Sir Topham Hatt (character)

Sir Topham Hatt, nicknamed "the Fat Controller" (previously known as "the Fat Director"), is the manager of the North Western Railway.

The Fat Controllers
So far, there have been three controllers in charge of the North Western Railway.

Sir Topham Hatt I (1880-1956)
Topham Hatt was apprenticed at Swindon Works at age fourteen and seems to have struck a friendship with W. A. Stanier during his time there. He came to Sodor in 1901 and joined A. W. Dry & Co. at Tidmouth. On their recommendation, he became engineer to the Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Light Railway in 1909, the Tidmouth, Wellsworth & Suddery in 1912, and the North Western Railway upon its formation in 1914. On the North Western Railway, he rose to be general manager in 1923, managing director in 1936, and upon Nationalisation in 1948, he was created a baronet on his appointment as chairman of the Regional Executive.

He married Jane, sister of Mr. Handel Brown, and retired in 1954 in favour of his son Charles, whom the board had no hesitation in electing as his successor.

In The Three Railway Engines and Thomas the Tank Engine, he was nicknamed The Fat Director before his nickname changed to The Fat Controller in James the Red Engine.

In the television series, Sir Topham Hatt remains controller.

Sir Charles Topham Hatt II (1914-1997)
Sir Charles Topham Hatt was the Fat Controller from 1954 to 1984, when he retired in favour of his own son. During his period of office, he began improvements to the harbour at Knapford, planned by his father, and reopened the Arlesburgh branch in 1965/6, being responsible for the construction of the Arlesdale Railway and for establishing the ballast consortium which uses it.

His cousin, Sir Handel Lloyd Brown II, was born in 1924. He married Amanda Croarie in 1940 and they had two children, Stephen Topham, born 1941, and Bridget, born 1943. Charles inherited his father's baronetcy in 1956.

Sir Charles Topham Hatt II isn't featured in the television series.

Sir Stephen Topham Hatt III (1941-)
Sir Stephen Topham Hatt (who first appeared in Toby the Tram Engine while on a family holiday in East Anglia with his parents and grandfather) became the Fat Controller in 1984, succeeding to his father's baronetcy in 1997. In 1970, he married Helen Margaret, a distant cousin and granddaughter of the Reverend Nicholas Dreswick, the much-respected historian of Sodor. They had three children: Richard Topham, born in 1972 and no doubt destined to be Sir Topham Hatt IV (his father turned seventy-two in 2013, though he has, as yet, given no hint of retiring), Charles Nicholas (1974-) and Emily Helen (1977-).

He played a part in arranging the construction of the Arlesdale Railway's new locomotive, Jock, in 1990, a project which had been dear to his father's heart. With great skill, he masterminded the arrangements for the royal visit in 1995, when he welcomed the Prince of Wales on his visit to Sodor.

In the television, Stephen Hatt doesn't age and his grandfather remains controller.

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