British Railways Diesels

In The Railway Series, several diesel engines from British Railways have made appearances.

D701
Diesel 701 is a diesel engine who works on British Railways.

Biography
D701 was built by Brush Traction in 1962. He worked on British Railways along with several other diesel engines. He was later seen with Stepney, D782 and Class 52 at a station.

Basis
D701 is based on a British Rail (BR) Class 31 Co-Co diesel-electric engine. Over two-hundred and sixty-three members of this class was built from 1957 and 1962, with twenty-six of these engines preserved by museums, such as the National Railway Museum and heritage railways, such as the Dean Forest Railway. Ten more of these engines were in preservation but were scrapped from either accidents or to give spare parts to other engines. These engines were given two nicknames, first being "Toffee Apples" because of the shape of their control lever and the second "Skinheads" because the first few engines did not have the codebox on the front of the roof.

Diesel 31120 is also a member of this class.

Livery
D701 is painted in the BR Deep Bronze green livery. He has yellow warning panels on his front and back end. His rooftop and strips are painted white. "D701" is painted on the sides of his cab in white. His buffer beams are painted red with silver buffers.

Appearances
Railway Series=

The Railway Series

 * Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine - Bluebells of England

Companion volumes

 * 1996 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection
 * -|Other Media=

Books

 * 2005 - Thomas the Tank Engine Encyclopedia

Video Releases

 * 1995 - The Thomas the Tank Engine Man

Trivia

 * D701's number is completely fictional as none of the real BR Class 31s had this number.
 * D701's number is similar to Bear's former number, 7101.

Class 52
Class 52 is a diesel engine who works on British Railways.

Biography
Class 52 was built in either 1961 or 62. He worked on British Railways along with several other diesel engines. He was later seen with Stepney, D701 and D782 at a station.

Basis
Class 52 is based on a British Rail (BR) Class 52 "Western". All engines of this class were given two-word names, the first word being "Western" and thus the class became known as Westerns. Seventy-four of these engines were built between 1961 and 1964. Seven of these engines have been preserved by heritage groups, such as The Diesel and Electric Preservation Group.

Livery
Class 52 is painted in the BR maroon livery. His buffer beams are painted red with black buffers.

Appearances
Railway Series=

The Railway Series

 * Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine - Bluebells of England

Companion volumes

 * 1996 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection
 * -|Other Media=

Books

 * 2005 - Thomas the Tank Engine Encyclopedia

Video Releases

 * 1995 - The Thomas the Tank Engine Man

D782
Diesel 782 is a diesel engine who works on British Railways.

Biography
D782 was built by Vulcan Foundry in 1962. He worked on British Railways along with several other diesel engines. He was later seen with Stepney, D701 and Class 52 at a station.

Basis
D782 is based on a British Rail (BR) Class 40 1Co-Co1 diesel-electric engine. Two-hundred members of this class were built from 1958 to 1962, and the last was withdrawn in 1985. They were given the nickname "Whistlers" because of the strange whistling noise their engines would make. Seven BR Class 40s are preserved at the National Railway Museum including D200, the first BR Class 40 ever built.

Class 40 and Old Stuck-Up are also members of this class, hence the former's name.

Livery
D782 is painted in the BR Deep Bronze green livery with full green front panel. His rooftop is painted white. "D782" is painted on the sides of his cab in white. His buffer beams are painted red with silver buffers.

Appearances
Railway Series=

The Railway Series

 * Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine - Bluebells of England

Companion volumes

 * 1996 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection
 * -|Other Media=

Books

 * 2005 - Thomas the Tank Engine Encyclopedia

Video Releases

 * 1995 - The Thomas the Tank Engine Man

Trivia

 * D782's number is completely fictional as none of the Class 40s had this number.
 * He was also the first Class 40 to appear in the book before Class 40.

D5701
Diesel 5701 was a blue mixed-traffic diesel engine who worked on British Railways.

Biography
D5701 was built for British Railways in 1958, and along with the rest of his class worked in the Barrow-in-Furness area from 1962. He and some other diesel engines were alongside a signal box near an old quarry branch where Oliver, Isabel and Toad briefly hid to escape scrap. Oliver described the diesels as "baying and growling like hounds outside", and he felt very frightened.

D5701 was later retired from service in September 1968, and scrapped by the end of 1969.

Basis
D5701 is based on the real British Rail (BR) Class 28 Co-Bo diesel-electric engine of the same number. The BR Class 28s were initially used on the "Condor" express freight services but the class's Crossley engines quickly proved problematic. They suffered frequent failures, and in 1961 the entire class was handed back to the manufacturer for remedial work on the engines, and to cure problems with cab windows falling out while running. Upon return to service in 1962, all members of the class were allocated to Barrow-in-Furness. The BR Class 28s were withdrawn and scrapped by the end of 1969 with only one engine, D5705, surviving in preservation.

BoCo is also a member of this class.

Livery
D5701 was painted in the BR Rail Blue livery. He had yellow warning panels on his front and back end. His rooftop was painted light grey. He was the only Class 28 to be painted in Rail Blue.

The real D5701 was painted in the same livery, however, "D5701" was painted on its sides in white, doubled, and the British Rail Double Arrow crest was painted on its sides, also in white.

Appearances
Railway Series=

The Railway Series

 * Enterprising Engines - Escape

Companion volumes

 * 1987 - The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways
 * 1999 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection
 * 2005 - Sodor: Reading Between the Lines

The Class 08
This Class 08 is a diesel shunter who worked on British Railways.

Biography
The Class 08 and some other diesel engines were seen alongside a signal box near an old quarry branch where Oliver, Isabel and Toad briefly hid to escape scrap. Oliver described the diesels as "baying and growling like hounds outside", and he felt very frightened.

Basis
The Class 08 is 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.

The Thomas & Friends characters 'Arry, Bert, Splatter, Dodge, Paxton, Sidney, Ulli, the Mainland Diesels and Fernando are also based on BR Class 08s along with the international Brazilian, Indian and Chinese diesels.

Livery
The Class 08 appears to be painted in BR Deep Bronze green livery with hazard stripes.

Appearances
Railway Series=

The Railway Series

 * Enterprising Engines - Escape

Companion volumes
Other Media=
 * 1996 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection

Books

 * 2005 - Thomas Goods Encyclopedia

Other Diesels
These diesel engines worked on British Railways.

The first diesel engine was from Barrow-in-Furness. They shouted a warning that Oliver was escaping. When Douglas was helping Oliver, Isabel and Toad escape from scrap, they witnessed the event. Douglas told the stowaways to take no notice of the diesel. This diesel was not seen in any illustrations, making it unknown what their basis was.

In a flashback scene, upon closer inspection of the main line going away from the signal box, a diesel engine can be seen in the background. Their class is unknown.

Appearances
Railway Series=

The Railway Series

 * Enterprising Engines - Escape

Companion volumes

 * 1996 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection

Trivia

 * In Thomas & Friends, the models of Diesel, BoCo, and Mavis were used to represent the diesels.
 * In the My Thomas Story Library book Oliver, the first diesel's role is filled by Class 40.

Visiting Diesels
Several diesels from British Railways have visited the Island of Sodor on several different occasions. Visiting diesels are known to be particularly haughty, as they feel superior to steam engines and often put the steam engines down.

Known visiting diesels include Diesel, Class 40, D199 and Old Stuck-Up.

Appearances
Railway Series=

The Railway Series

 * James and the Diesel Engines - Old Stuck-Up

Companion volumes

 * 2007 - Thomas the Tank Engine: The New Collection