However, after showing that he can be a useful engine following James' accident with some trucks, he is rewarded with his own branch line and two faithful coaches named Annie and Clarabel.
This book concerns the further adventures of Thomas on his branch line, with the bigger engines relegated to cameo appearances.
Thomas is having trouble with the police by traveling to Ffarquhar Quarry without cowcatchers and side-plates to cover his wheels.
While on holiday with his wife and two grandchildren, he met Toby, a tram engine, who together with his coach Henrietta, has been having problems of his own with his railway in East Anglia closing down.
Rheneas is away being overhauled, and the Skarloey Railway has recently acquired two new engines: Sir Handel and Peter Sam.
Duck has settled in well on Sodor, so much so that the other engines are getting a little tired of his know-it-all attitude and new-found pride on the Great Western Railway following a visit from the City of Truro.
Skarloey is shocked at this and tells the others about the time when Rheneas saved the railway, eventually changing Duncan's attitude.
The narrator introduces readers to Bill and Ben the tank engine twins, and a new diesel named BoCo arrives.
The Fat Controller has been using a special new kind of ballast, which Donald and Douglas say it is brought by "verra wee engines".
Gordon is sad to learn that steam has ended on the Other Railway, and more so when he hears his siblings of the LNER Gresley Classes A1 and A3 have almost all been scrapped.
Meanwhile, Douglas saves a tank engine named Oliver and his rolling stock (Isabel and Toad) accomplices from scrap.
Finally, a lying bus named Bulgy is put in his place after trying to steal the railway's passengers.
Duke was a dignified but affectionate old engine who ran on the Mid Sodor Railway with Falcon and Stuart, who are better known nowadays as Sir Handel and Peter Sam.
She pays no attention to his advice and causes a great deal of trouble, but eventually comes to Toby's rescue when his heavy load pushes him across a crumbling bridge.
The publishers were eager for new books, as the television adaptation was in production at the time, and Christopher Awdry became the new Railway Series author.
The trucks manage to do a good turn when they accidentally put in his place a disagreeable barge named Bulstrode.
Terence does the shunting for Percy and boasts about it, while adding that steam engines ploughed fields and ran on roads in the past.
To add to that, on the day Mavis is due back from the Works, Toby has an accident at the crossing and briefly runs on the road like Trevor.
While Thomas is away at the National Railway Museum, his branch is left in the care of Percy, Toby and Daisy.
Daisy finds herself battling a snowstorm, Percy causes the bridge at Hackenbeck to collapse, and Toby takes more trucks than he can handle.
On the day Thomas is due to come home, George leaves his cones at Dryaw Crossing, allowing one to stop Daisy.
The Fat Controller arranges to borrow an engine called Wilbert from the Dean Forest Railway in Gloucestershire to help out.
He tells Thomas and Toby the story of Sixteen, has his tank filled with milk rather than water and pulls a truck using wire.
It is 50 years since the first Railway Series books were published, and the Fat Controller plans to celebrate this occasion with a party.
Gordon has an accident with some birds, Edward loses a wheel, Thomas is derailed by some rabbits and a spider's web shorts out the electrics in the signal box at Knapford Junction.
But everything works out well in the end, and Pip and Emma bring a Royal Personage to enjoy the day with the Fat Controller's Engines.
Toby and Henrietta are overcrowded carrying the workmen from the Quarry and a close call at a level crossing shows how desperate the situation is – an extra carriage is needed urgently.
Once finished, Victoria is taken over to Knapford Junction and joins Toby and Henrietta as Sodor's Vintage Train.
When Percy has to go to the Works for repairs, Diesel returns to Sodor and, as expected, causes trouble for the engines by destroying the oldest truck in Ffarqhuar Yards, but two days later, Thomas has an accident when Daisy drips her oil on the track and Clarabel's back wheels come off the tracks at the special points at Dryaw, so Diesel comes to the rescue.
W. Awdry and his brother George (who was the librarian of the National Liberal Club) worked out details of Sodor, producing between them a comprehensive set of notes.