The Mainland Diesels

The Mainland Diesels are a group of diesel shunters who work at the Great Railway Show Yard and Bridlington Goods Yard on the Mainland. One of them is named Ulli.

Biography
During the Great Railway Show, these diesels were seen shunting trucks around the yard for the contestants; such as the heavy train for the Strength Competition. Three of them watched the Shunting Competition.

When James went to Bridlington to search for Thomas, he bumped into one of the diesels and asked him if he had seen the tank engine, who replied he could not remember. When James provided more details, the diesel asked another diesel, Ulli, if he had seen Thomas, who replied "Nope". The diesel then explained that Bridlington was a busy goods yard and left. After finding out from Thomas' trucks that he was at the Steelworks, James tried to ask the diesel if he knew where it was, only to be ignored.

Two of the diesels were shunting when Thomas arrived at a station and went to the washdown after getting covered in mud.

Basis
The Great Railway Show Shunters are all based on British Rail (BR) Class 08 diesel-electric shunters. In the real world, BR Class 08s were in fact the most successful shunting engines in the world with 996 of them built. Over seventy of them are preserved by heritage railways, such as the Dean Forest Railway and museums, such as the National Railway Museum. Around one-hundred BR Class 08s also remain in service on the national rail network. 08850, a BR Class 08 preserved by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, appears in a Mr. Perkins' Railway segment.

Diesel, 'Arry, Bert, Splatter, Dodge, Paxton, Sidney and Fernando are also based on BR Class 08s along with the international orange, blue and Chinese diesels. Two BR Class 08s also appear in the Railway Series.

Livery
The Mainland Diesels are all painted red with large yellow stripes in the middle. They all have black and yellow hazard stripes painted on their fronts with white ladders, yellow counterweights and red buffers. Their livery is based on the English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) livery that some BR Class 08s were painted in.

Appearances
Television Series= {{Scroll box|

Thomas & Friends

 * Series 23 - Grudge Match
 * Series 24 - Thomas and the Royal Engine

Specials

 * 2016 - The Great Race
 * 2017 - Journey Beyond Sodor

Music Videos

 * Series 21 - Set Friendship in Motion
 * Series 22 - All the Girls Around the World

Videos
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 * 2020 - Meet Duchess of England!

Voice Actors
Ulli:
 * John Schwab
 * Kozo Dozaka
 * Daniel del Roble
 * Joshy Peters

Other Diesel:
 * John Schwab
 * Kozo Dozaka
 * Jorge Ornelas
 * Joshy Peters
 * Bolla Róbert

Audio Files
Two of their horn sounds are recorded from BR Class 37s, while the other is from an American class of diesel.

Horns

Trivia

 * The diesels’ role in The Great Race was originally to be filled by Splatter and Dodge.
 * Ulli is the only one of the diesels to be named.
 * Their renders are reskins of Diesel.
 * The diesel shunter James speaks to has a modified version of Diesel's face (eyebrows and nose changed and resized to Paxton's face size).
 * Ulli's face is altered from Paxton's.
 * One of their faces is similar to Diesel's CGI test face from Thomas and the Stinky Cheese.
 * One of the diesels' faces was reused for Fernando.
 * Unlike some Class 08’s from British Railways, these diesels do not have the letters EWS painted on them in red.