Diesel

"Devious" Diesel, as his name implies, is a sinister diesel shunter who originates from British Railways, and is the first diesel engine to arrive on Sodor.

Biography
When Diesel visited the North Western Railway on trial from British Railways, Duck was asked to show him around. Duck was unimpressed by Diesel's claims of being "Revolutionary" and left him to his own devices. As a result, Diesel was made into a laughing stock by the trucks for trying to pull some rusty old trucks and failing spectacularly. Diesel then blamed Duck for not helping him and swore a vendetta plan; he spread rumours that Duck had given the big engines rude nicknames, which led to Duck being sent to Wellsworth pending an inquiry into the matter. Diesel meanwhile got too big for his buffers and started telling lies about Henry, but he was found out and sent home in disgrace. His visit was brief but impactful, as his behavior left a bad impression about diesels to the Sodor engines.

Personality
Diesel is, in essence, the average pantomime villain. He is oily, malicious, devious, scheming and full of ideas to get revenge. He views himself and any other diesel as highly above the steam engines and believes that all diesels are "revolutionary". His antics give diesels on Sodor a bad reputation, which causes most steam engines (particularly Duck) to mistrust him.

Basis
Diesel is based on the British Rail Class 08 is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive built by British Railways (BR). As the standard BR general-purpose diesel shunter, the class became a familiar sight at major stations and freight yards. Since their introduction in 1952 however, the nature of rail traffic in Britain has changed considerably. Freight trains are now mostly fixed rakes of wagons, and passenger trains are mostly multiple units, neither requiring the attention of a shunting locomotive. Consequently, a large proportion of the class has been withdrawn from mainline use and stored, scrapped, exported or sold to industrial or heritage railways.

As of 2020, around 100 locomotives remained working on industrial sidings and on the main British network. On heritage railways, they have become common, appearing on many of the preserved standard-gauge lines in Britain, with over 70 preserved including the first one built

Livery
Diesel is painted in the BR mixed-traffic black livery, which was the standard livery for shunting engines from 1948 until the mid-1960s.