was saying, after I was built, they didn’t know what to do with me. They didn’t want to scrap me, since they work so hard on us, and I could even say, very proud on how we turned out, they decided to leave me in a siding, in the workshop, put a tarpaulin sheet over me, and waited for the first buyer,” he said.
“And that it?” asked Luke
“Not yet, Luke. I’m nearly there,” Skarloey said. “When Talyllyn went off to Wales, I was un-sheeted by Mr Fletcher, who was with a man I have never seen before.
‘Hello, I'm from the Island of Sodor. I have purchased you to come work with me on the Island of Sodor. You will be working on a railway in the hills,’ he explained. I have never of Sodor before, but I was happy to go and work.
‘I will be renaming you. Do you like the name ‘Skarloey’? he asked me.
‘Skarloey? What does that mean?” I asked him.
‘It means ‘Lake in the Woods’, in Sudric,’ he explained, and said he had commissioned another engine to work on the railway.
‘Like that one being built over there,’ he pointed with his walker to an engine being built. This, of course was Dolgoch,” Skarloey concluded.
“Dolgoch was built first in 1866 and arrived in…. I wanna say October or November that year,” Talyllyn said, thinking. Skarloey smiled.
“Then when did you get to Sodor, Skarloey?” asked Alex.
“In December, 1865,”
“And then, in January of 1867, I came to the railway, via boat,” added Rheneas, who explained that he was built in September 1866.
“Does that make Rheneas the baby out of the four of you?” asked Adelia,
“Oh my! I never thought about it that way,” Talyllyn said.
“Me neither,” laughed Skarloey.
“Awww. Rheneas the baby,” said Nancy. Rheneas rolled his eyes.
“Goo Goo. Gaga,” he said, in a deep man voice. The others burst into laughter. Sir Handel the loudest, to the point where ash make out of his noise.
“Oh, if only Dolgoch were here. She would love it,” Talyllyn said to Skarloey. Just then, Mr Percival come over to the sheds. He saw Nancy and Alex and said good morning to them.
“Well, I’ll let you get the engines ready for work. Come on, Alex,” she called for her grandson.
“Hold on, Gran,” he said, as he climbed up onto Talyllyn’s running board and gave her a hug, wrapping his arms around her funnel.
“Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww,” said the other engines, trying not to die of cuteness overload. (I’m sorry that was bad -_-)
“Thank you for telling me your story,” he said.
“Any time, Alex.” She replied. Alex climbed down off her and walked away with Nancy.
“Bye, Talyllyn,” he waved
“Goodbye, Alex,” she replied. “Have a good day,” Then she turned her attention to Mr Percival.
“Now engines. This weekend coming, we have a special event taking place,” he began. “On Saturday, the 27th, The Modern Railway is celebrating 200 years, and all the engines on the Island will be celebrating, and the stations will be decorated as well, and Ulstead Castle will be holding a big day event.” He explained.
“So, what are we doing on that day, sir,” asked Luke, who was a bit confused.
“We will be taking guest for a ride from Crovan’s Gates to the Lakeside loop,” The Thin Controller explained.
“Understood, sir,” Luke said.
“Very good, Luke,” he said. Then, the Thin Controller, turned his attention to Talyllyn,
Talyllyn. You will be leaving next Wednesday, on the 1st.” He spoke.
“Understood, sir,” she said, but secretly, she really didn’t want to go home.
“Now, my engines,” he began. “Even if Talyllyn is here as a guest, doesn’t mean we can treat today like a lazy Sunday. We all have work to do to keep the railway running,” as he proceeded to give the other’s job for today. The engines understood this greatly, but some would rather stay in the shed. Duncan and Sir Handel huffed annoyed.
“Peter Sam, at 10:30, you will be taking a picnic train up to Lakeside,” Mr Percival said. “Duke will be at Ulstead Castle to prepare for the weekend. Henry will take you there at 10,” Peter Sam was excited.
“Oh, thank you, sir,” he whistled excitedly. Talyllyn liked the sound of a picnic train.
“Oh, that sounds wonderful, Peter Sam,” she said. He smiled.
“Oh, it is, it is!” he said. “Duke used to pull a picnic train back on the Mid-Sodor in the old days,” Duke smiled.
“I was the one to recommend it to Mr Percival,” said Duke. “It commonly happens on heritage lines. Do you guys haul picnic trains on the Talyllyn Railway?” he asked Talyllyn.
“I don’t, but know Tom Rolt, Sir Haydn and Edward Thomas haul something similar to a picnic train.” She replied. Then, Sir Handel spoke up.
“Have you’ve been around the Lakeside loop before, Talyllyn?” he asked.
“No, we didn’t go up there yesterday, we only went to Skarloey Station,” she explained. Suddenly, an idea flew into her funnel.
“Excuse me, Mr Percival, but may I go with Peter Sam to the Lakeside loop?” she asked. Mr Percival pondered.
“I don’t see why not,” he said. “You are our guest after all,” Talyllyn’s face beamed with excitement.
“Thank you, sir,” she said.
“Perfect, I’ll make arrangements,” he said, as he pulled out his mobile phone, to call Jim and Sarah to come and prepare Talyllyn for the journey up to Lakeside. Talyllyn was excited to go up to the Lakeside, Skarloey wasn’t.
“But I thought you wanted to spend your time with me?” he asked.
“But I want to spend time with the others, as well as you too, Skarloey,” she replied. Skarloey wasn’t so sure. Rheneas could tell what was about to happen.
“Look, it’s only for the morning. Then, I’ll come back and we can talk about the good ol’ days again. Deal?” she asked. Skarloey looked up. He wanted to spend time with his sister, but he also knew his sister was her own engine and could pick and choose what she wanted to do on her holiday.
“Alright then… but don’t you wanna see the Lakeside another day-,”
“Skarloey,” said Rheneas sternly, he knew what he was trying to do. Talyllyn looked over to Rheneas.
“Llyn, you go with Peter Sam and have the best time of your life with him. But make sure, you come back this afternoon,” Rheneas said. Talyllyn smiled at her baby brother.
“I will, Rheneas,” she said, then turned her attention to her twin, who was a bit worried about her.
“I will be fine, Skarloey. If anything happens to me, everyone will let you know,” she said. Skarloey sighed. He did want to argue with Talyllyn, and he did want her visit to his railway to be a good one, so he accepted.
“Alright then… you can go,” he said. Talyllyn smiled at him.
“Thank you,” she said. Jim and Sarah arrived to do last minute preparations on Talyllyn, and soon, she was steaming into life. She blew her whistle loud and proud.
“I’ll see you guys when I get back,” she said, as she puffed away. Skarloey watched her puff away, worried.
“I hope she is alright,” he said. Rheneas rolled his eyes. Adelia, who was at the back of the sheds, had heard everything.
“Is Skarloey alright?” she asked Rheneas.
“He is perfectly fine, just sometimes, his brotherly protection for others gets a little out of hand sometimes… but it seems as if it as gotten bad,” said Rheneas.
“When was the last time he was this bad?” asked Adelia.
“1950,” Rheneas added. Something wasn’t right with Skarloey, and the others wanted to get to the bottom of it.