Opposite from their town on the other side of a mountain, the engines at a roundhouse wake up and are assigned jobs by Tower.

Tillie, a switcher engine, wishes to pull a train of her own but is denied permission by the Tower due to her small size.

With the birthday train stranded, Rollo and the others attempt to flag down a substitute engine; Farnsworth, Pete, and Jebediah each pass by and decline their request.

When she regains consciousness from her heart-shaped firebox, Tillie pulls the train out of the snow using her cowcatcher as a snowplow.

Despite being released as a direct-to-video film, The Little Engine That Could had been broadcast on 56 independent television stations as an Easter special for two weeks two years later.