Sir Charles Topham Hatt

**Sir Charles Topham Hatt** (born 1945) is the younger child of Sir Bertram Topham Hatt and Lady Jane Hatt, the younger brother of Barbara Regaby and the current controller of the North Western Railway.

## Backstory

Charles was born in 1945 and has an older sister named Barbara. As an adult, Charles would marry Amanda Croarie and the two would be blessed by a son, Stephen and a daughter, Bridget. Charles and Amanda would set up the Rolling Hills Railway where they aim to preserve steam engine up and down the country, some of which used to reside on Sodor. When Bertram Hatt retired, Charles took over as controller of the North Western Railway.

## Family

### Sir Bertram Topham Hatt

After Charles and the engines lost their trust in Sharon Hatt, Bertram would talk to Charles about it and ask him to give Sharon another chance. After Sharon passed away, both Bertram and Charles kept her passing quiet for a few days.

### Dowager Sharon Hilary Hatt

When Charles had a bad cold one day, Dowager Hatt sent him home and took charge of the railway that day. Unfortunately, Dowager Hatt did not understand how to run a railway and causes all sorts of confusion and delay. Charles was particularly furious when he learnt about Duck being traumatised over Arry pulling Alistair, Mirabel and Benjamin and Philip being put in danger and forbade Dowager Hatt from going near his engines again. Although Bertram would ask Charles to give her another chance, Charles and the engines never got a change to make amends with Dowager Hatt who would pass away in her sleep a few weeks later.

### Annabelle Regaby

Charles and Amanda are Annabelle's maternal uncle and aunt. She sometimes stayed with them when her parents were extensively working when she was little. She loves this, as she gets to see the engines on the Rolling Hills.

## Engines

### Thomas

When Thomas derailed Gordon's express coaches at Knapford and tried to deflect the blame, Charles sent Thomas to work on the construction of the Harwick extension as punishment and got Ryan to take Annie and Clarabel for the day. Charles was also cross with Thomas when he ended up in the cavern and didn't listen to him about the pirate ship. As a result, Rocky was credited with finding the ship. When Thomas saved the engines from the dynamite, caused sparks from Ryan's funnel, Charles assumed Thomas was messing about again and sent to the shed. After Thomas' attempts to stop Sailor John from stealing the treasure, Sir Charles forgave Thomas and when Thomas apologized for his part in the dynamite incident (in that he neglected to warn Ryan about the bad coal), Charles apologizes to Thomas for being unfair to him.

## Personality

Sir Charles Topham Hatt is strict, but funny and fair. He can be strict, but with a good reason and he deeply cares about the engines and also shows a fatherly side to them. He is quite a strong character and will remind the engines that he is in charge if they start to rebel against his authority. He does not stand bullying, and even though he is usually serious, he does enjoy a good jolly laugh.

Despite his kindness and fairness, like his father, Sir Bertram Topham Hatt, however, there are times where Sir Charles Topham Hatt berates the engines for situations beyond their control, although it is usually because he still feels like their carelessness or ignorance played a hand in it. Like any son, he does hold a slight bit of respect for his grandmother, Dowager Hatt. But like all parental relationships, there are some things he finds more personal than others.

At times, Sir Charles Topham Hatt can be the comic relief character, having high levels of irony and occasional slapstick. He can also be overhasty and forgetful at times and misplace priorities. He also has a slight sweet tooth, having a particular taste for crème buns, ice cream, milkshakes and cake.

That being said, Sir Charles Topham Hatt also shows a distinctly more fatherly side to his engines. When one of them goes missing, he is staunchly determined to find them, even if it means travelling entire countries to do so. He is also known to be very proud of his signature top hat, and often distresses about it should the hat come to harm. He does care about his engines much more though.

## Attire

Sir Charles Topham Hatt is a short, chubby gentleman. He usually wears morning dress, consisting of grey trousers, a white shirt, a black tie, a purple 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.

## Differences between the books, episodes and this series

* Sir Charles Topham Hatt is born much later than his book counterpart. This is to keep in line with the revamped TV series timeline (and closer timespan of stories) and order of episodes.

## Trivia

* Sir Charles Topham Hat's appearance is based on his look between *Percy the Small Engine* and *Tramway Engines*.
* The preferred voice actor for Sir Charles Topham Hatt is Kerry Shale who voiced Sir Topham Hatt in the US dub between S13-18.