The Steam Engine vs the Wall

Later that day, Tobias and Guillaan were walking together past a park when it happened. 

“What the bloody hell is that noise?" cried Guillan in surprise. A terrible clattering and sliding sound, combined with loud clanking and the occasional toot, slowly came towards them.

 The noise grew louder still, and to thier suprise, around the corner came a towering, wobbling machine that looked like a wagon had crashed into a brewery. It was a steam enginem and at the controls was thier friend Charlie. wearing a huge grin. The steam engine  was followed by a gaggle of dirty street urchins, indistinguishable from each other, who were attracted by the noise and dirtiness.

  "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING?" Guilaan shouted over the din.

   "IT'S MY UNCLE’S STEAM ENGINE, HE GOT IT TO HAUL THE WATER FOR THE FIRE FIGHTER'S CLUB" yelled Charlie as loudly as he could.

   "WHAT? I CANT HEAR YOU!"

    "THIS THING IS REALLY LOUD, I CANT HEAR ANYTHING YOU ARE SAYING. I’LL TURN IT OFF A BIT" Charlie pulled on several levers in sequence, opened a couple of valves and then pulled on a chain, letting off a loud whistle. After this operation the noise slowly abated from a deafening cacophony to an enthusiastic chugging.    

  The machine had a huge wooden boiler, two steel shod wheels at the front to steer with, and two even larger wheels at the back. They were also covered in layered steel, with large fairings on them, designed for grip in dirt, mud, or in this case, cobbled streets.     

   "That's better", said Charlie. "I can't shut it down completely, as it takes 20 minutes or more to build up a head of steam. My uncle said I could borrow it for a few hours to show Professor Rorrie, you know how much he likes machines and devices, especially these new fangled steam powered ones."   

  A few of the smaller urchins, getting over thier shyness, climbed over the steam engine, admiring the largeness of it, the wooden boiler, comfortable seating and large box full of coal.    

  "Coal fight!" cried one, though this was quickly abandoned as the coal was very hard. The urchins contented themselves with throwing the coal onto the road to break it. Charlie soon realised he would have no coal left, as the coal was scattered all over the road. He huffily made the urchins pick it up and put it back, so he would have enough to make his return journey.   

    "If you have all finished throwing my coal around, I'll show you how this thing works. No! Only I can pull the levers!" He said, slapping away a small creeping hand. "This wheel is the steering wheel, it's a big wooden wheel with a handle on it to help you steer it in the mud. It's connected to the chains underneath, see, they move the wheels so you can steer." He moved the steering wheel slightly, and the front wheels slid on the cobble stones. The boys ooh'd appreciatively.    

 "This one's the brake, you pull this handle, and then it lets you release the brake, which stops the main wheels from moving. This one is a valve which reduces down the heat, and this one engages the actual engine. It's got notches which correspond to different speeds. You pull this handle, and push it forward or backward. The engine can go forwards or backwards. This one disconnects the engine from driving the the wheels and instead makes this big wheel up here go. We use it at the fire house to drag the hoses up, using a pulley and rope. If we didn't haul the hoses up, they would stay wet and rot." He proudly patted the machine.

    "Wow, this is amazing!"   

   “Professor Rorrie's house is only a couple of blocks away from here, can we come with you when you go to show it to him?"    

   "Sure, you can help me getting around the corners and things, this part of town is fairly narrow." 

 They had successfully navigated around two corners by going up onto the footpath, narrowly avoiding crushing a rose garden, when the contraption reached a corner which would take a bit more finesse to get around.

 “Grab some rope, I think we can slide it around the corner if we can find something to tie it to.” They were hemmed in on all sides by high brick walls.

 “This post looks strong enough, it’s holding that house up after all.”

 The rope was passed around a thick wooden post, which held up the slumping second story of a wood and stone house. Randall made the rope fast, and signalled to Charlie that it was ready. Guilaan picked at the post dubiously, raising his eyebrows as a small piece of wood crumbled off as they were tying the rope.

 Charlie pulled the handle, and the engine shuddered back to life again, spewing smoke over the high walls, which drifted into back yards and coated clean washing hung out to dry. Jerking forward, the rope tightened and the engine started it’s slow slide around the corner. One of the wheels crested the berm and suddenly there were only 3 wheels on the ground. The back wheels gripped and pushed, but the front was still not steering correctly. Guillan and Randall pulled on the rope, but they couldn’t get the wheel back down onto the pavement. The smaller urchins milled about the near rear of the engine, enjoying the show, and generally getting in the way.

Charlie noticed Guilaan and Randall pulling on the the rope to free the engine, and lept off the machine to assist them. Simultaneously, Guilaan and Randall pulled with a mighty heave. The engine freed itself, the rope went tight, the post shattered. The engine made the most of it’s newfound freedom by charging down the street and crashing full tilt into thick stone block wall, making a solid impression on this new obstacle.

  Alhough the engine itself was stopped, the back wheels were still turning. Charlie, Guillan and Randall ran down the road to the engine, while the younger boys swiftly beat a very brave retreat down the street, in the opposite direction.

Soon, Charlie, Guillan and Randall were doing the same thing. While the front end of the steam engine was wedged into the wall, the rear wheels were free to dig into the road, and pelt the three young men with cobblestones. Safely around a nearby corner, Guillan looked around for protection. Picking up a small gate from a pile of rubbish, he whooped in victory and charged around the corner, Charlie close behind him. With cobblestones bounced off the makeshift shield, the two of them managed to safely reach to the engine. Charlie climbed to the engineers seat, and, with visible relief, disengaged the drive wheels. With a loud sigh, the machine stopped thrashing, and lurched backward into the hole it had dug.

 Guilaan, and Randall walked to the chugging engine. The group of urchins, realising it was now safe, strolled cooly after, keeping thier eyes peeled for the city watch.

 
Luckily the only damage to the engine was a slightly bent front lamp, as the stone wall had taken the brunt of it, bearing a massive dent shaped like the engine’s front end, about waist height from the road.

 “Um, I might leave this here and get my dad to help me out.  Professor Rorrie’s house is only a few minutes walk that way” said Charlie nervously, pointing down a narrow alley.”It might be best to bring him to the engine, rather than the other way around.”
Realising there would be no further action, the urchins grumbled and wandered off.

The day after, a group of puzzled watchmen could be seen crowded around the dent in the wall, however Carlie, Guila an and Randall were far far away.