Built: 1958

Builders: Schöma Lokomotiven, Diepholz, Germany

Works No.: 2066

Name:Viking (Deferred From No. 3)

Wheel Arr.:0-4-0

Weight:24t, 0 cwt

Current Status: Light Duties

This engine was purchased second-hand by the railway in 1992 replacing the time-expired railcars (see below) which after many years of neglect were reaching the end of their useful lives without receiving serious attention. As part of the Year Of Railways celebrations in 1993 and following competition in the local press, the locomotive was named Viking, the name originally to have been allocated to No. 3 Pender back in 1873.  She was out shopped in a dark green livery similar to that carried by No. 10 G.H. Wood at the time as the above photograph from Easter Saturday 1993 (inaugeration day) shows. Upon delivery she had been in unlined green livery with the fleet number 208 on her cab sheet. Beset in recent times by mechanical problems and difficulties sourcing spare parts, No. 17 was repainted in 2001 into a spring green livery as part of management regime changes.  The locomotive remains in service today, used largely for shunting and permanent way duties, and occasionally in passenger service during the special events on the line.  In July 2011 it suffered mechanical failure whilst banking a service train up the Nunnery Bank out of Douglas Station and since this time has been on restricted duties with No. 18 Ailsa carrying out the majority of lighter duties in the yard, repairs will be carried out when time and finances become available.  The possibility of a new diesel locomotive, No. 21, being commissioned in the future has also deferred any major works being carried out on No. 17.

No. 17 at the head of the Viking Venture at Colby Station as part of the 2009 Manx Heritage Transport Festival when it ran shuttles to and from Port Erin, one of its rare scheduled appearances in traffic.