On the Island of Sodor,all the trains, and the majority of trucks, carriages, and motor vehicles, are sentient. They are shown to have free will, feel pain and the capacity to age. The Sodor Railway
Company is run by Sir Topham-Hatt(known-as-the•Fat-Controller).His approach to running the railway and the way he treats his engines is called the Really Useful Engine Doctrine."'.This-means that an engine's value is only derived from how useful they are.-He expresses this belief system regularly on the show, frequently criticizing engines for causing confusion and delay and insults them by saying they. are not useful. Punishments for engines that are not useful have. included being
converted into a generator-(RIP-Smudger) and being sent to the scrap yards. However, when the engines are. productive, his means of praise is to say they are a really useful engine. The engines are shown to gain great satisfaction from hard work and and being useful.