User:Robin S. Taylor/Salty

Salty the Dockside Diesel is a fictional diesel shunting locomotive from the television series of Thomas & Friends. He is the Eighth red dockside diesel engine to be featured in the television series and works at Brendam Docks.

He first appeared in the Series 6 episode "Salty's Secret".

Salty worked on an unnamed coastal railway for many years, where he acquired his vast collection of stories and songs and possibly his accent, before coming to Sodor to work at the Centre Island Quarry with Mavis, Bill and Ben. Salty was upset, being used to working near the sea, but he soon won the trucks over with his tales and sea shanties, and as a reward for his hard work was sent to work at Brendam Docks.

In the more recent (CGI) stories, from Misty Island Rescue onwards, Salty is voiced by Keith Wickham (both U.K. and U.S.)

Origins
Salty is based on a BR Class 07 diesel shunter. The number he has, 2991, 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 (Rosie's class) and LB&SCR E2 (Thomas's class) tank engines.

Category:Thomas & Friends characters Category:Fictional locomotives Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2002