Salty

Salty is a diesel shunter who works at the harbour on the Wellsworth branchline

Biography
Salty worked on an unnamed coastal railway for many years, where he acquired his vast collection of stories and songs and possibly his sailor's accent, before coming to Sodor on trial on the Wellsworth line with Edward & BoCo. Edward warned him about the trucks' rude behavior but he soon won the trucks over with his tales and sea shanties and as a reward for his hard work he was bought and stationed on the branchline.

Personality
Unlike most diesels, Salty is easy-going, jolly, friendly and very practical. He also enjoys telling stories revolving around the sea and fantasy. His seafaring ways and nautical accent are sometimes ridiculed and teased by the other mainline engines, but his usefulness almost always helps the others overlook that. He can work with trucks like no other engine; this is due to his enjoyment of working to a musical rhythm like the trucks and it may also be due to his vast collection of sea shanties.

Basis
Salty is based on a British Rail (BR) Class 07 diesel-electric shunter. The number he has, D2991, is a real BR number belonging to a member of the class; built in 1962, this locomotive escaped the cutter's torch by becoming a static generator at Eastleigh Railway Works and is still working there under the ownership of Knights Rail Services as of March 2007. This class of locomotives worked at Southampton Docks, where they replaced the older SR USA and LB&SCR E2 tank engines.

Livery
Salty is painted crimson with scarlet warning stripes along his body, yellow and black hazard stripes on his front and rear and yellow buffer beams with signs of rust. At the top of his forehead, he has the brim of a skipper's hat. His name is painted on his rear section in black and his number 2991 is painted on the sides of his cab, also in black.