Goodbye Fat Controller

"The Fat Controller won't still be here, will he?" "No, no. He won't be here. I'll find out when he's going." "Well, the sooner he's gone, the better. So we can get started."

- The Painters

Goodbye Fat Controller, retitled Goodbye Sir Topham Hatt  for North American releases, is the twenty-fifth episode of the nineteenth series.

Plot
One morning, Percy pulls into Knapford with the mail train. He notices a group of people talking to the Fat Controller outside his office. As he leaves for a moment to answer the telephone, one of the men tells the other two that he will soon find out when the Fat Controller is leaving. Percy is very surprised to hear this. The men catch him listening, so he hastily leaves the station. When he meets Thomas later that day, Percy tells him what the men had said. They conclude that the Fat Controller must be leaving the Island of Sodor.

By that evening, all of the engines are talking about it. Edward and Gordon both agree that they will miss the Fat Controller once he is gone, even though he sometimes gets very cross with his engines. Emily reminds them that they are always causing confusion and delay and Percy comes to the conclusion that maybe that is why he is leaving: because of them. Thomas decides that they must convince him to stay.

The next morning, the Fat Controller was very surprised to see the engines arriving at Knapford bright and early. Thomas tells him that they are doing their best to make Sodor a very good railway. All day long, the engines work hard to show the Fat Controller how reliable they can be, much to his confusion. In the evening, Emily nearly collides with Diesel's goods train. Diesel begins to snap at her before stopping himself so as to not upset the Fat Controller. As Diesel leaves, the controller asks Henry why the engines are behaving so strangely. Henry tells him how happy they are that he is running the railway and the Fat Controller replies that he loves the railway very much.

At Tidmouth Sheds, Henry tells the engines what the Fat Controller said. They all begin to think that maybe he is not leaving Sodor at all, but Percy is still not sure what to think as he leaves to take the mail train.

The following morning, Percy arrives at Knapford and sees the same group of men. This time, they are taking the Fat Controller's belongings out of his office, including his beloved telephone. Percy quickly hurries back to the sheds to tell the other engines. They are all very sad when they realise that he must be leaving after all. Thomas decides to put his wheel down and tells the engines that they must go on strike, to persuade the Fat Controller to stay on Sodor.

At Knapford, the passengers are all complaining about their trains running late and telling each other what a bad railway it is. The stationmaster tells the Fat Controller about the engines refusing to leave the sheds, so he hurries to see what is going on. When he arrives, Thomas tells him all about their strike to persuade him to stay. But it turns out the Fat Controller is not leaving at all. He explains to them that his office is being redecorated and his belongings had to be moved to a temporary one. Percy was sorry and all of the engines feel very silly as they leave to start work.

Because of the engines' strike, they have caused confusion and delay, but they have to work very hard to make up for lost time. Meanwhile, the Fat Controller struggles to work in his temporary office: a small shed in Knapford Station Yard.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Emily
 * Diesel
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Toby
 * Paxton
 * Stafford
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Henrietta
 * The Dairy Manager
 * The Dairy Employees
 * The Teacher
 * The Bird Watcher
 * The Ginger-haired Boy
 * A Schoolgirl
 * One of Dowager Hatt's Friends
 * The Welsh Bird Watcher
 * The Lady with the Big Hat
 * The Grumpy Passenger
 * Albert's Wife
 * The Female Puppet Show Entertainer
 * Ferdinand

Locations

 * Knapford
 * M.C. Bunn
 * Sir Topham Hatt's Office
 * Knapford Station Yard
 * Annie and Clarabel's Shed
 * Sodor Dairy
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Tidmouth Goods Station
 * The Works

UK

 * John Hasler as Thomas
 * Keith Wickham as Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, the Fat Controller, the Knapford stationmaster, some workmen and a porter
 * Nigel Pilkington as Percy
 * Teresa Gallagher as Emily
 * Kerry Shale as Diesel
 * Rob Rackstraw as a Painter

US

 * Joseph May as Thomas
 * William Hope as Edward
 * Kerry Shale as Henry, Gordon and Diesel
 * Rob Rackstraw as James and a Painter
 * Christopher Ragland as Percy
 * Jules de Jongh as Emily
 * Keith Wickham as Sir Topham Hatt, the Knapford stationmaster, some workmen and a Porter

Trivia

 * Going by production order, this is the twenty-sixth and final episode of the nineteenth series.
 * This marks the only with a few things:
 * The only episode in the nineteenth series to have different titles in both dubs. This is also the first episode with the Fat Controller's name in the title that addresses him as such in the UK dub.
 * The only episode story idea by Robin Gay.
 * An instrumental snippet of the 2010 song is heard during the montage scene, also the singers can be faintly heard. The original one is also heard a few times.
 * This episode is similar to the magazine story Come Back, Please! and the engines' strike is similar to the first series episode, Trouble in the Shed. The stationmaster even says the exact same phrase from said episode: "There's trouble in the sheds, sir!"
 * When this episode aired on Cartoonito, Sky, TalkTalk, BT and Virgin listed the episode with the US title and info. However, said services list other episodes with their UK titles.
 * In the Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Baltic Russian and Vietnamese dubs, the UK English dub can be heard in the background as a dubbing track was not used.

Goofs

 * When Gordon says, "So that's what's going on?" Henry is out of scale.
 * Diesel emits steam when he leaves Knapford.
 * When the Fat Controller orders his engines to get back to work, they all leave the sheds at once, but the turntable only has room for one engine at a time.
 * In one shot, Gordon is shown backing down onto his express coaches, but in the next shot of him, the express coaches disappear.
 * When Percy arrives back at Tidmouth Sheds with his mail coaches, steam is emitted from Thomas' whistle while Percy is the one whistling.
 * When Emily says "What a relief" and James says "I knew he wouldn't be leaving!", their mouths do not move.

Quotes

 * Thomas: Sodor needs the Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt!
 * All: No! No! He can't go! No! No! He can't go!
 * Percy: The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt is our friend!
 * All: No! No! He can't go! No! No! He can't go!
 * Emily: (Gasps) There he is!
 * All: Hooray!
 * The Fat Controller: What on earth is going on? Quiet! Be quiet, all of you! Now, could someone please explain the meaning of this outrage?
 * Thomas: This strike was my idea, sir!
 * James: Without you, the railway just wouldn't be the same.
 * The Fat Controller: But... But...
 * Percy: We don't want you to leave Sodor, sir!
 * The Fat Controller: But I'm not leaving Sodor! I'm not going anywhere!
 * Thomas: But Percy saw the men clearing your office.
 * Percy: They were taking everything away!
 * James: Even your telephone!
 * The Fat Controller: That's because my office is being redecorated.
 * Percy: Redecorated?
 * The Fat Controller: That's right. I'll have to work in a temporary office until they finish repainting and decorating.
 * All: (Chatters)
 * Percy: Sorry, but I thought...
 * The Fat Controller: I know what you thought, Percy, but you got it all wrong. (Laughs)

UK

 * Full Steam to the Rescue!
 * The Complete Series 19

US

 * Ultimate Friendship Adventures

Goodbye Fat Controller Adiós a Sir Topham Hatt להתראות, המפקח השמן Żegnaj, Gruby Zawiadowco Прощай, толстый инспектор