The Fat Controller's engines have many different jobs, but whichever one it may be, they love it. Gordon likes pulling the Express, Thomas likes his branch line, and Percy likes taking the mail. But no one likes being a middle engine, where they have to both pull and push a train at exactly the same time. It is hard to see ahead of them when they have freight blocking their view, so the engines have to move slowly when they are stuck in the middle.
One morning, Percy was collecting coal trucks from the smelters' yards. Unbeknownst to him, two troublesome diesels called 'Arry and Bert were also working there. 'Arry and Bert had been bought by the Fat Controller not too long ago to help with the construction of the Sodor Ironworks, and their sly, devious nature had been made very clear when they tried to get Stepney scrapped on his second visit to Sodor. The Fat Controller eventually found out about this, and threatened to send them back to the mainland if they ever pulled a stunt like that again. Despite the threat, however, the diesels continued to behave in a troublesome way towards the steam engines, and since Percy was in the yards with them on that morning, they saw the perfect opportunity to play a trick on Percy.
Soon, Percy could see them approaching him with a large line of trucks. He knew their tricks all too well, and didn't want to fall for them again. Unfortunately, the circumstances were not kind to him, and before he knew it, the diesels had put their line of trucks right in front of him, and he was stuck in the middle. "Oh, bother!" he said crossly.
"Little green piggy in the middle," 'Arry teased, and the two diesels oiled away, sniggering to themselves.
Percy's driver was cross too. "Those two scoundrels," he said to himself. "You'll have to move slowly on our trip to the coaling plant, Percy. We may not make the good time we were hoping to make, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
Percy set off very, very slowly, with trucks in front of him and trucks behind. As he made his way along the line, he passed James at Callan Station. "It's Slowcoach Percy!" James laughed.
"You wouldn't be laughing if you were stuck in the middle!" Percy replied, and he continued on his way to the coaling plant, still fuming.
Soon, Percy arrived at his destination and began to shunt his trucks one by one onto the tipper's loading ramp, and the coal was unloaded. Percy was not allowed to cross the loading ramp until the tipper had been turned off; it was against the rules. Percy's driver and fireman soon left to attend to other matters while Percy was doing his job, but no sooner had they gone, there was trouble.
Henry arrived at the yards, having been sent there to collect coal. However, he was in such a hurry that he forgot to look where he was going. He failed to notice that he was backing into the line of trucks that Percy was pulling, and as he bumped into them, the trucks bumped into Percy, and the impact of his bump pushed Percy onto the loading ramp.
Percy knew he wasn't supposed to be on the loading ramp because the tipper was still on, but he also knew that what just happened was entirely out of his control and Henry had failed to take any proper notice of what he was doing. He was about to call out to Henry and scold him for what he just did, when all of a sudden, the ramp began to move up, taking him with it.
"HELP!" cried Percy. "I'M NOT A TRUCK!" But no one heard him. Percy was hoisted up into the loft where the coal was emptied into, tipped over, losing the coal in his bunker in the process, and brought back down again. As soon as he was safe back on the ground, he could see the manager in front of him, and he looked very cross.
"You have caused confusion and delay!" he said. "You know it's against the rules to go on the ramp while the tipper is still on!"
"But sir, it wasn't me, it was - " began Percy nervously.
"No buts, Percy!" interrupted the manager. "I will have to report this to the Fat Controller. He won't be happy when he finds out about this."
And he was right. That night, when the Fat Controller came to see Percy, he was rather cross.
"I'm very disappointed in you, Percy," he said. "Why did you go onto the tipper's loading ramp when you knew you weren't allowed to?"
"It wasn't my fault, sir," said Percy sadly. "'Arry and Bert tricked me into getting stuck in the middle of a line of trucks, and - "
"Getting stuck in the middle of a goods train? What nonsense!" scoffed the Fat Controller. "Honestly, Percy, you need to learn to acknowledge full responsibility for your actions whenever you do something like this! You are a cheeky engine, and sometimes this trait of yours need to be kept in check. And now is the perfect time - until I can get to the bottom of this, you will shunt trucks in the yard."
Percy felt absolutely terrible. Not only did he have a rather frightful experience with the tipper which was not even his fault, but everyone was scapegoating him for it, when Henry should have been the one to take the blame. And not being listened to by his own controller was worst of all. He looked down at the ground and gave a dejected sigh.
James had overheard the conversation and saw the opportunity to laugh at Percy. "Pah," he snorted, thinking no one could hear him. "I could handle those diesels with bent buffers and a busted boiler."
The Fat Controller heard his remark and turned right round to him. "Then you will do Percy's run to the smelter," he said sternly.
"Yes, sir," replied James, now wishing he hadn't opened his big mouth.
Percy thought about all that had happened to him throughout the day, and as he considered all the gut punches he had received, he felt his eyes begin to water. He With seemingly no one who was willing to listen to him or believe him, he felt very hurt and lonely. Soon, he couldn't contain his emotions anymore, and he bawled his eyes out and raced away from the sheds to an area of the island where no one knew him.
Eventually, Percy found an isolated siding in the middle of a forest. It was very dark and quiet, and he couldn't hear any voices, which only made him feel even more miserable. He was alone both figuratively and literally. 'Arry and Bert had gotten away scot-free, and now he had taken all the blame for an incident that wasn't his fault at all. He was a cold, scared and lost little engine.
He had been crying his eyes out for several minutes, and was just about ready to cry himself to sleep. But before he could do so, he heard a distant whistle and puffing sound gradually getting closer and closer.
"Percy? Percy?" called a voice. It was also becoming closer and more audible as it went along.
Percy jumped slightly upon hearing his name be called out. He still felt abandoned and neglected, but decided to call out in case there was still someone who was still holding onto faith in him. "Hello? I'm over here!" he called.
The voice and the puffing sounds continued to come closer and closer, and soon enough, Thomas came into Percy's sight.
"Percy!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing out here at this time of night, and whatever is the matter?"
Percy couldn't get himself to look at Thomas. "Why do you want to know?" he sniffled. "You've turned your back on me for sure."
"No, I haven't," said Thomas gently. "I want to know because I want to help you. You're my best friend, and best friends listen to each other."
Percy gave a small smile through his tears. Although he still felt very sad and lonely after not being listened to, he was glad to know that his best friend was still willing to be by his side and support him. "Thank you, Thomas," he whispered.
"Now, how about you tell me from the beginning? What exactly happened?" asked Thomas.
"It started out like any normal day," began Percy. "I had been collecting some trucks from the smelters', when I ended up becoming a middle engine as a result of 'Arry and Bert shunting a line of trucks into me, meaning that I ended up with more work than I should have had. Nevertheless, I managed to reach my destination and get on with my job. But then, it all happened. Henry arrived to collect some coal, but he didn't watch where he was going and ended up bumping into my trucks and pushing me onto the loading ramp. I knew it was against the rules to be on the ramp while the tipper was on, but before I could say or do anything, the ramp brought me up, tipped me over, rid me of the coal in my bunker and took me back down again. The manager said he would report the incident to the Fat Controller, and then ... then ... " He trailed off as fresh tears began to form in his eyes again.
"Then what?" asked Thomas.
" ... the Fat Controller didn't listen to me when I tried to explain myself, and he punished me! And it wasn't even my fault!" wailed Percy. "Why did he have to be so mean about it?"
A scowl formed on Thomas' face as he heard what Percy said. Blaming the engines for things that were out of their control was something the Fat Controller did frequently, but most of the time, whenever he did do it, it was a case of it occurring after the engine was behaving poorly. Here, Percy had done absolutely nothing to deserve it and now he was suffering for no reason at all. Thomas would not let his controller hurt his friend like this. But confronting him would have to wait; for now, comforting Percy was more important.
"I know he was, Percy," he said soothingly. "But don't worry, I'll see to it that this issue gets resolved as soon as possible. For now, I'll stay right here and keep you company for the night."
Percy felt much better now. He had his best friends' company for the night, and although he was unsure of how long it would take to resolve the issue, he felt very secure knowing that it would be cleaned up. "I'm glad to have a friend like you, Thomas. Thank you and goodnight," he said.
"I'm glad to be your friend, Percy, and you're welcome. Goodnight," replied Thomas, and they both fell asleep right in that very siding, buffer to buffer.
The next morning at dawn, the Fat Controller was approaching his office, still feeling rather frustrated over yesterday's loading ramp incident. He was frustrated over how Percy had seemingly tried to come up with an excuse to escape being punished, and thought it was the cheekiest the engine had ever been for a while. Nevertheless, he felt very sure that he would learn a lesson through shunting trucks in the yard. He was just getting to work, when all of a sudden, he heard a loud whistle approaching the station, accompanied by what appeared to be huge gusts of steam.
"SIR CHARLES TOPHAM HATT!" screamed a voice from outside the door. "GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"
The Fat Controller was rather surprised to hear such an outburst from what appeared to be one of his engines. It was not common for him to hear any vehicle on his railway be this angry, let alone be angry enough to call out his full name and give him an order, rather than having him be the one to dish out an order to them. All the same, he made haste and headed for the door, knowing the engine outside would be crosser still if he didn't show up any time soon. He left his office, and saw Thomas at the platform, looking furious.
"Thomas, what's all this about?" asked the Fat Controller. "What drove you to cause such a racket over here at such an early hour?"
"Don't play dumb!" said Thomas firmly. "I know exactly what you did to Percy last night!"
"He went on the tipper's loading ramp when he wasn't supposed to!" said the Fat Controller stubbornly. "And he caused confusion and delay in the process! If that doesn't justify my punishment for him, I don't know what does!"
"That's where you're wrong, sir!" answered Thomas. "Just because you're in charge of the railway, that doesn't mean you're always in the right! That incident was completely out of Percy's control! 'Arry and Bert made him a middle engine and made his job much more difficult than it should have been, and while Percy was doing his job at the coaling plant, Henry showed up to collect coal, but he was being careless, and in the process, he backed into Percy's trucks and pushed Percy onto the loading ramp!"
The Fat Controller was taken aback by what he was hearing. He remembered that he had also sent Henry to the coaling plant on that day, but it had never occurred to him that he would be this careless and cause such an accident. He knew Henry was very careful most of the time and had a good safety record, but he did expect better from him in regards to an event such as this.
"You've really developed a tendency to blame some of us for things that weren't our fault, sir," Thomas went on. "Percy being tricked into ignoring the 'stop to pin down brakes' sign by the trucks, Donald crashing into the signalbox due to slippery rails, myself and Percy when Cranky was being rude to us, the trucks breaking away from Peter Sam before Duncan got spooked, and now, this! I understand that you have a lot on your hands most of the time, so you don't always have the time to look deeper into these kinds of situations, but more often than not, whenever we need assurance that it wasn't our fault, you scold us and punish us when we didn't do anything to deserve it! You need to consider that maybe something else was the cause of it, like a brake failure, or a poor decision made by one of our crewmembers or a signalman! This kind of behaviour from you has gone on for years, and it needs to stop!"
The Fat Controller thought long and hard about what Thomas had just said to him. For the longest time, he had thought it was the engines themselves who caused the accidents, but now that he had more context behind them, he decided to take back everything he had said about them before and be more understanding to the engines about events such as this. He would still reprimand them if necessary, but he would be sure to go easier on them for things that weren't their fault.
"Alright, Thomas," he sighed. "You win. I guess I owe Percy an apology. Take me to him, please."
He climbed into Thomas' cab, and they set off to hopefully find Percy and set things right between them again.
Meanwhile, James had made his way to the smelters' yard after the Fat Controller had ordered him to do Percy's work. Being wary of 'Arry and Bert's behaviour, he was determined not to be tricked by them. He waited for a few minutes for them to show up. At last, he could see them oiling up to him on either side. He stood his ground as much as he could and would not stand any nonsense from them.
"'Ello, James," oozed 'Arry. "Come to learn a thing or two from those who know?"
"Just get my trucks ready and stay out of my way!" huffed James importantly. "I haven't got time for any of your stupid shenanigans."
"Yes, sir," Bert chimed greasily.
Eventually, James' trucks were all arranged neatly, and James backed up to them. He felt very pleased with himself. "I did it," he thought. "Those two dirty diesels won't cause any trouble for me now, I've fooled them."
But he was wrong. At that moment, 'Arry appeared in front of him, shunting a line of trucks, and before James could even think of anything else, he was stuck in the middle of a long train, just like Percy was the other morning.
"Little red piggy in the middle!" chortled 'Arry as he dashed away.
"Just like Percy!" jeered Bert, who had seen it all from afar and was having a hearty laugh at what he had just seen.
"I am NOT like Percy!" James pouted. "I am NOT a middle engine, and I'm NOT moving!" And he didn't, and that was that.
Percy was shunting trucks in the yards. Despite Thomas' reassurance the other night, he was still feeling rather dejected over being given an unjustified punishment last night. He was in no mood for being rough with the trucks, so unfortunately, he had to put up with their teasing as well as his own crippling feelings. The worst part of it all was that he would be serving this punishment until the Fat Controller "could get to the bottom of this", meaning there was no specific time when it would come to an end. He sighed sadly and continued on with his work, when all of a sudden, he heard Thomas' whistle and saw him coming into the yards.
"Percy!" called Thomas. "I have someone in my cab who wants to talk to you."
"Who?" asked Percy.
"Percy, it's me, the Fat Controller," came the reply from Thomas' cab. He stepped down onto the ground and walked solemnly over to Percy. He had been given the stern talking to that he needed, and now he was ready to apologise.
"I heard that your little episode with the tipper's loading ramp wasn't your fault, and you got pushed onto it by Henry. Is that right?" asked the Fat Controller.
"Yes, sir, it is," replied Percy.
"And you also got stuck in the middle of two trains thanks to 'Arry and Bert?"
"Also correct, sir."
The Fat Controller took a deep breath and sighed. "Percy ... after hearing about everything from Thomas, I now see that what I did to you was very unfair and uncalled for. You didn't deserve such a punishment, and I should have taken better notice of what you were going to say. I'm very sorry for not listening to you and punishing you unfairly. Can you forgive me?"
Percy smiled. "Of course I forgive you, sir. You're the controller of this railway, and a good one at that. I can't hold a grudge against you forever."
The Fat Controller laughed. "Thank you, Percy. You are now off the hook with this punishment, and you can go back to your smelters' run once James is finished with his. I will speak to Henry about this later, as well as 'Arry and Bert."
"Thank you, sir!" said Percy happily. "And thank you, Thomas. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Anything for you, my best friend," replied Thomas kindly.
"Take me back to Knapford Station, you two," said the Fat Controller. "And after that, you have your jobs to fulfill."
"Yes, sir," said Thomas. And they did.
Later that day, the Fat Controller was back in his office, and had been quietly losing himself in his work for several minutes. He was about to set another schedule, when all of a sudden, the telephone rang. The call was from the smelting yard manager, and it was about James being made a middle engine by 'Arry and Bert. He was very cross that 'Arry and Bert had gotten away with causing the same kind of trouble again before he could even get to them. He said he would punish them as soon as he got the chance, but right now, work had to be done, so he decided to send an engine to collect the train James was stuck in and take it all to the docks.
The engine he chose was Percy, who felt very happy to be doing smelters yard work again. As soon as he approached the trucks, Percy couldn't help but laugh. "Well, James, what did I tell you?" he teased. "I told you you wouldn't laugh if you got stuck in the middle."
"Oh, shut up and get on with it," muttered James through clenched teeth.
"Ah, well, we live and learn," said Percy. "Maybe this'll teach you a thing or two for always showing off and looking down on everyone."
James growled in frustration as Percy set off for the docks, then he sat in sour silence for the rest of the trip.
As soon as they arrived, Percy could see the manager waiting for them. He looked very pleased. "Right on time!" he beamed. Then he looked at James. "But whatever is that red engine doing in the middle?"
"Learning," Percy replied.
"Learning what?"
"Learning to be a middle engine!"
James was furious. He covered himself in steam, hoping no one would notice. But it was no good. There is only one big red engine on the island, and everyone knows his name is James. When everyone present saw him, they began laughing so hard that tears were running down their cheeks. They were all too familiar with James' vain behaviour, and they all knew he deserved it, especially for his teasing of Percy earlier on.
At the end of the day, the Fat Controller spoke sternly to Henry. "You need to be more careful with your trucks, Henry! I honestly expected better from you, considering your good safety record with trucks. Because of your carelessness, Percy got pushed onto the tipper's loading ramp and got blamed for something that was your fault! For your punishment, you will shunt trucks in the yard until I can trust you to be more careful again."
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," replied Henry ashamedly. "And sorry, Percy. I should have taken more notice of what I was doing."
"That's alright, Henry," said Percy. "We all make mistakes. Just be mindful of your surroundings next time, eh?"
"You're lucky Percy is so forgiving," added the Fat Controller grimly.
Later that evening, he spoke severely to 'Arry and Bert as well. "You two have gotten away with your naughty pranks enough times already! I do not allow bullies on my railway, and as residents of the island, you should know that by now! You both will stay in your sheds until you can be trusted to behave well!"
"Yes, sir," the diesels whimpered. The Fat Controller was their biggest threat, and being found out by him for their poor behaviour was something that always scared the living daylights out of them. With their stern reprimand, they had no choice but to accept defeat.
For two weeks, the diesels idled in their sheds doing nothing and staying out of sight where no one could see or hear them. Everyone agreed it was a much happier time for the engines without 'Arry and Bert to cause any trouble.
Then, once the two weeks were over, 'Arry and Bert were tasked with taking trucks to the coaling plant. They were surprised to see that all of their trucks had been arranged for them; this meant they had less work to do than usual. So, they buffered up to their trucks and prepared to set off, but before they could, it happened.
Percy appeared, shunting another line of trucks on the same line as the two diesels. He came closer and closer until finally, the trucks touched 'Arry's buffers, and now, it was the diesels' turn to be stuck in the middle.
"'Ey! What's the big idea?!" exclaimed 'Arry.
"What have we done to deserve this?" added Bert.
"Little stripy piggies in the middle!" laughed Percy, and chortled away as 'Arry and Bert slowly went on their way, with trucks in front of them and trucks behind. Everywhere they went, engines laughed and shouted at them, calling them various demeaning insults and telling them it served them right. The diesels just groaned and unhappily went on their way, finally fulfilling a punishment they had been deserving for far too long.
Hello again, guys. It's been two months since I last posted anything; this is mainly to do with the important university work I've been having to do over the past while, among a few other things. Within that time, a few significant things have happened to me - for example, I had my birthday (April 12) and got a COVID test which came back negative. It feels good to write something again, though, especially after a bit of a hiatus like this. Anyway, this is my rewrite of the infamous Season 6 episode "Middle Engine"; there are so many things wrong with the episode that I could go on about all day - the troublemakers getting no comeuppance for their actions and a character being blamed for something that wasn't even their fault, and a lot more. But this story is where all of that is rectified, justice is properly served and the outcome is so much more satisfying. 'Arry and Bert have never received any form of true punishment for any of their actions throughout their time on the series, and it's a good thing we have fan content such as this where we can serve them some well-deserved karma. And like I said, the Fat Controller isn't perfect, and this story is of course an instance where he has to realise his mistake and admit that what he did to Percy was wrong. I won't say any more about it and just let everything else speak for itself, but anyway, don't forget to leave any thoughts you may have, and until next time, have a good one, and stay safe.