The Fat Controller

US:
Other:
In-universe informationGenderMaleOccupationController of the North Western RailwayFamilyDowager Hatt (mother)
Sir Lowham Hatt (brother)SpouseLady HattChildren2NationalityEnglish

The Fat Controller is a fictional character in The Railway Series books written by Reverend W. Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry. In the first two books in the series (The Three Railway Engines and Thomas the Tank Engine) he is known as The Fat Director, and as of the third book (James the Red Engine) he becomes The Fat Controller, as the railway has been nationalised. In the foreword to the 1951 book Henry the Green Engine, his real name is revealed to be Sir Topham Hatt.

The Fat Controller also appears in the television series Thomas & Friends, adapted from the books. On television, he was usually portrayed in the form of several different static figures made with either wood or lead during series one, and resin from series two onwards,^[1] but has been portrayed using CGI from the twelfth series onward.

The term "fat controller" has since been adopted in various contexts in the English language, beyond the sphere of the original stories, usually in reference to someone who runs a railway.

The character is first seen in "The Sad Story of Henry" in the first book in the Railway Series, The Three Railway Engines. When Henry refused to leave a tunnel, the story says that "A fat director, who was on the train, told the guard to get a rope". The character is referred to as The Fat Controller from the third book, James the Red Engine, for the remainder of the Railway Series, due to the nationalisation of British Railways. The name Sir Topham Hatt is first mentioned in the foreword to Henry the Green Engine and also appears on his luggage trunk in the same book in the story "Percy and the Trousers". The first use of the name Sir Topham Hatt in the TV series comes in the episode 'The Sad Story of Henry' when the narrator (Ringo Starr in both UK version and the first US version and George Carlin in the second US version) introduces him to the audience.

"Day Out with Thomas" events are a popular way of raising money for heritage railways. These events are an opportunity for children to meet characters from the books and television series (or at least, engines that have been "dressed up" to resemble them). These events are invariably presided over by a Fat Controller, played by a railway volunteer of appropriate age and build.^[2] The copyright holders are strict about how these volunteers should appear: the South Devon Railway's Fat Controller was forced to either quit or shave off his beard,^[3] and it is absolutely forbidden for a Fat Controller to be too thin.^[4] In the United States, on the other hand, he is instead portrayed as a costumed character (with the performer's face hidden).

• The Real Lives of Thomas page on the Fat Controller