My first piece of Thomas writing since that story about Edward and his club. I recently watched a Railway Series remake of this story, and I wondered what it would be like if I took both the Railway Series and TV Series versions of the story and combined them. I took to doing that and made this story.

This is also my first new story to include an OC, that being Adam the well tank, who is (C) Wildnorwester.

With all that out of the way, enjoy the story.

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Trevor the traction engine was enjoying his work in the vicarage orchard. Birds were singing and apples were ripening on the trees, it was a lovely day. Adam stopped by the orchard on his way to the harbor. "Hello Trevor, you're looking bright and cheerful today." "I am" replied Trevor. Adam could hear a strange buzzing nearby. "What's that noise?" he asked. "It's the bees." laughed Trevor. "They're in these special boxes called 'beehives'. The Vicar says his bees make good honey, and he wants to give some to his friends."
Just then, Boco hummed in. "Hello you two, lovely day, isn't it?" "Indeed it is." Adam replied. "Trevor's been telling me about the Vicar's bees." "Best take care, don't make the bees angry. They might sting you." Boco said. "Of course." said Adam "My driver told me about how a friend of his played with a beehive. The bees stung him so badly that their face was covered with red, swollen lumps..." the well tank shuddered at the thought of it. "I'd best get going." Adam finished, and he 'buzzed' away. Boco chuckled, said goodbye to Trevor, and made his way to the big station.


Once Boco arrived at the big station, he arranged his trucks and went to the shed where Duck was resting. Boco asked politely if he could come in. Duck wasn't pleased to see a diesel, but after finding out that Boco knew Edward, he became more friendly. By the time Boco told Duck about his earlier experience with Bill and Ben, they were laughing like old friends. "They nearly made my eyes pop out! Thankfully Edward put a stop to their games." chortled Boco. "Have they ever played tricks on you." he asked. "Goodness me, yes!" chuckled Duck. "Edward is the only one who can keep them in order." "You know..." he continued "I sometimes call them 'The Bees'." "A good name." Replied Boco. "They're terrors when they start 'buzzing' around."

Just then, James backed into the shed. He had heard the tailend of Duck and Boco's conversation and decided to butt in. "What's that Duck, are you afraid of bees? They're only insects after all, so don't let that buzz-box diesel tell you different." "His name is BOCO and he didn't." replied Duck indignantly. "We were-" "I wouldn't care if hundreds were swarming around!" James interrupted. "I'd just blow smoke and make them buzz off!" Duck looked at Boco, then back at James. "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz." he retorted. James retired in a huff.


James was to pull the express next morning, while Adam was to take the local. Adam arrived at the station to collect his coaches, the passengers were excited and keen to get on board. Adam could see that the express platform was crowded as Duck shunted James' coaches in. "Mind your backs, mind your backs!" shouted a voice. It was one of the porters who, with the help of another porter, was taking a trolley to the front van. One, Fred drove the trolley, while the other, Bert, walked behind. "Careful Fred, careful." Warned Bert, but Fred was in a hurry and didn't listen.

Then there was trouble. An old lady suddenly appeared in front of the trolley. Fred stopped, but the luggage in his trolley shot forward and tumbled out, among the spilled load was one of the beehives from the vicar's orchard, which had just been delivered. It broke open, and some bees flew out. they began to explore the station. Adam heard a shout and then people screaming, then he saw a black, buzzing cloud peak out from behind the coaches. "Horrors!" he yelled. The express platform cleared like magic, while the passengers on Adam's platform dove into the coaches, slamming the doors behind them. The guard blew his whistle before doing the same. "Get us out of here!" Adam cried. His driver threw open the regulator, and the well tank shot out of the station. As he did, he could see James backing down to the express platform. "Don't come near the station, there's bees everywhere!" he warned. "Excellent." puffed James to himself "Now I'll show that silly tank engine and the buzz-box how to handle bees."

He backed down onto the coaches feeling most sure of himself. The bees were too sleepy to be cross, and found the empty station cold. James' fireman was trying to couple the train, the bees buzzed around him hopefully, they wanted him to mend their hive so they could go back inside it and be warm again. But the fireman didn't understand, he thought they'd sting him. He gave a yell, ran back to the cab, and crouched with his jacket over his head. The driver didn't understand either, he swatted at the bees with the fireman's shovel. The bees, disappointed, turned their attention to James. James' boiler was nice and warm, the bees swarmed around it happily. "Buzz off! Buzz off!" James hissed. He made smoke, but the wind blew it away and the bees stayed. there was worse to come, one bee settled on James' hot smokebox, and burnt it's feet. The bee thought James had burnt it on purpose, so it stung James, right back on the nose.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

James had had enough, and so did his driver and fireman. "Oh for heaven's sake, come on fireman, let's just get the engine out into the open and hope for the best!" shouted the driver. "Right you are!" replied the fireman. They left the station without waiting for the guard's whistle and didn't notice until too late that they had left their train behind.


Unfortunately for them they weren't able to leave the bees behind too, they tried everything to get rid of them. First they spun James around on the turntable to no avail. Then they tried spraying at them with a hose, but the bees only hovered closer to James's boiler, being careful so as not to burn their feet. Finally they tried to smoke them out by going through a long tunnel, but still the bees wouldn't go away. "It's no good." said the fireman at last. "We can't seem to get rid of them." "Maybe..." pondered the driver "We could go back to the orchard and fetch another hive." James' reply was drowned out by the sound of buzzing.

The driver called The Vicar and told him what happened and of the plan, and they made their way to the orchard. The Vicar was waiting anxiously for them when they arrived. He had prepared a new beehive, and when the bees saw their new home, they swarmed straight into it. The driver let out a sigh of relief. "Come on James." he said "What you need now is a good hosedown." "How about some ice for my nose!" James grumbled. "Alright then." chuckled the driver, and they puffed away.


As for the express, Boco was called in to take it once everything at the station had calmed down and the passengers returned. He was worried at first about leaving his trucks, but Duck promised to look after them. And so it was arranged, Boco was even able to make up some of the lost time, and The Fat Controller was pleased with him. Noone seemed to notice when James came back to the shed that evening. They were talking about a new kind of beehive on wheels. "It was red." they said, and they all went "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz!" and laughed a lot. James thought that for big, mainline engines, they were being very silly.

The laughter died down when The Fat Controller arrived, he had brought The Vicar with him. The Vicar gave James' driver and fireman a jar of honey each, then turned to James. "Thank you for saving my bees." He said "And I'm sorry they stung you." "It's fine..." Answered James begrudgingly. "It'd a pity it's not Christmas." The Vicar went on "Then we could call you 'James The Red-Nosed Engine'." Everyone laughed, and even James couldn't help but chuckle. Instead they decided to call James 'The Bee's Knees', which meant they thought he was more useful than ever.