New to traffic

Being Editor of Steam Railway has its perks, and one of these was judging the entrants for a joint competition we ran with the Peter’s Railway series of books. For this, children under the age of ten had to write a short story which began, ‘The train stopped in the middle of nowhere…’. So, it is our pleasure to publish the winning story by James Moore, aged 8.

The train stopped in the middle of nowhere. The driver clambered out and his heart sank when he discovered a valve had burst. 2403* was not to be moved.

Looking at maps, a passenger called James figured out they were near Peterborough. Flying Scotsman was in Durham, bound for London with the ‘Coronation Ltd Express’ roaring along at 80mph. This was a BIG problem as 2403 was stationary in the middle of the LNER ‘Pacific’s’ way.

Back near Peterborough, 2403’s fireman had walked down the line for detonators and had started as far back as Huntingdon. By the time he was back, 4472 was in Stoke Tunnel, going so fast it appeared to be eating the tracks.

The thought about the impending crash was worrying, but James had hatched a plan. He knew the driver of 4472 had experience in crashes: Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear!

James’ grandparents thought Mr Clarkson was a joke, but this wasn’t.

It was hard to convince James’ granddad to take his red, woolly coat off, but he did and James knotted it to a stick. He reached for his pocket where he kept his pens so he could write CAUTION! on the flag but he had left his pencil case in his compartment. He scolded himself for that, but carried on with his plan.

James ran to a level crossing where he knew he would be safe if he stood on the tracks and madly waved the flag. James’ best friend Eleanor waved her handkerchief – James had invited her on the train.

THIS was the worrying part: two friends standing on the tracks of the East Coast Main Line waving red flags.

The first person to notice this on the ‘Coronation Ltd’ was Jeremy Clarkson. He had felt the detonators further north, but 4472 was going too fast to stop. He hated stopping and this caused him to end up in loads of crashes, but this time he HAD to stop.

James paused waving, ran down the side of the tracks, leapt onto Flying Scotsman’s footplate and sprang for the brakes.

With a screech the train stopped. James and Eleanor were presented with grease-top train caps for stopping the crash. Disaster averted!

* Ed’s note… there are several ‘2403s’ to choose from here. Personally, I’m thinking of the Fowler ‘4P’ 2‑6‑4T which, despite being in foreign territory, would be most impressive.