The Fat Director/Controller actually had his name first revealed in one the books back when we read them; maybe the book introducing Henry and him getting bricked up in the tunnel. I still have the Thomas omnibus here, so I'll give it a check. At least Sir Topham Hatt isn't a PC affectation created by one of the short-hair-and-sensible-shoes crowd but from the Awdry's themselves.

Still, the US releases of the stories as TV shorts (done by Britt Alcroft and delightful in the use of modelling work) soon went to using the name while the UK releases acknowledged no such stigma to the word "fat" and continued using the term. After a few changes in distribution, the 21st century distributers only make one version and it's the American one.

Typical American hypocrisy (now universally generational with Millennials and Gen-Zeds); why is "fat" considered a derogatory term but its opposite "thin" is not? GRIN!