It had been a few days since Daniella had been restored, and Lorelei had to return to Sodor. After all, she was the railway controller now, and Mr. Conductor could only fill in for her so much. However, being the railway controller, Lorelei couldn't always drive Daniella, so she had a close friend of hers take that position. Diesel 10's old driver had been hired again, and now that Dennis also had a driver, Lorelei decided to bring him along as well.

However, things didn't go quite as expected when Dennis was introduced. Bringing him in front of Tidmouth sheds, along with Daniella and Diesel 10, before he could even be introduced properly, he was greeted rather rudely.

"Another diesel?" James scoffed.

"We already have enough of those filthy Other Railway diesels here," Gordon scoffed as he gave Daniella the stink eye.

Lorelei cleared her throat loudly. "This is Dennis. He'll be helping out around here for a while, and I expect you to treat him with respect."

"Dennis? We already have one useless oil can by that name! We don't need another!" said James.

"I hope our new controller doesn't plan on modernizing," Edward said worriedly.

"I heard that," said Lorelei, "and no, I'm not getting rid of any steam engines. However, I am going to attempt having a few engines from the scrapyard restored."

"That means even more diesels," James complained, and the other steam engines groaned.

Lorelei put her hands on her hips. "And what's wrong with saving a few engines' lives? I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be complaining if I was having a few steam engines restored!"

"Says our new controller who listens to Diesel 10 before anyone else," Thomas muttered.

"That's enough! Since I took over, I've been treating you all equally and not playing favorites. If you steamers can't handle not being always put before the diesels all the time anymore, too damn bad! And y'all can stop demonizing Diesel 10! He hasn't caused ANY trouble!" said Lorelei.

"What about that massive upgrade to the Dieselworks, then? Where's ours?" said Henry.

"Have you seen that dump?! It's filthy, dilapidated, and infested with rats!" said Daniella.

Lorelei was sick and tired of this. Ever since she had first visited sodor with Daniella, she had noticed a rivalry between the steam and diesel engines. Since she had become controller, that seemed to have gotten worse. "Alright, since you all can't seem to pull your faces out of your backsides, I'm gona have you all take a walk in each others' shoes, so to speak. All of you will be switching jobs today. And you steamers will spend the night at the Dieselworks tonight!" she said.

The steam engines all gasped.

"Nonsense! Who will pull the express? No diesel is strong enough, or fast enough!" said Gordon.

"Diesel 10 will pull the express. He's plenty strong enough and quite fast too," said Lorelei.

Gordon sputtered. "W-What?! Diesel 10 pull my express?! He's far too rough! He can't pull passengers!"

"Oh really? We'll see about that. His class is made to pull passengers, and they don't ride rough. I would know, I've had one for years," Lorelei said, pointing her thumb at Daniella.

"But—" Gordon protested.

"No buts," said Lorelei, and Gordon grumbled in frustration. Diesel 10, however, was grinning broadly.

"Thomas, you and Diesel will switch jobs," Lorelei said, "so will Percy and Mavis. Gordon, you'll help James at the smelters."

"Me?!" James exclaimed.

"Yes, you. Arry and Paxton will be doing your job, and Edward will be taking Paxton's place. Now, I was going to have Dennis pull that heavy goods train, but Henry can take it instead while Dennis pulls his passengers," said Lorelei.

The steam engines all grumbled. None of them were exactly pleased to have to switch places with the diesels. Gordon and James, however, were very cross. Those two had been indifferent to Sir Topham Hatt's plan to get rid of all the diesels, and they did not trust Lorelei at all. Both of them grumbled and griped all the way to the smelters, where Arry was not doing much of anything.

"Didn't you hear? Our new controller told us to work here and you to take my train! You're late, you smelly old grease box!" James spat.

"An engine such as myself doing the job of a couple smelly diesels! Oh, the indignity!" Gordon moaned.

Without saying a word, Arry left the two steam engines alone at the smelters.

"At least he's gone quiet! I think I can tolerate him better like that at least," said James.

Arry, however, no longer cared what the two pompous steam engines said. As a matter of fact, he hardly cared about anything anymore. As he went further on down the line, and Gordon and James' voices faded into nothing, he thought back to when things were normal. Before Daniella visited. Before the Fat Controller had tried to get rid of the diesels. Before Bert had been crushed in a rockslide.

He knew that nothing would ever be the same again, and losing his twin had made that all so much worse. When Bert was killed, it was as if a part of him had died along with him.

Despite the impromptu switch-up, things had gone pretty smoothly for the most part. However none of the steam engines were very pleased with having to spend the night at the Dieselworks. After all, the place was run down and filthy. No one was more displeased than Gordon, who, after making some loud remarks that Diesel 10 had better not have damaged his coaches, proceeded to complain loudly about the state of the Dieselworks, and how a filthy place such as this was no place for a "grand engine" such as himself.

Finally, nerly everyone else had enough of hearing him complain.

"Oh, will you be quiet?!" Emily snapped.

"Yes, it's bad enough that we had to switch with the diesels for the day!" said james.

"I still shouldn't be staying in such a dingy, dirty place! An engine such as myself should never sleep in such appalling conditions!" said Gordon.

"Actually, Gordon, no engine deserves to stay in a place like this," said Thomas.

"I'm beginning to see why Lorelei is going to have so much work put in to this place," said Emily.

"Indeed. Even the diesels don't deserve this," said Edward.

"Pah! Who cares? They're nothing but devious, lying troublemakers! They get what they deserve!" James scoffed.

"Maybe some of them are upset because they weren't being treated very well. Lorelei is changing that, so maybe they'll be nicer once they're happier," said Percy.

"I should certainly hope so!" said Gordon.

While the steam engines were now aware of why their new controller was going to have the Dieselworks upgraded, a few of them still didn't trust her. Most of them now realized that when Sir Topham Hatt was their controller, the diesels truly had been neglected, and Lorelei was simply working to change that. Furthermore, Lorelei had no intention of getting rid of any of the steam engines, but it was going to take some time before everyone realized that.