The morning came very quickly and as the first rays of sunlight peeked through the boys’ bedroom windows and lit up the room.  The boys were up and already dressed.  Bobby was dressed first and went into the kitchen to start breakfast.  This is going to be a good day Billy thought to himself as he smelled the pancakes that Bobby was cooking.  

“Do we have hot apple cinnamon topping?” he called out to Bobby.

“Yes we do,” was Bobby reply.

“Great,” Billy thought to himself, the day is getting better already.

It didn’t take long before Billy was sitting at the table with his fork in his hand, waiting for his pancakes.  Bobby brought the pancakes and topping over to the table and before he could pull out his chair Billy already had a stack of pancakes on his plate.  Billy pored each of them a glass of milk as Bobby sat down.

“Do you think we’ll get everything on the train done today?” Billy asked.

“We should,” Bobby said as he took a stack of pancakes and put them on his plate.  As they ate they talked about what else had to be done on the train.  Bobby told Billy that he was very excited knowing that he was going to get a chance to run the Woodland Bell today.

The boys locked up the house and headed down the trail to Amanda’s house. When they got there everyone was waiting for them.  

“Looks like everyone’s anxious to ride on the train,” Billy said as they walked up to their friends waiting for them.

“We are,” everyone said at the same time.

“Well then we should get started,” The Professor told everyone, and they all started up the hill to the old train station.  When they got to the train station, Brownie and Marvin opened the doors to the two large buildings.  The Professor and Bobby climbed up into the Woodland Bell,

“What do I do first?” Bobby asked, excited that he was about to get to run the Woodland Bell.

“Well,” The Professor said, “you can start by throwing some of those logs into the firebox,” as he opened the big iron door.

Bobby threw some logs into the firebox and The Professor lit the fire and closed the big iron door.  In a few minutes the engine had built up enough steam and The Professor told Bobby to pull on the over head chain twice.  As he did the Woodland Bell’s whistle let out two loud blasts.  Bobby was all smiles; he was going to run the train.  The Professor told Bobby to set the big lever next to him forward and lock it in place.  Bobby pushed the big lever forward, and asked The Professor what the lever was for? The Professor told him that the lever puts the Woodland Bell in either forward or reverse, and they were now set to go forward.

It was time to take the locomotive outside and The Professor told Bobby to slowly pull down on the red valve.  As Bobby opened the valve the huge steam engine came alive as the wheels slowly started to turn and the Woodland Bell rolled out of the building.  Bobby knew that he had to stop the train and before The Professor could tell him he slowly closed the red valve bring the Woodland Bell to a stop. 

The Professor looked at Bobby and smiled. “You’re learning fast,” he said as they climbed down from the locomotive.  

“What’s next?” asked Brownie.

The Professor told everyone that they had to pull the other cars out of the building into the sunlight.  

“Which one first?” Marvin asked.

The Professor told them that he wanted the baggage car to go behind the tender.  Then the dinning car followed by the observation car, and then the sleeper car followed by the caboose.  The baggage car was the first car on the track to the left.  Billy wanted to know how they were going to get the Woodland Bell on to that track.

The Professor led them over to where the tracks split and pointed to a big lever standing straight up and asked Marvin to please push on the lever.  As Marvin pushed on the lever the main track started to slide sideways until it met the track on the siding.

“That’s one,” The Professor said.

As he walked down the siding to where the track split to the left, and once again asked Marvin to please push that lever.  That track also slid sideways until it met the track going to the left and stopped.

“That’s two,” The Professor said.

The Professor explained that the path of the train was now changed so that the Woodland Bell could be backed up to the baggage car.  The Professor told Billy and Bobby to climb up into the Woodland Bell and slowly back it up until he told them to stop.  

“O.K,” the boys replied as they started to climb up into the locomotive.

Bobby noticed Amanda standing there disappointed that there was nothing she could do to help.  Amanda’s face lit up with a big smile when Bobby asked her if she could help them run the train.  Climbing quickly up into the locomotive she asked him what she could do to help and Bobby said he needed her to watch for The Professor’s signal to stop or they would crash into the baggage car.

Excited that she was helping run the Woodland Bell, Amanda stood by the door watching for The Professor’s signal.  Hold on Billy called out to Amanda, as steam hissed from the wheels as they started to turn and the Woodland Bell started to move.  Slowly the huge locomotive rolled backwards and as the tender reached the spot were the tracks split, instead of the tender going back into the storage building it turned onto the siding.  Slowly the huge locomotive moved backwards until it reached the other split in the tracks and rolled back onto the siding on the left.  As the Woodland Bell rolled closer to the baggage car The Professor put up his hand to signal them to stop, and Amanda hollered to Bobby to stop the locomotive.  Bobby closed the red valve and the Woodland Bell slowly rolled to a stop, just as the tender and the baggage car’s big iron coupling clanged and locked the two cars together.

They pulled the Baggage car out of the building.  It was covered with dust and dirt just like the Woodland Bell was, but they could see it was in good condition.

The baggage car was dark red with a black roof and gold letters along the side that spelled out, “Woodland Express.”  The Woodland Bell moved back and forth on the sidings picking up one car after another, until all the cars were locked together forming the Woodland Express.  With all the cars out in the sunlight everyone could see what had to be done, and they all went to work cleaning up the train.  Edward, Edmond and Elizabeth cleaned up the outside of the train while Randy and Raymond cleaned all the windows.  Inside Marvin, Brownie and Amanda cleaned up the dinning car and its kitchen.

Marvin smiled and told Amanda that a clean kitchen was very important to Brownie because he loved to eat.

“That he does,” Amanda said laughing.

Bobby and Billy along with The Professor were working on the wheels and axels and making sure that all the wheels were greased.

“This train sure has a lot of wheels,” Billy said, as he tried to wipe the dirt from his face.

Bobby started to laugh, “That was a good move,” he said.

“What was a good move?” Billy asked.

“You just wiped axel grease all over your face, now you’re as slick as a greased pig,” Bobby replied.

Billy stood up and looked at his reflection in the window; his face was covered with grease.

“Well I am one slick pig, that’s for sure,” he said, as The Professor and Bobby started laughing and handed him a clean rag to wipe his face.

Everyone worked very well as a team and by the end of the day the cars were cleaned inside and out.  The kitchen in the dinning car was bright and shinny thanks to Brownie.  All the beds were made and the rooms cleaned in the sleeper car and the observation car was also cleaned and ready to go.  

“What about the caboose,” Amanda asked. The Professor explained that he had cleaned it up and was going to use it as his bedroom and office. It would be a perfect place for him to record any observations he made when they traveled.

“What observations?” Bobby asked.

“Well,” The professor said,” now that we have away for us all to leave the Woodland together, don’t you think we should go exploring and see what’s outside the Woodland? 

“That will be great, taking the Woodland Express and going exploring.” Billy said.

Everyone thought that the idea of taking the Woodland Express to go exploring out of the Woodland was a really good idea. That it would be like traveling in a huge R.V.

The sun was starting to go down behind the mountain top and it was getting dark very fast.  The Professor told everyone that tomorrow they would get the supplies ready for the trip and start exploring beyond the Woodland.

“You will all find it very interesting to see what’s outside the Woodland,” Edmond said.

Edmond, Edward and Elizabeth had been out of the Woodland many times with the circus and had seen many wonderful places.  

“We’ll all meet here tomorrow morning,” The Professor told everyone.

“Excuse me Professor,” Edward said, “Edmond and Elizabeth and I will not be going with you.”

“Why not,” was everyone’s response to what Edward said?  

He explained that the circus was leaving for its next town in the morning and that they would not be back to the Woodland for about six months.  Everyone was very sad that the elephants weren’t going with them.  Elizabeth told them that they make many people happy in the towns that they visit, and that they couldn’t disappoint them.  Everyone said that they were sad that they could not go with them and wished them gook luck.  The elephants waved goodbye as they left heading down the hill.

“We’re going to miss them,” Bobby said as he waved goodbye.  

“Yes we are,” Billy replied, “They’re really good friends and helped us a lot in the past few days.”

The Professor told everyone that it was time they all went home before darkness settled in the Woodland.  Everyone said good night and as they started to leave The Professor reminded them that they had to get an early start tomorrow, and not to stay up too late. Bobby and Billy walked Amanda home and said good night and walked up the hill to their cabin.

“It will be nice to go on a trip, after working as hard as we did,” Billy said.

“Yes it will,” Bobby replied as he started dinner.

The boys cleaned up and changed their clothes and sat down to eat dinner. As they ate they talked about the trip that they were about to take.

“You know, Bobby,” Billy said, “most of our Woodland friends have never been out of the Woodland. They’re all excited about going on this trip.”

Smiling Bobby told Billy he knew just how they felt because he was never out of the Woodland either.  The boys finished  dinner and cleaned up the dishes and went off to bed and quickly fell asleep dreaming about the great adventure that they were about to take.