Diesel is a BR Class 08 loco who is a shunter in the North West Railway. He was renamed Damien in Endgame, but knows that like Duck, his nickname will stick around. His number, as shown in Endgame, is 'S1', S for Switcher.
Bio
Diesel was sent on loan from British Railways to the Island of Sodor in 1957 to help the Controller of the Railway, Sir Stephen Topham Hatt. Unfortunately, he couldn't handle the Troublesome Trucks and was sent packing after he made offensive nicknames of Henry, Old Square Wheels, James, Rusty Red Scrap Iron, and Gordon, Galloping Sausage, by talking to the trucks framing Duck as the prime suspect behind it. He was first seen at the end of Limits, where he arrived at the sheds to replace Donald. The other engines knew this wasn't going be good, and it wasn't. In Tolerance, he didn't get Douglas ready with his passenger coaches by blocking them with trucks early next morning. The same night he used some trucks to block James and Henry out of the sheds but with The Fat Controller sending him packing, he removed the trucks before going home and in a disgraceful moment of truth.
One of Diesel's brothers being scrapped in Galloping Sausage
Diesel came back later in Galloping Sausage to help the construction of the Arlesdale Railway, but the trucks derailed him near a steep cliff. He later worked on Thomas' Branch Line since the engines fell out with each other and sent Diesel off before he met The Fat Controller again. He rescued Gordon with the Yuletide Express later on and escaped to the North West Railway when one of his brothers was scrapped in 1967. The locomotive appeared in many episodes including his story in Bad Apple.
In Worked Out, he took industrial action being overworked when hearing about a similar story from Henry about the big engines going on strike more than thirty years ago.
Diesel spoke to James at both Knapford Harbor and at Knapford Sheds in the episode, Fame & Misfortune. The harbor is also where he spoke to Barry who then started a fight with him over his brothers' withdrawn from service in 1965, while Diesel's brothers were withdrawn in 1967. Iris did speak to him about a long forgotten memory where Diesel made his biggest mistake yet by making nasty nicknames on Henry, Gordon and James while blaming this on Duck as the Troublesome Trucks were laughing loudly in Knapford Yards. In Taking Care of Christmas, Diesel told Iris about his new "back door" plan when the "front door" out of The Container Yard was blocked by a derailed Patrick and a train of shipping containers left out on The Main Line by accident.
In Troublesome Trucks, Duck turns to Diesel for advice on how to find the culprit for who is causing trouble on his branchline. Wanting to this a step further, Diesel wishes to use his manipulation skills on the trucks again, but this time, to stop their tricks. After a bit of hesitation, Duck accepts this help, and Diesel is determined to not only stop this, but also to fully atone his mistakes to Duck.
In The Devious Way, Diesel speaks with Donald about the spiteful breakvan and how it was crushed by the latter, and then with Peter to speak to Douglas about this matter. He then gets the trucks to think about their actions by confirming that the aforementioned breakvan incident and Oliver's incident with S.C.Ruffey actually happen.
In Endgame, Diesel gets a plan by talking to the Fat Controller about the hopper and she tells him about a school performance she was in. Diesel then sets the plan in motion when he tells Toad to have an Ipad fitted to him to film Hopper 006's actions, and tells Douglas he is late. At the end of the episode Diesel makes a joke with Duck (who came with Donald's train) that the Fat Controller wanted to give him a green livery as a thank you, but thought it didn't suit him. Instead, he asked for a name, 'Damien', in honour of his first driver. Diesel also explains to Duck that Hopper 006 is a dumpster on rails and he and Duck settle their differences once and for all.
Voice Actor
Appearances
Episodes
- Season 1 - Limits and Tolerance
- Season 2 - Little Engines, Old Tricks, Diesels and Dukes and Galloping Sausage
- Season 3 - Search Engines, Bluebells & Batsmen, First Impressions, Gordon's Promise, Shakedown, Escape (cameo), Bad Water (cameo), Suspicions, Henry Sees Red and Christmas Delivery (cameo)
- Season 4 - Medivac (cameo), One Good Deed, Worked Out, Iron Hero (mentioned) and Post & Prejudice (mentioned)
- Barry the Rescue Engine - The Lucky Ones (cameo) and A Troubled Engine
- Season 5 - Doubts (cameo), Expectations (mentioned), Darkest Hour (cameo) and Desperate Times (cameo)
- Season 1 STMY - A Change of Scene (mentioned), Tornado (cameo), Fame & Misfortune, Separation Anxiety (does not speak), Last Laugh and Taking Care of Christmas
- Season 2 STMY - Swan Song (cameo), The Thin Clergyman, Troublesome Trucks, The Devious Way and Endgame
- Couriers and Concerns - The Troublesome Van
- Rowan the Garratt Engine - Sixteen (mentioned)
Cancelled Episodes
Specials
Books
Trivia
- In The Early Years, Diesel's old Sodor Island 3D made for TRS2006 was used, as it was the best model available. For The Modern Years, WildNorWester created a brand-new model from scratch that is to the correct scale of a Class 08 and has a much friendlier looking face fitting his new personality.
- WildNorWester gave Diesel a new paint scheme of BR Green with Yellow Lining, which is basically the standard NWR diesel scheme carried by all diesels, minus Daisy, BoCo, Caden and Mavis (the latter of which, is privately owned anyway), but decided to keep it as black after vehement criticism. This was originally a private model of Diesel, but after using it in 'Endgame', WildNorWester made the model public.
- Diesel's appearance in season 2 was improvised pretty much on the spot. WildNorWester wanted to see what would happen if Diesel was faced with one of his brothers being cut up for scrap, and how he would develop in the series overtime.
- As of STMY Season 2, Diesel is the only engine character currently voiced by WildNorWester.
- In Endgame, Diesel revealed that his first driver's name was Damien, which was why he decided to pick that for his new name.
Gallery
