#rws patrick

'Ryan and the Mountain Railway'

[1970]

Ryan had been called upon, on short notice, to cover for one of Sodor Electric’s passenger engines. Now, the purple engine was no stranger to demanding suburban trains. They’d worked some of the roughest branch lines across the Northeastern Region, and sometimes - although very scarcely - the main line as well.

That said, the electric line was very new territory. Not only were the timetables rather tight, the steep inclines were surprisingly taxing, and the tunnels meant they could only puff so hard, lest their smoke fill the tunnel and threaten to choke their crew.

Ryan panted into a relatively small station. Across the platform was an odd little railway. It looked vaguely similar to the little railway at the Works Station, only with a long… thing between the rails. The purple engine wasn’t sure what to call it - it looked almost like a long, extremely thick chain.

A whistle cut through the air, as an engine approached the station on the bizarre little track. Ryan looked up, then had to do the double-take of their life. A little red engine came trundling backwards - or would it be forwards, since they eyed the track ahead (behind?) from their cab. Then there was the piston layout - the pistons were back to front! A vacant smokebox door greeted them on the other side, and-

“Oi, my eyes are up here.”

Ryan flinched. The little red engine looked back at them, seeming unimpressed with their stare.

“I- uhh…” The purple engine began, shakily.

“What?” The red engine grunted.

“Wh- mm- Who’re you?” They asked, quickly recovering.

“Name’s Patrick. After a climber I rescued.” The engine said, boldly.

“…Rescued?”

“Yea, climbing accident near The Crescendo.”

“…”

“It’s a particularly rough, open stretch of our line. It climbs rather steeply, and you get some nasty winds up there. Apparently crescendos are a point in a song when the music gets really loud - or, so I’m told. And the wind up there does sound like music sometimes, so I’d say it checks out.”

“You… climb a mountain?” Ryan asked, dumbstruck.

“Yes…? We’re a mountain railway, what’d you think we climbed? Tidal waves?”

Ryan had no clue how to respond to that.

“You’ve never seen a mountain railway, have ya?” Patrick asked, sounding impatient.

“Admittedly, no.” Ryan said.

“Figures. Welp, I guess this is your first one. And-” The guard’s whistle rang out across the platform, cutting Patrick off. “-Damn. Meh, I’ll probably see you when I get back from the summit.” He started forward - or would it be backward? Ryan still hadn’t quite worked that out - pushing the coach along. “C’mon, Marcus.”

View from each side!

Love how the nameplates turned out!