A Story From the "TfL Rail"

[The Orange One]

I don't expect this is going to last very long, due to the very few stations, but let's finish it quickly.

Once upon a time, there lived a factory worker called HAROLD WOOD. He'd been doing pretty well untIL FORD fired him.

[DrainBrain]

So, after he'd got fired fROM FORD, he started looking around for another job. Perhaps I could be a groundsMAN OR PARKkeeper he thought.

[GuyBarry]

[Oh great - is this back? Didn't even know TfL Rail existed...]

"That's a crackinG IDEA - PARKkeeper!" said his wife, MARY. "LAND yourself a nice little job like that."

[The Orange One]

"I'll apply immediately," he replied. "To the park, or perhaps the estate. Some fresh air will do me GOOD. MAY EState groundsman work bring me joy for the next few years."

[GuyBarry]

The new job had an effect on him that no toniC HAD. WELL, HE ATHletically sprinted into the estate on his first day.

[The Orange One]

The estate manager was from a very old family, descended from no less than twenty-SEVEN KINGS.

"We're having a club meeting today," he said. "Make sure you collect the cluB RENT - WOODy Freeman is particularly sneaky like that."
"He is a disgrace to the name Wood," said Harold.

[greatkingrat]

After all the running, Harold's face was rather aSHEN. FIELDers on the nearby cricket pitch commented on how ill he looked.

[The Orange One]

But all in all, his new job was a success, he thought, while escorting out the last of the guests. He took a shortcut home through the FOREST, GATEkeeper that now he was.

[GuyBarry]

He tried to deLIVER POOLS, TREETops getting in his way, but he quickly realized that had been done in the "Story from the Tube".

[The Orange One]

And after much commercial hassle he finally reached home, where his wife, who had been doing a bit of domestic extermination, had just caught the laST RAT FOR Days.

"How was your day?" she asked him.

"It's been great!" he said. "I really enjoyed the outdoor work, and unlike at the factory, I've really felt like we've started to cOVER GROUND. NEXT thing you know, they'll be giving me a pay rise!"

TO
BE
CONTINUED...

[The Orange One]

After our discussion on Zone 1 Day, the possibility of resurrecting one of the better games occurred to me, but it was not clear to me what form this would take. The return of Trainblock? Or perhaps the resurrection of Where Am I?? It was not until after a discussion with TC95 that I realised among the 14 TfL Rail stations, we had both Harold Wood and Mary Land, and it was from this idea that I decided a trial rerun of the A Story From The Tube could work nicely with a station extension. 14 stations later, here we are!

A Story From The "TfL Rail" could make a nice standalone short film in comparison to the epic movie that is A Story From The Tube. However, further extension of the A Story concept to London Overground (and if this happens it's pretty much a guarantee we'll pick up the DLR, Tramlink, Thameslink and the Ghost Stations at some point in the future) would need quite a bit more careful planning than with the Tube, as while the Tube has 270 stations to manoeuvre about with, LO has but 112. That said, I would love to see all our favourite characters return for the proper sequel - Ken and Don come to mind, so does John Collier. I'd also like to continue with Harold and Mary Wood and to meet the infamous Mo Rningtoncrescent. And who can forget Wes Tacton, central to the plot?

This post doesn't count for points, by the way - but you have to join in now!

For those of you who do not remember A Story From The Tube, the aim was to sneak the names of Underground stations into a story. Of course, it was a truly wacky story, but it was also extremely good.

[GuyBarry]

Excellent idea! I'll start the story in a new thread, though I've a feeling there may be a different cast of characters this time. The name of the first one immediately occurs to me, though funnily enough it wasn't an Overground station when I visited it recently...