With Mr. Zorro's departure, several members of Sodor's board of directors are vying to become controller. Meanwhile, a number of incidents occur on the railway.
This episode contains the following Tropes:
- Dark Horse Victory: In the end, neither Basil Corbett nor Giles Freeman get the nomination for Controller. It's the Fat Controller.
- Everyone Has Standards: As tight-fisted as he is with money, Basil Corbett doesn't relish the thought of a non-faceless engine languishing at the works. He's also marginally more moral compared to his opponent in the race to become Controller of the railway, Giles Freeman.
- Mythology Gag: James has an accident similar to the one from "Thomas and the Breakdown Train."
- Oh, Crap!: The signalman when he realizes James is approaching Maron station and he forgot to raise the danger signal.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Giles Freeman is a public relations officer and shows himself to be excellent with the press, giving himself plenty of good publicity after the accident. He's also implied to be shadily giving opportunities to the road-based industries to benefit himself, and is noted as being worse than Basil Corbett.
