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. In the television series, Diesel eventually becomes a permanent resident of Sodor.

## Background Information

### First appearance

Duck and the Diesel Engine (RWS)Percy Takes the Plunge (T&F)Tricky Diesel

## Overview

### Nicknames

Devious DieselSmelly Old Diesel (by Percy and Emily)

Mister Oily (by Stephen)

## 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.

Following occasions where Diesel was seen in the background are when he attended the Christmas party at Tidmouth, attended the celebration of City of Truro's visit and shunting trucks in Knapford Yards.

Years after their first encounter, he returned in 1992 when Duck and Percy needed help at Brendam Docks. Since Diesel was the only engine available, Sir Topham Hatt was forced to give him a second chance, much to Duck's hurt. Duck and Percy refused to work with Diesel and stayed in the shed, leaving Diesel to work by himself and causing the work to pile up, which made Sir Topham Hatt intervene and send them back to work. Things did not improve, and Diesel bumped into Percy after his driver failed to put Diesel's brakes on properly. He then roughly shoved some trucks, spilling the loads everywhere; Duck and Percy remained quiet out of fear of being telltales. This convinced Diesel that he could be as bad as ever and shunted some trucks of china clay right into the sea. After this, Sir Topham Hatt sent Diesel away (with the intent of his expulsion to be permanent), but Diesel somehow mysteriously returned to give Mavis advice and taunt Gordon about the triumph of diesel power on the Mainland. It is possible that these events happened during Diesel's stay or he was delivering goods from the Mainland.

When Henry was derailed by some trucks in 2002 Diesel was brought back as a last resort to do his goods work. Unfortunately, his attempt to have Sir Topham Hatt replace steam engines with diesels backfired when he tried to prove that he was the world's strongest engine which resulted in him falling into a barge and he was sent back to the Mainland yet again.

Later on in 2003 Diesel returned yet again, this time to assist Fergus at the Sodor Cement Works. Diesel became jealous of Fergus' reputation as the "pride of the Cement Works" and got cross because of Fergus' deep regard for the rules and always telling him "Do it right", especially while carelessly bumping some trucks out of the hopper. He then concocted a scheme to make Fergus run away. Diesel was partially successful (he managed to make Fergus abandon his post for a time), but was ultimately foiled. Amazingly, Diesel was not sent back this time around, as Sir Topham Hatt told Thomas and Fergus he would move Diesel to the smelters (possibly because he might have not seen any point in bringing Diesel in as a spare engine and then sending him back for his bad behaviour); Diesel has remained on the North Western Railway since.

Despite remaining tricky and devious, Diesel learned how useful steam engines can be when Thomas brought fresh diesel fuel for him and the other diesel engines and James pushed him back to the Repair Yard when he broke down. However, he tried to convince Gordon that he was old and clapped out, Benthat there was a monster inside a tunnel and Thomas about the "Curse of the Cliffs" and scared him at Halloween.

In 2006, Diesel proved to have a good side inside him when he told Emily about his record he made for shunting lots of trucks in one day than any other diesels and in 2008, he proved to Thomas that he did not ruin the photograph for the billboard on purpose.

Although there's good in him, Diesel likes to be competitive and he once challenged Thomas to race backwards at the Quarry in 2008. Thomas accepted to race Diesel, but soon they caused problems at the Quarry.

Although Diesel made fun of James when he was painted pink in early 2010, he tried his best to prove himself to be as useful as the steam engines when he took all of the Jobi wood to the Sodor Search and Rescue Centre - only to put himself in danger requiring Thomas to rescue him. However, Diesel tried again to prove how special he is when he took Thomas and Rosie's loads to market and stole James' pigs so that the children could see them. But it was only when Diesel brought the load of slate for the school that he proved himself Really Useful.

In 2011, Diesel was also one of the diesels that took over the Sodor Steamworks. He later teased Flynn for just standing around and doing nothing.

In 2012, Paxton told Diesel about Luke and Diesel tried to get Luke sent away from Sodor, but he failed when he was scolded by the Fat Controller.

When he and Percy collected a calliope, he thought Percy would not be able to make it play but was surprised when he did.

In 2013. Diesel was one of the diesels that brought the Christmas decorations to Tidmouth Sheds. Later, he was biffing trucks around even when Edward told him to stop. Diesel spilled the milk in the trucks and when the Fat Controller opened the truck doors, the milk splashed all over his trousers. When Hiro told Diesel, he told Hiro to toughen up with the trucks. But when Hiro would not listen, Diesel coupled himself up on the back of Hiro's train and helped the trucks play tricks on Hiro. To make the trucks stop, Hiro braked suddenly before the platform, causing three barrels of cream to splash all over Hiro, Edward and the Fat Controller. Diesel tried to get away but was blocked off by Thomas. As punishment, Diesel had to learn the proper way of handling trucks by Hiro.

In 2014. Diesel, along with Norman, Sidney, Den and Dart, hid from Paxton at the Dieselworks, which resulted in Paxton going on a wild goose chase to find all of the diesels and ended with Diesel running out of fuel. This led to Paxton helping him to the next station to refuel. Later, he argued with Thomas over who should be the back engine for a train of trucks heading from Ffarquhar Quarry to Brendam Docks. He later tried to delay Mavis returning to the quarry, which led to Thomas taking the train by himself and resulted in him having an accident. Diesel even tried to blame Mavis for it, but Sir Topham Hatt was wise to his tricks and he let Thomas work with her instead. He later joined the engines at Knapford during the Christmas Holidays and agreed with the Fat Controller that the last train would possibly be cancelled. He also teased Samson about how the tank engine got lost when he first came to Sodor.

In 2015 Diesel covered Paxton in a cloud of black smoke from his engine and left Paxton's face covered in black spots.

At Christmas time, Diesel was being very unhelpful with the extra work, so Thomas, Emily, Salty and Paxton made a plan. On the night before Christmas morning, they pretended to be ghosts to scare Diesel, scaring him to the point where he flew off the tracks and derailed. After he was recovered the next day, he learned the true meaning of Christmas. On Christmas morning, Diesel was feeling very merry and he brought the Fat Controller to the Earl's Christmas lunch at Ulfstead Castle.

He later tricked Percy into going to an old quarry so that he could do Percy's job of picking up the Mayorto take him to a ceremony. Diesel later found Percy stuck in a flood with his fire out. He tried to rescue the tank engine but only made the situation worse when the water damaged his generator and he got stuck too. After the two were rescued by the Search and Rescue team, Diesel was sent to have his engine repaired.

Later In 2015, Diesel was shown to care for some ducklings that he thought were cute. Later, Annie and Clarabel played a trick on Daisy while Thomas was on quarry duty. This led to Diesel being sent to pull them instead, much to their dismay though Diesel was polite to them despite bumping them.

Diesel wanted to go to the Great Railway Show. When the Fat Controller was hesitant in bringing him, Diesel tried to prove himself by having crates put over Den, Dart and Paxton so that they would resemble trucks and put them in a long train. When the Fat Controller was in the final stages of choosing who would go to the show, Diesel planned to demonstrate how strong he was by pulling the train, while in reality, Den, Dart and Paxton were doing most of the work. His unusual however train was blocking any way into Knapford Yard, so Thomas coupled up to the train both so that he could get into the station and so that he could prove himself worthy to go to the show. The diesels heard Thomas' whistle and thought it was Diesel's horn, so they began pushing, much to Diesel's horror. Thomas then collided with Norman at a set of points and lost his left buffer as a result. Diesel later got stuck inside one of the crates and was accidentally loaded onto a ship by Cranky. [11] He somehow managed to return to Sodor before the events of the twenty-first series.

In 2016 he damaged Daisy's springs and caused mischief between her and Harvey by telling them both that the other was boasting about being unique, which led him into the sea after his plan failed. He later brought the coal delivery to the steam engines during a big freeze.

Diesel had an accident in 2016 which got him sent to the NRM in York for a complete rebuild, he came back a few years later to help Alfred with the shunting work in 2021.

## 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" - he has also claimed diesels should be "rough and tough", as an excuse for bullying the other engines. His antics give diesels on Sodor a bad reputation, which causes most steam engines (particularly Duck and Thomas) to distrust him. His rough demeanour also affects his fellow diesels, who are often victims of his tricks alongside steam engines, mainly diesels who are friendlier to steam engines and are just nice in general, with Paxton and Sidney being prime examples. As such, Diesel has very few friends, mostly associating with diesels whose personalities align with his, such as Diesel 10 or ‘Arry and Bert. He also enjoys using gullible engines (such as Paxton and Rebecca) as pawns in his plans.

However, despite his antics, Diesel still wants to prove himself to be a Really Useful Engine. He is also very proud to be the first diesel on Sodor and seems to have a soft spot for cute ducklings, which he is embarrassed by because he believes it ruins his tough exterior. Diesel will also more often than not focus more on his own work than help anyone else, but he will help any engines, steam or diesel, when it comes down to it. Due to the amount of chaos his web of lies set off on his first day on Sodor, Diesel has often been seen as a liar by the other engines, leaving them to blow off his news as bluffs until absolutely proven. This is not helped by the fact that he lies whenever he gets the chance, further reinforcing their beliefs.

Lately, Diesel is portrayed as a typical bully with a lack of forethought. While sinisterly cunning, he usually neglects to think of what would happen if things were found out and due to the transparency of some of his plans, he always gets his comeuppance in the end. His distaste for steam engines has also been dropped (most likely due to the show targeting a younger audience), being replaced by a mean-spirited prankster nature and inflated arrogance. He also shows several hints of manipulative and self-serving tones, as he can be found as very lazy. Proving this, he managed to trick Sonny into doing his jobs for him, though much like Daisy and Dennis (both of whom who have tried similar tactics), Diesel was immediately struck by karma, having his luck deteriorate due to his selfishness. He also made fun of James when he was painted pink and Thomas when he was dressed up as a monkey, finding both to be humorous contrary to how they actually felt. Diesel does know when he goes too far, however, and usually owns up for his misdeeds if the situation demands it. This has allowed him to form genuine lasting friendships with such engines as Daisy and Harvey.

Despite his devious and malicious nature, Diesel is shown to be nice and caring towards children, (a side that is never present when it comes to other engines) even feeling guilty for making them upset when he did not bring the roof tiles for the school roof and owning up for his mistakes which made them happy when he finally brought the tiles.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Diesel is based on the BR Class 08. Over seventy members of this class survive today in preservation, while around 100 remain in service on the national rail network. They are in fact the most successful shunting engines in the world, with 996 of them built.

### Livery

Diesel is painted in British Railways' black livery, which was the standard livery for shunting engines from 1948 until the mid-1960s.

## Appearences

Season 4 - Tricky Diesel, The Best Hider (cameo) & GWR Duck.

The Case of the Missing Engines - Feature Length Special

Season 5 - Sally the Police Car & Thomas Blows Some Steam.

Season 6 - The Great Wedding Caper Part 1 & The Great Wedding Caper Part 2.

Season 8 - Percy Takes the Blame (Dream Sequence only).

The Holly Jolly Controller is Comin' to Town - Audio Drama.

Season 9 - No Second Chances, The B12 & the Gronks, Online Movie Madness (cameo), Records (cameo), Paxton & the Snow Monster, Thomas & His Whistle (coming soon), The Aliens Have Landed (Part 1) (coming soon) & The Aliens Have Landed (Part 2) (coming soon).

Season 10 - Thomas and Diesel?

## Trivia

* In Seasons 4 to 8 Diesel's Hornby model was used but starting from Season 9 onwards his Bachmann model is.

* Diesel has another model bachmann model with a grumpy face which is used in scenes when he is grumpy.

Horns

## Voice Actors

* Daniel Alsop (Season 4-5)

* Andrew Leago (Season 6 onwards)