The Little Old Engine is the fourteenth book of The Railway Series published in 1959. The book contains four stories:
- Trucks!: Gordon sees Sir Handel shunting and advises him to get out of work by pretending to be sick. Sir Handel does so next morning, and Peter Sam and Rusty take his trucks for him. Peter Sam later goes to the slate mines to collect more trucks. Some mistake him for Sir Handel, and decide to play a trick on him. They snap their chain and run into him. Peter Sam is rescued by Rusty and goes to the Shed. Sir Handel apologizes and the Thin Controller tells him to do Peter Sam's work as well as his own. Sir Handel is then left wanting to give Gordon a piece of his mind!
- Home at Last: Peter Sam, still recovering, is delighted when Skarloey returns. They talk about the going-ons of the railway while Skarloey was away, but are interrupted when Skarloey's crew arrive to tell him that Duncan has stuck in a tunnel. Skarloey takes some workmen to pull Duncan out and takes his train home. The Thin Controller rebukes Duncan, who behaves for the rest of the evening.
- Rock 'n' Roll: Skarloey meets Rusty and compliments him on his work on the line. Rusty confides that the line before Cros-ny-Cuirn is dangerous and he is afraid Duncan will derail. Duncan overhears and insults Rusty. The next day, Rusty, who is still cross at Duncan, leaves him to get his own coaches. Duncan is late, and James tells him about the time he "supposedly" made Diesel leave single-handedly. Duncan is impressed, and is so focused on sending Rusty packing that he comes off at the dangerous line. When Rusty hears, he grudgingly assists and Duncan apologizes.
- Little Old Twins: Some men are coming to look at the line, and Peter Sam and Sir Handel remember that people did that on their old line and that it was later sold. The engines are miserable, until Peter Sam's driver tells them the men are television producers who will be filming the engines. Everyone is happy again, except Sir Handel, who tries to weasel out by playing sick again; the Thin Controller simply asks his crew to take him apart to show the producers how an engine works. Peter Sam is given the honor of pulling the television equipment, and, after a circuit around the line, stops to film Skarloey making a speech. To everyone's surprise, Skarloey reveals that he has a twin, Talyllyn, and that he met him while being repaired.
The book contains examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: Duncan didn't learn his lesson about "Rock and Roll". So he does it again. This time, he derails.
- Blatant Lies: James told Duncan about how he had sent Diesel packing, even though he never did anything because he was among the engines who believed Diesel's lies about Duck calling them names to the trucks. Also, it was The Fat Controller who had found out Diesel's lies and sent him away. Of course, James was too conceited to tell the truth.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Awdry's foreword to this book is the only time that he clearly states the characters are not real, using it as an opportunity to promote their real-life equivalents at the Talyllyn Railway, then in its eighth year of operation as a heritage railway.
- Call-Back: James' recalling of Diesel causing trouble with the engines and also being sent away in disgrace.
- Drives Like Crazy: Duncan. Unfortunately, he happened to be on a bad part of the rail.
- Fantastic Racism: Duncan didn't want to take advice from a "smelly diesel" like Rusty.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Duncan and Rusty.
- Foreshadowing: Sir Handel and Peter Sam have a brief conversation about how their old line closed in the last story. And, in the second story, we hear about Peter Sam's guard's van, Cora, and about how Sir Handel used to take the Express.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sir Handel plays sick the day of the television crew's visit, so the Thin Controller decides to have him taken apart in the shed to demonstrate how a steam engine works.
- Jerkass: The troublesome trucks as usual.
- Jerks With Hearts Of Gold: Sir Handel and Duncan.
- Misplaced Retribution: Some of the trucks mistook Peter Sam for Sir Handel, but despite warnings from the other trucks, they all decide to crash into him anyways.
- Never My Fault: After a tunnel collapses due to Duncan's "Rock and Roll", he blames it on shoddy construction. His driver and the Thin Controller quickly rebuff this.Duncan: Tunnels should be tunnels, and not rabbit holes!
- Nice Guy: Rusty.
- Playing Sick: What Sir Handel does and gets in trouble for it. He even tries to do it again in the last story, but The Thin Controller counters this by having him disassembled to show the television producers how an engine works.
- Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Rusty refuses to help a derailed Duncan who earlier insulted him, but after Skarloey reminds him of the passengers, he decides to go help him after all.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story:
- "Little Old Twins" was based on the visit from a television crew to the Talyllyn Railway, in which Wilbert Awdry took part.
- The events of "Home at Last" where Duncan scraped a tunnel with his cab due to his "Rock-n-Roll" were inspired by how his basis Douglas' large cab had a tendency to scrape against the tunnels he went under.
- Duncan's derailment on bad track again mirrors the general condition of the Talyllyn's right of way, which was absolutely decrepit in the later years of revenue operation and the early preservation era.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Skarloey calls out Rusty for refusing to help Duncan, reminding him of the passengers.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The events of this book takes place in 1958.
