Pirates of the Railway

Pirates of the Railway is the 1 story of the 2nd series of Miniature Railway Adventures. It was first written in May 2009 by Michael White.

Plot
After another busy day at the railway, the Model Engineers Society pack up for the evening. Whitehouse is the last to leave, locking up the carriage sheds after doing the evening shunting. But during the night a thief breaks in and steals Casey's set of coaches. The next morning, Whitehouse is late for work and Casey discovers his coaches have gone missing. When Whitehouse arrives, Casey accuses him of stealing them, to which he denies.

Whitehouse is called to the chairman's office and is taken off pilot duties and relegated to cleaning out boiler sludge from some donated engine boilers that are awaiting restoration. Jane feels sorry for Whitehouse as it was not like him to do such a thing. She asks Cars to give him a 2nd chance and so Whitehouse is assigned to see to the delivery and storage of new coach stock that had arrived later that day, under heavy supervision.

That evening, Corps is the last to leave. He is just locking up the workshops when he sees someone trying to break into the carriage sheds. Corps gives chase, but looses the thief in the woods. While he is searching the thief returns and makes off with more coach stock.

The next morning, a meeting is called and everyone is ordered to stay the night incase the thief should return. Meanwhile Jane is inspecting the area where Corps saw the thief and finds a set of prints that lead to an abandoned house, near the railway. There she finds the thief as well 3 other people. She finds out that the thief is really a young man called Brendan, being forced against his will to carry out the orders of two other thieves, who are holding his father hostage. Before Jane could alert the MES, she is caught and locked in an old transit van, where the stolen coaches are kept.

That night the MES' act to catch the thief is put into action. Casey and Whitehouse, now made amens, are station by the workshops while along the track, other members of staff are on the lookout. Jane manages to get free and alerts Casey and Whitehouse about what she saw. They make their way to the house, but Cars and corps spot them leaving their posts and mistaken them to being the real thieves.

The three manage to arrive at the house just as Brendan is about to carry out his task. They catch him and offer him help to save his dad, but before they could do anything, Cars and Corps arrive and drive out the thieves by mistake. With no time to loose, Casey and Whitehouse catch the thieves to find that they are really Grinder and Gears. Brendan and his father were old workers of the Motor Car Society and were trying to blackmail Bernard for his crimes against them. But Bernard got the upper hand and forced Brendan to carry out one of his plans to close the MES.

Grinder and Gears are handed over to the police and Brendan and his father are now free from their troubles of Bernard. Whitehouse's name is cleared and the railway returns once more to his peaceful state.

Trivia

 * This story is heavily inspired by the TUGS Story Pirate.
 * The title is based on the Disney franchise Pirates of the Caribbean.
 * The MES has a new range of coach stock in replacement of the old stock.
 * In early development of Miniature Railway Adventures, this episode was originally meant to be Jane's debut to the series but was changed to On the Railways instead.
 * It is revealed that Casey has his own set of coach stock.
 * Originally the thieves were to be one off characters but was later changed to be Grinder and Gears.