Percy's New-Old Friends or Percy and Jinty also know as the original concept for Emily's New Route is a cancelled episode of The New Adventures on Rails. This story would have been the introduction to the Norramby Branch Line, Kirk Ronan Branch Line, as well as Jinty and Pug. This story is non-canon to the series however it was released during volume three.
| Percy's New-Old Friends/Emily's New Route original concept/Percy and Jinty | |
|---|---|
| Season X, Episode A | |
| |
| Air date | 15 August 2021 |
| Written by | MainLineEngines |
| Directed by | MainLineEngines |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous N/A |
Next N/A |
Plot
Percy the Small Engine enjoys his work on the Ffarquhar Branch. He mainly deals with the goods traffic taking stone trucks to Knapford Harbour. He also takes them to the Big Station.
"I also used to go to the other end of the line," he told Jessie one day. "But you can handle much heavier loads than I can." So, nowadays, Jessie handled those deliveries.
"I used to see other tank engines there," continued Percy. "I had two in particular that were very good friends. They even came to run the Branch Line when we went to England in 1956." He paused for a moment. "I don't actually know if they survived the cutter's torch."
Jessie thought for a moment. "What were their names?" she asked, breaking the silence.
"Jinty and Pug, named after their respective classes."
Jessie thought a great deal about it. Later that day, she took stone trucks to Vicarstown and saw Dodger.
"Ah, glad to see you," he called. "Emily's train is due, so could you arrange the trucks in the yard?"
"No problem."
Emily bustled in.
"A splendid journey that was," she remarked.
"Liked the beach, I see," observed Dodger.
"Indeed. The Norramby line is wonderful. There aren't a lot of us that get to go there."
"Same with the Kirk Ronan Branch. There's just not enough of us to cover it."
"Well, the Fat Controller might be assigning me to one of the lines."
"I'd like a branch too," chuckled Dodger.
"Really?"
"Of course not! Molly would never allow it!"
"Come on," cut in Dodger's driver. "Let's take the coaches back to the yard."
He did so and Emily went over to the shed. Jessie was already there.
"Pleased to see you," said Jessie.
"Same. Enjoying yourself?"
"I am, thank you."
Then Jessie remembered.
"Emily, you're an LMS engine," she began.
"Yes. Why?"
"Do you anything about the 'Jinty' and 'Pug' classes?"
"Of course! The 'Jintys' were very versatile. The typical 'go anywhere, do anything' tank engines. And, 'Pugs' were shunters around the LMS."
"Do you know if any survived?"
"There are several 'Jintys' in preservation but I'm not so sure about 'Pugs'."
(moment of silence)
"Why do you ask?" continued Emily.
"Percy had friends named Jinty and Pug that he met when bringing stone trucks to the end of the line."
"Poor Percy," sympathised Emily. "Maybe you should ask the Fat Controller about it. It'd be great for them to re-unite. It seems like they were very good friends."
Jessie agreed.
"I just don't know when," she thought to herself.
She had to take a goods train to Brendam and then up to Harwick. When she finished, it was late.
"The Fat Controller's probably gone home already," she sighed.
"I'm afraid so," said her Driver. "Never mind. We will be here tomorrow to help Norman with shunting."
In the sheds, the engines were chatting as usual.
"I hear the Fat Controller wants to expand traffic on the Kirk Ronan and Norramby lines," said James.
"I figured you'd bring it up," said Henry.
"Why?"
"I mean, it's about time you had one for yourself having been stuck on Edward's line twice!"
Gordon chuckled.
"Very funny," retorted James. "I need the mainline to show my full potential."
"Come on! You'd look nice against the beach!"
"Not as nice as against the Harbour."
"But whenever you're there, it's to pull the 'Flying Kipper'."
"Ye know," whispered Donald to Douglas. "Ilka time this happens, it juist goes on and one."
Douglas murmured in agreement, but Jessie thought about it and she thought about Percy and Jinty and Pug.
The next morning, she was helping Norman at the Big Station. She had brought some coaches to the platform when saw the Fat Controller standing there.
"Oh, Sir," she called.
"What is it?"
Then she told him about Jinty and Pug.
He pondered. "You are onto something," he remarked. "I could definitely see if they are still available and if so," he paused dramatically. "I suppose they would work fine on the branch lines."
"That's what I thought!"
"Well done, but I do have to check some records to assure that I bring the same engines that came in 1956."
Jessie was excited. Just then, Henry came backing down onto the coaches.
"You know," he remarked. "If James had his own branch, he wouldn't have to pull goods trains."
"Wouldn't you have to pull trucks then?"
"The 'Flying Kipper' is a grand train. James is just disgusted by the smell of fish."
"Still, I don't think James will run either of the branch lines."
"Really? Well, James just missed a grand opportunity."
Jessie chuckled. Just then, the Guard's whistle blew and Henry steamed away.
Weeks passed but one morning, the Ffarquhar Stationmaster came up to Percy.
"Today, you're taking a stone train to Vicarstown."
"Really? It's been a long time. Still, happy to do it," replied Percy.
Soon, Mavis brought Percy's trucks and he set off on his long journey.
Once he was on the mainline, he stopped at a couple stations to take on water. At Killdane, he waited for Pip and Emma to pass by with the Express.
Finally, he was approaching Vicarstown and saw two engines waiting at the station.
Percy looked closely, then whistled excitedly.
"Jinty! Pug!" he called.
And when he steamed into the station, he saw it really was Jinty and Pug!
"It's been a very long time!" said Percy.
"It's great to see you again," replied Jinty.
"The Fat Controller requested us," added Pug.
"What does that mean?" asked Percy.
"Not sure - yet."
Percy took his trucks to the yard and came back just as Emily steamed in.
She was surprised to see Jinty and Pug.
"Are you two Percy's friends?"
"Yes," they replied.
"I might've known," she replied. "Jessie told me about it."
"Jessie?" asked Percy.
"Yes, she told me that you talked to her about them," explained Emily.
Then, the Fat Controller walked up.
"Now, all four of you are here for a specific reason," he began. "Percy, Jessie told me you missed them and so I was very glad to hear they both survived the Modernisation Plan."
"Thank you, Sir!" replied Percy.
"Emily, you have done a wonderful job running the Norramby Branch. So, you will run it from now on."
"Amazing!"
"Now, I realised that I can't spare any current engines for the Kirk Ronan Branch, so when I found out that Percy wanted to know their fate, I decided that they could come here." He paused. "And together, they will run the Kirk Ronan Branch Line."
Jinty and Pug whistled in delight.
"So we'd still get to see each other," said Percy.
"Of course," replied Jinty.
That, of course, made everything right.
Later, Percy saw Jessie at the Junction and told her the news.
"Glad to hear you re-united with them," she said.
"Best of all, they're both working on the Fat Controller's railway now!"
"Really?"
"Yes! And Emily has been assigned to the Norramby Branch Line."
"Just wait till James and Henry hear this," chuckled Jessie.
The Norramby branch has regular services that serve the town of Ballahoo and connect with the Other Railway. Emily handles most of these trains and now resides at Vicarstown.
Meanwhile, the Kirk Ronan Branch also has passengers services from the harbour at Kirk Ronan. Jinty handles these whilst Pug handles goods coming in from the Main. They have their own shed at Kellsthorpe but like all the engines, are welcome anywhere.
Characters
- Henry
- James
- Percy
- Donald and Douglas
- Emily
- Jessie
- Jinty and Pug
- Gordon (does not speak)
- Mavis (does not speak)
- Pip and Emma (do not speak)
- Norman (does not speak)
- Edward (mentioned)
- Molly (mentioned)
Locations
- Ffarquhar
- Knapford
- Tidmouth
- Killdane
- Vicarstown
- Brendam Docks (mentioned)
- Harwick (mentioned)
Behind the scenes
At long last, I am pleased to share with the everyone this cancelled episode. There are various reasons why I shelved it but first, I just want to establish why I wrote it in the first place. It was basically a way to introduce several ideas I had. These I explained above. Come to think about it, I completely forgot I wrote in the Kirk Ronan Branch Line in this episode. That's still pending. Anyways, I had plans to basically separate the various concepts and eventually that panned into the various arcs seen at the end of volume two and beginning of volume three. The return of Jinty became a totally new character which is Jenna though I still maintained Pug. Looking back, this story is a bit crammed. There's a lot going on and I feel it was better to give each concept its own separate arc. It was just better to dedicate time to each idea and honestly, the ideas I got were better and too good to pass up. That is why I postponed this story, so I could think a bit better about what I wanted to do. Honestly, if nothing better would have come up, I probably would have revised this story and it would have been released. I originally intended to introduce all these concepts during volume one but I held it back in case I got any new ideas. Eventually, I did get other ideas and that is what was officially released.
So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this look into this cancelled episode and a bit of how I come up with ideas and how plans can change and sometimes, you just have to go with what you think it the best idea.
Trivia
- This story was originally written sometime in late 2018 and early 2019 as a way to introduce various concepts including, Emily running the Norramby Branch Line, the return and re-union of Jinty and Pug with Percy, and the Kirk Ronan Branch Line. All these concepts have now been covered bar the Kirk Ronan Branch Line although the Writer has mentioned that it is still in the works.