- Hard-working Duck is unimpressed with the flattering trial-engine Diesel who claims there's nothing his kind doesn't know since they're so great. Duck challenges him to shunt, and Diesel runs into trouble when he tries.
- Duck the Great Western engine works very hard on the Island of Sodor and everything goes smoothly when he's around. He can keep the coaches quiet, the trucks behaving and the passengers happy. He's also very proud of his Great Western heritage and talks endlessly about it, which irritates the larger engines who quickly grow tired of hearing about "the Great Western way".
One day, a visitor arrives in the shed. The Fat Controller introduces the new engine as Diesel, stating that he has agreed to give him a trial and charges Duck with showing him around and teaching him what to do. Diesel introduces himself before heaping compliments on Gordon, James and Henry, who are in awe by his flattery. Duck, however, takes a dislike to Diesel's oily nature and shows him to the yard.
There it becomes apparent that Duck's dislike of Diesel is mutual as Duck orders Diesel to refer to the Fat Controller as "Sir Topham Hatt" before Diesel smugly tells Duck that he doesn't have to be taught what to do. Diesels know everything and come to a yard to improve it, and are revolutionary. Duck isn't impressed with Diesel's boasting and orders him to arrange his trucks while he leaves to take Gordon's coaches to the Station. Diesel, eager for the chance to show off, quickly gets to work.
When Duck returns, he finds Diesel trying to move some trucks from a siding; some very old ones with stiff joints and brakes. Duck decides to let the events play out, and watches with interest. Diesel struggles to move the trucks and gets so forceful with them that some of their brakes snap and the gear jams in the sleepers, causing several of the trucks to derail and overturn in the process. Diesel still can't move the remaining trucks and is forced to give up.
As Duck finally comes around carrying some other trucks, Diesel asks Duck why he didn't tell him about this when he had gone through so much trouble. Duck replies that Diesel never asked him, as he was having fun "revolutionizing" the yard. Duck leaves happily, while Diesel fumes angrily.
Diesel is later forced to help the workmen clear the mess, a job that he hates especially as the trucks have started laughing and singing a humiliating song at him as he does. When the clean-up is over, Diesel, now unhappy with the trucks and with Duck, storms off back to the shed to sulk.
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