One evening, all the engines were coming to the sheds after the Christmas party at the station. It was as wonderful as it was always, but Percy looked sad.

"What's up Perc?" called Jinty, concerned for his old friend.

"It should've snowed today, and yesterday!" peeped the small engine, "but I haven't seen a snowflake in sight!"

"Ahhh well," Bear hummed, "maybe next year we'll have a white Christmas."

"But it should've been a white Christmas this year!" Percy moaned, "we've had so many engines come to Sodor this year and they should have the best first Christmas on Sodor!"

"Arrrrgh, that's kind of ya matey," said Salty, sitting between a chuckling BoCo and Henry; who was obviously sniffing down at the dockside diesel.

James grinned. "It has been quite an eventful year," he said, "but I remember when it snowed at Christmas when Donald and Douglas came here and it was horrible!"

"Aye," chuckled Donald, "wouldn't want to experience that again!"

"Well... Henry wouldn't," teased Douglas.

"That's right!" said Thomas, his face perking up from remembering that year, "I remember when he got stuck with that passenger train the day when it snowed heavily!"

"Then he got trapped again two days later!" Duck finished.

All the engines laughed, Henry went red. "This is just cruelty," he muttered.

"Don't forget about Alice's first time at Christmas," said Daisy smoothly, "that made things quite eventful!"

All the engines turned to look at Alice, who was sat next to Gordon and started to look like she was trying to go invisible. "I've never heard of this story actually," Jinty noted.

"Didn't hear the full story myself either," Oliver admitted.

Alice blushed and smiled sheepishly. "It's not one of my best moments I have to admit."

"Well we've all experienced something embarrassing before," Derek said warmly to the Atlantic engine, "like my breakdowns."

"Gordon deciding to take a dip into a ditch," Thomas teased.

"Or you diving into that mine," Gordon replied with a smirk on his face.

"Ha! He got you there!" Percy cried.

"Oh please Percy," Thomas scoffed, not fazed by the small engine's remark, "your the worse out of us, remember when you ran away and ran into a bank of earth?"

"And then you took a drive into the sea," sneered Henry.

"And then going for a joyride on top of some trucks!" called Daisy.

"Well erm... you-I... Toby did... well..."

"Toby is just immune to accidents Percy!" James laughed.

Percy sulked as everyone chuckled, Toby just smiled approvingly.

"What were talking about?" came a reply.

Edward chuckled and looked back to Alice. "It's okay my dear," he said soothingly, "unlike most stories, you were trying to do something good."

Alice smiled. "I'm guessing I'm the storyteller now," she said.

The engines all listened, Gordon gave an encouraging smile to the engine sitting next to him and Alice the Atlantic Engine began her tale of her first Christmas.

Two Years Later - 1973

It seemed to be a white Christmas with snow falling across the landscape of Sodor. The engines found this a nuisance, with the adding workload, they felt worked off their wheels. Alice on the other buffer didn't feel this way at all.

She was working harder than ever and was keen to be on good terms with her new colleagues. The Atlantic engine loved the snow too and felt it more wonderful than ever. "It's so beautiful here," she told Edward at his station, "nothing quite like here."

"Indeed," the blue engine smiled back, "but do make sure to be careful, Gordon's Hill is very difficult when this weather comes."

"Don't worry Edward," Alice chortled happily, "I'll be fine, besides, how can snow ruin this Christmas?"

Edward chuckled, as Alice headed towards the hill itself. She struggled a bit, but managed to get over the top and roll smoothly down it and the trip remained uneventful for the rest of the journey. The Atlantic engine reached Barrow and went to get a drink at the North Western's depot. While she was resting, Alice spotted in the sidings a long range of coaches. They had a golden tops covering the windows, and the bottom parts were rich rid, with white buffers gleaming in the cold sunlight. Alice had never seen these coaches before and was intrigued.

The Atlantic engine then heard steady beats and looked over to see Henry the Green Engine pull up beside her. "Afternoon Alice," he greeted.

"Hullo Henry," Alice replied, "pardon me saying so, but do you know what those coaches are? I haven't seen them before!"

Henry glanced to where Alice was looking at. "Ahh! The Fat Controller did refurbish them! They looked just as new as they day I first saw them!"

"Excuse me?"

Henry chuckled. "Ahh, yes, this is your first Christmas with us!" he said, "these coaches, use to be apart of our fleet, they were the newest, modernist range of coaches we've had before the older, wooden ones like Thomas' coaches, well... they're pretty much metal versions of them anyways. Unfortunately, most of our stock were forced to retire once the Mark I's arrived, as you know, some are still in service on some branch lines and stopping services but most of them are used at heritage railways, or put up at museums across the country. These ones, are always brought back for us, and have just been refurbished this year for one of the best runs of the year in our region!"

Alice raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"The Collack Express is to run again at Christmas Eve!" declared the Fat Controller, quite enthusiastically.

The others muttered to each other. Alice raised a brow. "Collack," she quizzed.

"It means Christmas in Sudric," explained Gordon, trying to sound wise, "this express is where-"

"I've explained the entire train to her Gordon," cut in Henry.

"Then why doesn't she know what Collack means?" Gordon asked.

"Because Henry said it was the special, special Christmas train," Alice said.

"Yeah, of course he did," James teased, "we had to baby it down for him when it first came!"

Henry snorted indignantly as the others laughed. "Silence!" bellowed the Fat Controller, "I know you all are wondering who'll pull the train this year."

The engines all muttered in agreement, as the Fat Controller paused impressively. "I have decided to choose Alice to pull it," he said, "her work effort has improved the railway overall and it is without her, you'd all be worn off your wheels!"

Alice blinked, surprised by the Fat Controller's declaration. "Me sir?"

"Yes Alice, you," the Fat Controller smiled, "you more than deserve it. That is all I have to say tonight, have a good night you all and please don't argue over this. I don't want to deal with resident complaints this Christmas."

He left, leaving the engines to mutter to each other as the doors were finally being shut. "Well..." Bear said, "good show Alice."

"Yes indeed," said Henry, "for whatever reason you've got it."

"Oh, and you think you'd would've got it?" Gordon replied, with a raised eyebrow.

"Would have gotten a better chance than you that's for sure," Henry snorted.

"Did Gordon take it last year then?" asked Alice.

"Bless you no!" the green engine laughed, "he hasn't gotten to pull it for over a decade!"

Alice paused, she looked at Gordon who seem to blush at it. "Why?" she quizzed.

"I had my turn with the train back in the 1962," the big engine explained, "but then I began to head to the mainland more often to be a representation of Sudrian engines in big cities like London or Birmingham. Then... I had to deal with helping remaining steam engines get to Thesang and all of that in 1966 and I just wanted a break from all the attention I gained for the next few years."

"The public were at him for ages!" James huffed, sounding a little jealous, "I didn't see all of the attention though."

"The media had its reasons," Bear stated, "now, I think its best we go to sleep now."

Soon, one by one, the engines began to drift off. But Alice looked at Gordon again. "Would you like to pull the Collack Express again?"

Gordon huffed a small chuckle. "It would be nice to again, I do admit," he said, and fell asleep, leaving Alice to think alone.

The day soon arrived, and Alice was getting ready, she had been polished and the other engines watched her, some adored, some grumbled in jealousy. Alice then noticed Gordon move to collect his express at the station where Bear had offered to shunt him for the today.

She obviously wanted to give the train to Gordon, but didn't know how, Alice had to try something out, but she didn't know how.

Later that afternoon, she puffed back into the yard after pulling a branch line connection train. Alice was to be inspected by some railway staff before the special express was to be pulled tonight. She would go light engine to Barrow, where she would begin her long way back to Tidmouth. She was waiting patiently, when the yard foreman came up to her crew.

"Do you know when the train will be back?" he asked.

"I think it's Gordon," replied Alice's driver, "why?"

"James has been delayed at Cronk with his passenger service," the yard foreman informed, "he's got to take a fast goods to Barrow but I'm afraid he'd be too late to give it to the diesel who must collect it exactly when it gets there! Otherwise, a major domino effect of delays will be caused on the midland region."

"Why can't I just take it?" Alice suggested innocently, "I'm going there light engine anyways!"

"You've never taken goods trains from what I've been told," said the yard foreman, "and if you take the train there then you'd have to take the passenger train back so to collect passengers who want to go to the party tonight."

"Well... why can't Gordon take the express then?" said Alice, "I don't think he has anything to pull once he returns, and I'm sure one trip with trucks won't hurt with it being so urgent!"

The foreman, driver, fireman and even a cleaner argued with her over the fact that she wasn't fit to take a goods train yet, but Alice kept persisting and in the end, they all admitted that she had a point and was wasting precious time.

So Alice was quickly prepped and fuelled up, and told what to do by the foreman. "Take care," the foreman said, "trucks are unpredictable and you must understand that snow makes things a lot worse."

"I understand," Alice replied, "I'll make sure to be careful."

Alice knew that all information was needed, she knew what snow was like, but only heard what trucks were like. She needed experience from trucks. Every common engine knows that if you were to know how to handle trucks, you must double-head with another, more wise engine to give you the ropes, a somewhat teacher. Unfortunately, Alice was to take trucks alone, which was very uncommon.

When the trucks saw her backing down to them in the yards, they were incredibly surprised. "What's this?" cried a truck.

"That new passenger engine," replied another.

"Get sarcasm you drip!"

"Careful lads," one other truck said, "we must be causious of this newcomer."

"She's gonna bump us like the others!" cried a salt van.

But Alice slowly backed down and only gave a gentle tap to the front truck, who was quite shocked.

"WooooOOOOOOoooow," he said, "never had that before to a new pal on their first try of taking us out."

"Please shush back there," Alice replied sweetly, "I know this might be odd, but this is Christmas and I must give a good one to Gordon."

"OOOOOOOhhhhhh," said a truck, "that's Gordon's lady pal."

"Let's see whether she treats us like Gordon," replied an elder truck, "if not, Gordon's Hill is always waiting for us."

The other giggled, but still remained observant, knowing it would be unfair. Trucks do not like to be mistreated, they will pay an engine out if they are rude to them. But they know if an engine is trying their best and not being careless first time they will give them a chance.

"Alright!" whistled the guard, "clear to go!"

The driver heard the whistle and slowly moved Alice's regulator open, she slowly moved out of the siding with the trucks moving behind her. "Come along, come along," she sung quietly.

The trucks muttered responds back quietly too as they left the yards and soon began to head past the station. Thomas the Tank Engine nearly gawked at the sight as he and the Atlantic engine went past each other. "Careful Alice!" he puffed.

"Thank you!" Alice called back and headed out to the mainline. The train ran quietly at first, then as Alice went past Knapford, there was a loud clang. "OUCH!"

Alice looked back alarmed. "What happened back there?" she called.

"Ehh nothing," replied the front truck after a few seconds, "just got bumped back there."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Alice replied, "could you tell the trucks back there that I didn't mean to and I'm sorry that I've caused a disturbance for them."

The front truck raised a brow, but past the word along the train. A few seconds went on quietly, until the second truck spoke up. "We never had an apology like that before," it stated.

"Really?" said Alice.

"Well, a few other engines have said that," stated the front truck, "like Gordon or Bear, but we have never had an apology like that from an engine that has taken us out first time before!"

"Oh, well... I'm glad that I do not act like a rude fool then," mused the Atlantic engine, the trucks smirked. "Please," Alice went on, "can I help by making this trip go more smoother for you? I know it might be a lot to ask for, but any information could be lovely!"

The trucks muttered to each other about this for at least two minutes, Alice carried on down the mainline towards Crosby, waiting patiently for their response. At last, the trucks began to speak to her, they seemed to be quite nice to her. Her crew were cautious, but said nothing as they too listened to the trucks' knowledge to see if they could help too.

They eventually rattled past Edward's station and began to climb the hill, there was no banker at the station at that time, so Alice had to go up the hill alone. The trucks seemed to be friendly, so she trusted them not to play any tricks with her. The Atlantic engine eventually began to climb the hill and felt the weight of the train behind her and the gradient getting steeper and more difficult with getting a grip. The trucks ran smoothly, not saying a word, Alice hoped they weren't planning something.

But nothing happened as she managed to climb the hill with only a few slips to the wheels. However, the other side wouldn't be so kind, she was slowly coasting the top when she heard the trucks yelp. Then as she came to spot where she would coast down the other side, she felt the truck's buffers hit her hard and the weight of the train came at the Atlantic engine with full force and Alice soon found herself to come out of control.

"Woah girl!" Alice's driver cried, as Alice speed went faster and faster, the gradient evened out and they crossed the bridge at the bottom at an incredible speed that Alice and her train shouldn't have, she raced down the line, rounding the bend.

"Stop! Please! Stop!" she cried to the trucks, "we could crash if not!"

Soon, as she past Maron station, Alice felt the coupling of the train tighten. The Atlantic engine looked back and saw the trucks actually holding back and with enough strength, managed to get Alice to a final standstill just before a level-crossing.

"Wh-what happened?" Alice asked, a few seconds after catching her breath.

"You didn't stop at the top of the hill," stated the front truck, who too, was trying to catch his breath, "you just carried on until you were over the top. We aren't like modern trucks who do a much better job than us with braking, we don't have the equipment installed in us to help brake, making you, the brake van and your crew the only reliable thing to stop the train!"

"But... how did you help me stop?"

"Simple," the second truck said, "we managed to slip our brakes on ourselves, kinda risky ain't gonna lie, huge risk of getting a hot axle box!"

Alice said nothing at first, but eventually muttered a quite thank you to the trucks who heard and appreciated the gratitude they got from the new engine. Soon, the trucks were checked and secured and Alice could carry on with her journey. The trucks managed to stay sensible and didn't make a rude remark about Alice's incident. They arrived at Barrow, right on time.

The dirty diesel looked at Alice and sniffed. "Never thought seeing a precious little passenger engine pull wagons."

"I can be used for a lot of things thank you," replied Alice defensively, "I do not need a diesel who hardly knows me on what I can and cannot pull."

The diesel gave a small sneer as Alice puffed away gracefully. The Atlantic engine was still shaken from the whole ordeal at Gordon's Hill and decided to take a small break at the depot before taking the passenger train back. A few minutes later, Gordon came backing down into the track opposite to Alice. "Alice, my dear! Thank the lord nothing terrible happened to you!" he exclaimed.

"Why?" asked the Atlantic engine, "expecting me to crash."

"Well... I-erm..." stammered Gordon, "to be honest with you, I did. Most engines who are inexperience to pulling goods have no chance of coming out of it without a wreckage."

"Technically... I had an incident when going down Gordon's Hill," Alice said, slightly awkward from that confestion.

"Yes, I've heard from Bear," the big engine replied, "he saw you go past whilst he was in Maron sidings. Quite the racket you were to him."

Alice blushed, embarrassed. "This wasn't how this day was going to go," she said.

"...How was the rest of the run?" Gordon quizzed.

"Oh... the trucks were actually quite nice," smiled Alice, "they did seem to be cautious at first, so was I! But after that little... runaway, I think we just had no tension between afterwards."

"Good, excellent," murmured Gordon, suddenly, Alice's crew came out of the NWR staff hut after having a tea break.

"Come on girl," the driver said, "a nice, quiet run with a stopping service."

"Thank goodness," sighed Alice happily, "no offence to the trucks of course but I won't like to take them any time soon."

"Of course!" laughed Gordon, "I'll see you later at the party."

"Where will I be?" smirked Alice, as she began to chuff out of the depot to the station where her coaches waited.

Gordon gave another chuckle. As she disappeared, his own driver came up to him with a raise brow. "Thought you were going to offer the express back to her?" he said.

The big engine grinned, and winked at his driver. "She pulled that train so I could pull the express, would be a wasted effort otherwise," he said, "besides, I need to refuel and she's quite the stubborn one when her decision is made!"

Alice came into the station platform just as the sun was setting. She came up next to Thomas, who looked at him with a raised brow. "How was your... run?" he asked knowingly.

Alice chuckled. "Has Bear told you too?"

"Trust me, Bear told James and I, and we both left James to do the rest of the work with telling the story."

Alice laughed.

"Shush back there!" called Donald.

"Here he comes!" yelled Douglas.

And it was him, Gordon proudly pulled the Collack Express into the station, the coaches shining from the fading sun and dark, blue-shaded clouds. He was immaculate. Engines like Derek and Bear watched in awe as to see Gordon pull the train for the first time, whilst others smiled knowingly. Even Henry whispered to Toby the Tram Engine. "Has the nostalgia hit you?"

Toby smiled. "Only a fool who has not seen Gordon pull a special train not feel this way as of now."

Henry looked at Toby in a funny way. "So is it a yes or no?"

"I said shut it to them back there, I dinnae say it tae yae too, ya' green cabbooge!" Donald snapped crossly.

The engines went into complete silence, as Gordon came to a gentle stop, right next to where Thomas and Alice sat. "Nice run?" asked the tank engine innocently.

"Pleasantly incredible," Gordon replied, a broad smile on him.

Thomas rolled his eyes and puffed too a few yards up the platform to talk with Edward and BoCo. Gordon and Alice were left at the end of the station, to only talk to each other.

"I don't know whether I should cry or cringe at the blossoming romance," Jinty said sarcastically, the other engines laughed.

Alice chuckled. "Indeed, it was me trying to give a gift to Gordon in some ways."

"Definitely sounded like that," smiled Winston the Midland Engine, "but all the same with Jinty's statement, that was a good story."

"Oh yes! Smashing performance!" Derek called.

"Not a play Derek," James said.

"And you're not splendid," teased Duck, whilst some of the others who heard giggled in silly ways.

"Well you're-"

"Oh please," cut in Edward, "let's just stop bickering for once and just enjoy ourselves! We are a family and we do bicker... constantly in fact... but just like Alice's story and many times at being at the Christmas Party, let us enjoy ourselves and not argue or insult each other!"

The engines all looked at each other, it was true, even though not every single engine on the island was there. It was clear that just a little over a half was. One engine spoke up too.

"I'd like to say also," Harvey the Crane Engine began, "that... even though I know all of you, I've never seen most of you in the same place. Winston and Oliver, Douglas and Derek, Edward and Toby even!"

"Holy moly he's right," whispered Percy to Thomas, "I've not seen those two talk to each other in ages!"

"Exactly," Toby said, taking over the speech, "let us all talk together and become closer to each other and show the whole world, that we aren't just a railway, but a family also."

The engines all muttered and agreement and soon enough, they all began to talk to each other. Telling jokes and stories until the stars come out. Unaware of what was to happen to next year, which will be the most eventful the North Western would have to date.

A/N: It's actually just turned Boxing Day for me right when I've published this. This is the final story of Season 4. This season was actually suppose to be converged with Season 5 but turned out to be a lot bigger than I've expected so I decided to split it into two separate seasons. Do expect a lot more characters and a few arcs in this season and hopefully with that new poster I've made specifically for this season, I hope it'll be just as good as this season has, which has been one of my most enjoyable.

I'm going to take a break from making Thomas content, but hopefully return back at the end of January! Hope you all are well, stay safe, and have a happy New Year!