Storm Before the Whistle

The Brindlemoor Model Railway Club occupies a converted garden shed at the back of the community centre. Tonight is the Grand Summer Demonstration — twelve minutes of synchronized running, live audience, invited press. But the front-running locomotive, Old Brass Seven, has thrown a connecting rod and sits dead on the mainline. Outside, thunderclouds are piling up fast: the audience arrives in forty minutes. Club president Hedvig has sprinted to the hardware store and left you — her newest member — in charge. The spare rod is locked in Teddy Crane's display cabinet, and Teddy is somewhere in the building with something you need.