in Trouble/Breaks the Rules" in Season 1, "Lady Hatt's Birthday Party" in Season 5 and "Fergus Breaks the Rules / Thomas and the Search for Fergus" in Season 7. In real life "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. 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, and it is absolutely forbidden for a Fat Controller to be too thin. In the United States, on the other hand, he is instead portrayed as a costumed character (with the performer's face hidden). Other uses of the name "Fat Controller" In Series 3, Episode 2 of To the Manor Born, during a meeting to protest the closing of the local railway station, the Rector loses his temper with an overweight representative of British Rail, played by Richard Thorp, and refers to him as "the Fat Controller". References External links The Real Lives of Thomas page on the Fat Controller The Railway Series characters Thomas & Friends characters Literary characters introduced in 1945 Fictional baronets and baronetesses Fictional English people