It was a cold and frosty late October day on Sodor. A big cloud of fog rolled over the island, the engines had to be cautious of their surroundings, detonators were placed on the tracts to warn them of upcoming signals. Some engines like Oliver were frightened of them because he always mistook them for fireworks, meanwhile others engines knew to stay calm or else they might cause a serious accident if they would dare pass a red signal.

In the big station, James was waiting for some passengers to board his coaches until he overheard a story being told by Duck who was talking to Percy. "Be careful out there Percy." The Great Western Engine told the small one, "I was told by Donald that there might be a ghost engine on the Main Line. He told me that there was once an engine that crashed outside Wellsworth years ago. The engine was carrying a train of passengers from Barrow, but his view was coated in mist, he ran over a detonator, got scared and ran past a red signal." "What happened after that?" Percy asked. "Nobody knows." Duck answered, "Some say that the engine ran over some points set against him, he was never seen again. This week will mark the anniversary of its fatal accident, so be on the look out."

"What complete and utter rubbish." James retorted, "I heard many ghost stories when I used to work in the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway, and none of them were even true." Before Duck could tell James, the guard blew his whistle, and James was off, "Bother." James kept at a slow pace, he was making sure to watch for a signal and to see if it was red or green. When he passed by Crosby, he heard a whistle, but it was a whistle he never heard before in his life. "That's strange." James said, "I never heard a whistle like that before." "Me neither." Replied his driver. James stopped at Wellsworth when the whistle began to get louder, and from the mist, a massive cloud of steam came by pulling a train of coaches. James' mouth was agape, maybe Duck's story was authentic, he looked in horror as the coaches disappeared back in the grey cloud of mist again.

"Come on James." His driver stated, "The guard has blew his whistle." "I can't." James quivered, "Not with a ghost engine on the line." James waited for some time, this made the passengers cross, they said that they will be late for the next train. At last James finally moved after some of the mist began to clear up, but he was still scared over what he saw. When he returned to the big station, The Fat Controller was not pleased at all and he had sent James to shunting duties at the big station for a week as punishment.

The next day was better, the mist had finally lifted, James was shunting coaches for Gordon. When Gordon left, James noticed a wide plume of steam getting closer. The red engine looked closer until an all-too familiar whistle came from the distance and a cloud of steam came into view. "Ahhhhhh!" Screamed James, "It's the ghost engine!" This caught the attention of some passengers. "The ghost engine has come back to get me!" James continued to yell as he backed to the far wall. "Ho ho ho ho." Came a chuckle from the cloud of steam as it dissipated in the big station, "I'm no ghost."

Under the steam was a shiny, silver tender engine with three funnels. "I'm sorry I might've scared you." The engine said to James. "Who are you?" The red engine asked. "Who, me." The shiny engine answered, "My name, is Merlin." James looked up to the engines three funnels, "What's with the funnels? Most engines only have one." Merlin looked up, "Oh, I'm a King Arthur class experimental stealth engine. My three funnels separates the steam coming out of my funnels so I could stay hidden during the war. Your 'Sir Topsom Hatt' has sent me here to test out a new loop line service but sent me to work on the main line until it is completed."

The guard blew his whistle. "Oh, that's me off. I hope we meet again some day." Merlin said, "Invisibility. On!" A huge cloud of steam appeared in the station, when it dispersed, James saw that Merlin has disappeared. "He's a big quirky engine." The red engine said, "But he seems nice."