Sir Topham Hatt I, also known as The Fat Controller and formerly The Fat Director, was the first controller of the North Western Railway, from 1914 to 1954. He was succeeded by his son, Charles.
Biography[]
Topham Hatt was apprenticed at the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works in 1894 at the age of fourteen. During his time there, he seems to have struck up a friendship with William A. Stanier, a fellow apprentice. The story current at Crovan's Gate Works is that on at least one occasion, perhaps more, the future Sir Topham was able to help the future, Sir William, to escape the consequences of what might have been a serious scrape. Due to his training at Swindon, he always admired things Great Western.
He came to Sodor in 1901 and joined A.W. Dry and Company, a firm of drainage engineers, at Tidmouth. On their recommendation, he became an engineer to the Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Light Railway in 1910, the Tidmouth, Wellsworth and 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.
For A.W. Dry and Company, he built a series of four vertical boiler engines known as Coffee Pots between 1905 and 1908, which were used by the TK&ER. After an Autumn gale in 1908 destroyed the cliffside route to Tidmouth, he directed a number of unemployed miners, whose work had been disrupted by the disaster, in boring a new tunnel to Tidmouth to replace the route along the coast. In 1915, for the NWR, he designed a double-tracked Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge of 120 ft span to cross the Walney Channel. Sometime after this, he was appointed a director of the company.
When the railway was suffering from a locomotive crisis in the early 1920s, he was responsible for acquiring new engines. During this time, he made one of his rare bad bargains when he was tricked into purchasing Henry, who suffered from numerous flaws, instead of the Robinson Atlantic he wanted. He remembered the mistake with sorrow for the rest of his days and was so angry at having been "done" that he would never admit who it was who had swindled him. No-one was better pleased than Topham Hatt when the Killdane accident occurred in 1935. Using his connections with William Stanier, now CME of the LMS, he was able to have Henry completely rebuilt at Crewe Works.
In 1953, when The Queen visited Sodor following her Coronation, he had the honour of welcoming her, having been previously presented to Her Majesty by Viscount Harwick, the Governor, who was also his son-in-law.
He retired in late-1954 in favour of his son Charles, whom the Board had no hesitation in electing as his successor. It is no exaggeration to say that the present prosperity of the Railway is almost entirely due to his initiative and resource.
He married Jane, sister of Sir Handel Brown in 1910 and they had two children, a daughter named Barbara Jane (born 1911) who married Henry Regaby in 1938 and later a son named Charles Topham (born 1914) who would later become the second Fat Controller.
Sir Topham Hatt I passed away at his house in Wellsworth in 1956 at the age of 76.
Attire[]
Sir Topham Hatt is a short, chubby gentleman. He usually wears a morning dress, consisting of grey trousers, a white shirt, a black tie, a cream, yellow, blue, purple or grey waistcoat, a black tailcoat and a black top hat. He is most often depicted as having thinned grey, black or brown hair and brown eyes, while in the television series, he is depicted as completely bald.
Family Tree[]
| Lord Frederick Regaby † | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lancelot Qualtrough | Lady Dorothy Lloyd | Sir Handel Brown I † | Jabez Croarie | Lady Jane Brown | Sir Topham Hatt I † | Albert Regaby † | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lady Rachel Qualtrough | Sir Handel Lloyd Brown II | Lady Amanda Croarie | Sir Charles Topham Hatt II † | Barbara Jane Hatt | Henry Regaby | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rebecca Dorothy Brown | Handel Qualtrough Brown | Bridget Amanda Hatt | Sir Stephen Topham Hatt III | Lady Helen Margaret | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Richard Topham Hatt | Charles Nicholas Hatt | Emily Helen Hatt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearances[]
Books
Documentaries |
Official Description[]
From Official Media:[1]
| “ | Sir Topham Hatt I (1880-1956): Topham Hatt was apprenticed at Swindon Works at the age of 14. There he seems to have struck up a friendship with W. A. Stanier. He came to Sodor in 1901, joining A. W. Dry & Co at Tidmouth. On their recommendation he became Engineer successively, to the Tidmouth Knapford and Elsbridge Railway in 1909, the Tidmouth Wellsworth & Suddery in 1912, and the North Western Railway on its formation in 1914.
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From Official Media:[2]
| “ | Sir Topham Hatt (1) (1880-1956): This gentleman is first mentioned in The Sad Story of Henry when he appears as the Fat Director. Various suggestions have been made for the original basis of the character and all are wrong: my father had not even met the two main suggestions - Horace May of the Bluebell Railway and the Rev'd Reddy Boston - when the story was created in 1942. He is, in fact, based on no-one in particular, though it is possible that my doctor at the time the story was created made an unconscious contribution. My father wanted to create a benevolent being who was 'in charge'. My doctor, so far as I was concerned, was 'in charge' of me at the time and it may be that he was of portly aspect. I don't know, and I was never even aware of his name, but perhaps an association of ideas evolved in my father's mind.
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Trivia[]
- In The Three Railway Engines and Thomas the Tank Engine, he was nicknamed "The Fat Director" but from James the Red Engine onwards, his nickname changed to "The Fat Controller".
- According to Sodor: Reading Between the Lines, the Fat Controller is based on no one in particular, though Christopher Awdry suggests his doctor at the time the character was created may have been an "unconscious contribution".
Gallery[]
The Railway Series[]
Main Series[]
Companion Volumes[]
8.jpg "Thomas'ChristmasParty(story)8.jpg (3.17 MB)")
Miscellaneous[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 RWS "The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways" (1987)
- ↑ RWS "Sodor: Reading Between the Lines" (2005)