The new chairman of British Railways, Dr. Richard Beeching, visits Sodor to carry out a number of cuts to "improve its efficiency and profitability."
Tropes:
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: When discussing how the Ffarquhar Branch stayed open. Sir Topham mentioned having the Railway Series book Branch Line Engines. While Daisy did soon arrive ln Sodor in Dieselisation, she did not appear in the series at this point. Nor did she appear to have been released from the works at the time of the story. Leading to implications that Wilbert wrote about a character who conveniently came to exist.
- Both Sides Have a Point: All the engines believe Dr. Beeching deserves every nasty word they've thrown at him. And he does. But their bad mouthing him also paints Sir Topham Hat in a bad image.
- Call-Back: Dr. Beeching mentions the events of "Robbery" during his inspection of the Peel-Godred Branch. Specifically, mentioning Johnny Cuba to Arthur's chagrin.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Sir Topham says this after musing that some part of Dr. Beeching might still be human after all. Percy pretends not to have heard, to his relief.
- Gilligan Cut: Thomas tells Percy and Clive that if your business isn't making enough profit, then you're not gonna impress anyone. Cut to Dr. Beeching saying he's not impressed by the Peel-Godred Line's low profits.
- Incompetence, Inc.: Dr. Beeching has the gall to say that the Peel-Godred Branch is failing financially due to mismanagement or worker incompetence, looking at Sir Topham when saying the former and then to Arthur and Paul when saying the latter. He even blames the engines for trusting Johnny Cuba and allowing him to get away with valuable goods.
- Mythology Gag: "The Dip" is the slope on the Ffarquhar Branch where Mavis got stuck in both the Railway and TV series.
- Oh, Crap!: Toby and Thomas when they realize they forgot about the Dip when dicussing the transfer of the new crusher.
- Rule of Three: Duck, Arthur and Edward, in that order, all tell off Dr. Beeching, but Sir Topham Hatt isn't present when Edward does so, and instead of talking to him later like with the other two, he talks to him right away.
- The Scapegoat: Lampshaded by Arthur. The Peel-Godred engines, particularly Arthur, were unfairly blamed for Johnny Cuba's robbery due to, noted by Dr. Beeching, lack of diligence.
- Too Dumb to Live: Dr. Beeching believes Arthur to be this for trusting Johnny Cuba without a second thought, even calling him extremely gullible.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Three times. Sir Topham Hatt tells off Duck, Arthur, and a severe off screen one to Edward for all bad mouthing Dr. Beeching (not that the chairman didn't deserve it). As such, Edward warns the Ffarquhar engines to keep their mouths shut when the chairman visits their branch line, which they do (and it also helps that they were too busy hauling the new rock crusher to badmouth the "good doctor".) Afterwards, Sir Topham thanks them for it, stating if he had to tell off another engine, he'd need an emergency therapy session with Dr. Simmons.
- He also briefly tells off Dr. Beeching for calling Arthur gullible for trusting Johnny Cuba.
