- Gordon, Henry, and James hate the extra work without Thomas and they decide to rebel after Gordon and James each have an embarrassing experience with the turntable their size requires them to use.
- Life at the yard has been harder for Henry, James, and Gordon since since Thomas left to run his branch line. With no tank engine to shunt or fetch coaches for them, the big engines must shunt in the sidings and fetch their own coaches which they don't like, causing the Fat Controller a great deal of trouble. In addition, while Thomas, being a tank engine, doesn't need a turntable, the larger tender engines do, as it's dangerous for them to go fast backwards.
One windy afternoon, after lamenting to Thomas about the recent work, Gordon heads for the turntable. The turntable's by the sea, so the wind's very strong and unless an engine's perfectly balanced on the turntable, it becomes difficult to turn. Gordon's in a bad mood and is unable to get perfectly balanced, and neither his driver nor fireman can get him to cooperate. After several attempts, they give up and Gordon's forced to pull his next train tender first.
When Gordon arrives at the junction, a group of boys joke around and taunt him by calling him a tank engine. Thomas, who's waiting at the junction, laughs and suggests that Gordon should scrap his tender and get a nice bunker. James passes by with his train and laughs at Gordon as well. Gordon warns him that he may also stick on the turntable, but James claims that he won't because he's not so fat as him.
When James gets to the sheds, he carefully lines up on the turntable, allowing it to move very easily. But the strong wind has other ideas and begins to spin James around like a top. Gordon arrives just in time to see the whole thing. When the turntable finally stops spinning, Gordon laughs as James backs into the shed feeling dizzy and completely humiliated.
That night, Gordon, James, and Henry hold an indignation meeting. They decide it would be best, after the day's events, to go on strike.
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