The Runaway Train

Hello, everyone.

    The story that I am going to tell you today is not about people, it is about a train. Yes, a train. A very extraordinary train.

    What does this train do that is so extraordinary? Read on and find out.

The Runaway Train

    Engie was a happy-go-lucky train engine. He was happy to travel from one town to another. He loved to see the sights on the way. The green trees and the colourful flowers and the people made him happy. The farmers and the sheep and cows in the meadows waved to him as he went by. Sometimes, he would meet a friendly car and he would give a loud whistle. In turn, the car would hoot back in greeting.

    He had been doing this work for many years. But, lately he had been feeling very dissatisfied. He was tired of running on the same railway tracks. He was tired of travelling on the same route. He was tired of seeing the same sights day in and day out. He wanted some change now. He wanted to see new sights. He wanted to travel to a different place now.

    Engie began to envy the cars that passed by him.

    “They are so lucky,” he thought. “They can go wherever they like and whenever they like. I have to go on the same route and to the same place every day. It’s so boring!”

 Engie was thinking all this but he never stopped to think that the cars too were driven by their drivers and they could not go anywhere of their own will. They had to go where the drivers wanted to go and some cars had to travel the same route just like him every day.

    “Why do I have to travel on these rails? I could run just as well on the roads. Why, I have wheels just like any car! I may not have rubber tyres, but I could run just as well with my metal wheels, I suppose,” he thought.

    Now, as you know, children. Cars have rubber tyres in order to run well on the roads so there would be no friction between the wheels and the road. If there was no rubber on the wheels, there would be a lot of friction between the car and the road and sparks would fly. These sparks could land on the petrol tank and cause a fire which is very dangerous. Also the car has shock absorbers which stop the car from bumping.

    But, Engie did not know about these things. He thought he could run just as well on his metal wheels!

    So, Engie decided that the very next day when he reached the road he would get off the tracks and run on his metal wheels like the cars.

    The next day, Engie woke up very early. He was very happy and excited. He found it extremely difficult to wait for the engine driver to come and take him away.

    After a long wait the engine driver came and drove him to the first station. Engie was so excited and anxious to reach the road that he went extra fast. Even the driver was alarmed and tried to control him but couldn’t!

    As last they reached the road. Here, Engie tried to jump. He couldn’t do it the first time. He tried the second time and he couldn’t do it. He tried the third time and he succeeded! He began to run on the road!

    But, what’s this? Instead of Engie to run smoothly on the road as a car did or as he did on the tracks, he began to shake and his wheels began to give off sparks of fire because of the friction. Engie was alarmed! He had never expected this to happen!

    He had gone out of control. The engine driver and all the passengers were alarmed. The passengers started to scream in terror!

    Moreover, there were cars coming on the road and they had to brake suddenly to avoid hitting the crazy oncoming train!

    The engine driver put on the brakes with all his might! Hence, Engie stopped smack in the middle of the road!

    The result of Engie’s unthinking action had brought a big disaster. The children were crying. People were unable to go to their places of work in time and everybody was blaming the poor engine driver for being careless.

    Engie suddenly felt ashamed of himself. How could he do such a thing? Never! Never again would he ever think of going off the tracks.

    There were big headlines in the evening papers with Engie’s photograph on the front page. Nobody could guess what had happened. It remained a mystery to the people as to how an engine could suddenly run off the tracks.

    Engie was hauled away and many repairs were made to his damaged parts.

    From that day onwards, Engie never felt bored and was always cheerful and hooted back happily to his car friends.

    It may be a mystery to the people, but we know what happened, don’t we?