Intrigue

Scottish twin engines Donald and Douglas arrive, making one extra for the Fat Controller to get rid of. Donald makes a break-van stop bothering Douglas, but has an accident, and Douglas is the one who tries to help James with the van.

Two black twin engines from Scotland named Donald and Douglas have arrived on the Island of Sodor to help out; however, the Fat Controller had only sent for one engine. While the twins mean well, their identical appearance causes confusion and the Fat Controller has numbers painted on their tenders; Donald's 9 and Douglas is 10. However, the Fat Controller still intends to send one of the engines back home.

In the yard, a Spiteful Brake Van takes a dislike to Douglas and always causes things to go wrong whenever Douglas takes him out. As a result, Douglas' goods trains are late and he's subsequently blamed, making him worry. Donald is angry at his twin's unfair treatment and bumps the brake van violently, threatening that there will be more if he continues to misbehave. The Spiteful Brake Van starts behaving better afterwards.

One day however, Donald reverses onto some slippery rails, but he's unable to stop and accidentally crashes into a signal box, tender first. The Fat Controller is furious with Donald for his clumsiness and tells him that he had decided to keep him and send Douglas back before this incident. Now Donald needs to have his tender mended and James will have to do his work, which the Fat Controller knows he won't like.

The Fat Controller is proven right: James is very angry about the extra work and grumbles dreadfully. Douglas mentions James' incident with the tar wagons, worsening his bad mood. He takes a goods train which includes the Spiteful Brake Van, who decides to make work difficult for James and has the trucks hold back, quickly tiring James out.

Meeting Douglas at Wellsworth, James asks for his assistance in climbing up Gordon's Hill and Douglas agrees. The two engines work as hard as they can, but halfway up the hill, James starts losing steam and along with the weight of the trucks holding back, Douglas accidentally crushes the Spiteful Brake Van to pieces while pushing from behind. The Fat Controller arrives with Edward, who comes with the Breakdown Train to help clear the mess and is cross that Douglas has also caused trouble. Edward stands up for Douglas, having heard what happened and tells the Fat Controller of all the hard work Douglas did. Although the Fat Controller thinks that Douglas has gone a little over the edge by destroying the Brake Van, he admires Douglas' determination and understands that he was only trying to help. The Fat Controller still has to choose which engine he should send away, but that's another story.