No.17 Viking

Fleet No. & Name:

Original Number:

Year Manufactured:

Wheel Arrangement:

Manufacturers:

Works Number:

Last Operated In Traffic:

Origin Of The Name:

Engines:

No.17 Viking

No.208

1958

Bo-Bo

Schöema Lokomotivtek

SDE-2066

July 2012

Deferred From  No.3

Deutz V-12

No.17 Viking was commissioned as part of the Year Of Railways at Easter 1993 at a ceremony when the name deferred from No.3 Pender was unveiled having been chosen as part of a competition among local schoolchildren, outshopped in the dark green livery with orange and black lining out and a traditional painted fleet number on the rear of the cab.  Ity was repainted into an approximation of the spring green livery in 2003 in which it remained until decommissioning.

(Photo: I.o.M.S.R.S.A.)

No.17 Viking was built by Schöema of Dortmund, Germany in 1958 as one of three identical units.  It was purchased by the railway in 1992 as a replacement for railcars No.19 and No.20 which at the time were in bad need of attention.  Arriving on the island and performing a number of successful test trains, it was found that the locomotive was capable of substituting a steam engine and could generally maintain line speed.  As part of the Year Of Railways in 1993 it received the name Viking, a name originally to have been allocated to No.3 Pender back in 1873 but deferred and was the subject of a competition to name it (despite rumours nameplates had already been made!)  Outshopped in the pre-war Brunswick Green livery which No. 10 G.H.Wood also carried, it was lined out in orange and black.  To quoth the experts of Wikipedia, it was beset in latter years by problems through lack of maintenance and was repainted into Spring Green after an opinion voiced in Manx Steam Railway News that "there should be a Spring Green one" (!)  Normally on non-passenger services, the unit did see some use in traffic during the 2010 and 2011 seasons owing to steam locomotive failure; it last saw use during the 2012 Manx Heritage Transport Festival when it failed and was withdrawn.  It is currently stored in the carriage shed at Douglas Station, with the announcement in 2012 that the railway was to obtain a new £750,000 new-build, it was in December of 2012 that diesel-electric No.21 was delivered and trialled.  No.17 remains in storage.

July 1992

Arrival Douglas Station

July 2011

The Level

August 2009

Douglas Station

July 1994

Banking Ballasalla Station

September 2019

Douglas Statio

July 1993

Banking At Ellenbrook