It was a sunny day on the Island of Sodor as Chris puffed along the main line with a heavy load. He was going along nicely as his wheels gripped firmly, he was puffing properly, and the tracks were smooth. However, the troublesome trucks were going to make sure it didn't stay like that. Although he was used to trucks, they still tried to get a reaction from him. Some of them bumped him. "Stop that!" He shouted at them. Instead of stopping, they bumped him even harder. Chris tried not to take notice, but they were being very naughty. As they approached Gordon's Hill, they held back, putting on their brakes. "Come on! Come on!" Chris growled, trying to hide his anger at the trucks. He miraculously made it to the top, but then there was trouble. The trucks then shouted "ON! ON! FASTER!" and the train plummeted down the hill. By now, Chris was seething with anger at his trucks. He was late to collect them, and if he wasted any more time he would be later still. "STOP THAT AT ONCE!" he roared at the trucks, then he slammed his brakes on so hard that the coupling to the trucks broke behind him, then their momentum caused them to smash into Chris' bunker and derail across the line. This made James very cross.
"Oh! First my coaches and now a temper tantrum! I'm surprised that Sir Topham Hatt still keeps you here!" he snorted indignantly. Thomas brought Rocky to clean up the mess, and along with him was Sir Topham Hatt.
"James has told me that you need to control your temper, Chris. Until you can learn to manage your temper, you will shunt in the yard." Sir Topham Hatt said, sternly. Later, Chris was indignantly shunting in the yard.
"Control my temper, It was those trucks that made me so angry!" he fumed. Then, Rosie puffed in.
"Hello, Chris! What's the matter?" She asked him. Chris was too angry to answer as he bumped some flatbeds of oil hard enough to spill some onto her. She then puffed away, sobbing. Justin had seen everything
"That was very rude Chris! What did Rosie do to make you do that to her?" He spluttered as he was uncoupled from his coaches. Chris angrily pushed a rake of empty hopper cars as he pouted
"I'm angry! Sir Topham Hatt says I need to learn how to control my anger before he lets me pull trains on my own again! As if I need anger management!" he snorted as he bustled about the yard. An idea flew into Justin's funnel.
"Tiny bubbles..." he sang. "In my tea makes me happy! It fills me with glee!"
"Tiny bubbles in my whey, makes me happy! It makes me feel gay!" Duck chimed in. The engines in the yard hummed along to Justin's tune, all of them but Chris.
"WOULD YOU ALL BE QUIET!" he shouted, then as he shunted some trucks they passed over a faulty switch and derailed. Chris had once again let his anger get the better of him. Sir Topham Hatt was indeed displeased with him.
"You will go to your shed, where you can not do any more damage than you have already caused. I hoped you would learn to control your temper here." he scolded the M7. The next day, Chris sat sadly in his shed as he watched all of the other engines huff and puff by, all happily pulling trucks and coaches. They could all control their tempers, but why couldn't he? His best friend Thomas then came to visit with a train of trucks from the quarry. Chris was depressingly dozing in his shed when a blast of his friend's whistle roused him from his sleep.
"Wake up, lazy bones!" He chuckled.
"Leave me be. I'm a disgrace to Dugald Drummond's memory." Chris groaned.
"Don't say that! You're a really useful engine, just like all of us here." Thomas said, trying to cheer up his friend. Chris was still sad at all of the confusion and delay he had caused, and it was all preventable if he hadn't lost his temper. "Tell you what, I've got an important train to collect from Vicarstown tomorrow. I'll see if I can get Sir Topham Hatt to let you collect it." Thomas said. Chris did want to be useful, and their drivers talked to Sir Topham Hatt. The next day, Chris was on his way to Vicarstown to collect Thomas' special train. When he arrived at the depot, a train of box cars full of sports equipment were waiting.
"These cars of sports equipment need to go to Ulfstead Castle." the station master informed him. Chris was coupled up and he was soon off down the line. The troublesome trucks had heard from their friends that Chris had gotten into trouble over his temper and tried to tease him.
"Look out, give a shout! An angry engine's puffing about!" they giggled, but Chris took no notice. He felt a little angry, but then he asked the trucks,
"Did you hear about the engine who lost his left cylinder and rod? He's all right now!" It took a minute for the trucks to catch on, and when they did, they all laughed with Chris and not at him. He kept telling jokes the trucks, and they were too busy laughing at them to cause any trouble. Because of this, they arrived in record time. Sir Topham Hatt greeted Chris, cheerfully.
"Excellent work, Chris. You've really redeemed yourself."
"Indeed, Sir. With timing like that, We may need another engine to help run my branch line!" Thomas suggested.
"Now there's an idea, Thomas!" Sir Topham Hatt said. "Then it's settled. Chris, you can work with Thomas, Percy, and Toby on the Ffarqhar Branch Line."
"Oh, thank you, Sir!" Chris said, thankfully. Now, he is a really useful engine helping Thomas, Percy, and Toby, and controls his temper much better now.