The Dark Engine

The Dark Engine is a magazine story.

Plot
Christmas is a very busy time for the engines and sometimes they are kept working from dawn till dusk. One evening, Percy stops at a signal near a tunnel. Percy is upset as he wants to go to his warm shed. He is not upset for long as a fox scatters past Percy, starling him. Percy then notices a strange dark shape in the cutting by the tracks. It looks just like a steam engine!

When he returns to the shed, Percy tells his friends what he saw but they all find his story to be silly. The next day, Henry pulls a train down the same line Percy used. A fresh amount of snow had fallen so Henry had been fit with his snowplow. As the moon rises, Henry can see the dark engine in the cutting as well, this time with a snowplow like him!

Henry tells Percy what he saw but Percy is skeptical and concludes that the dark engine can shapeshift. The next night is BoCo's turn to see the dark engine and it does not look like a steam engine at all now. BoCo's driver figures out what the engines had been spooked by; their own shadows! Everyone feels very silly.

Characters

 * Henry
 * James
 * Percy
 * BoCo
 * Gordon
 * Sir Topham Hatt