Class 10 Diesel Electric Shunter, D3489

Built by British Railways at Darlington Works in 1958, the Class 10 was a minority variant of BR’s standard diesel-electric shunter design — an offshoot of the far more numerous Class 08, differing in having a Lister Blackstone engine and GEC electrics instead of English Electric. Numbered D3489, she was allocated to BR’s Eastern Region, spending time at Toton depot between Derby and Nottingham — a location Colin, one of the current owners, remembers well from spotting there as a young lad.

In 1969 she was sold to the Felixstowe Dock & Railway Company, who named her Colonel Tomline, after George Tomline, the man largely responsible for building the docks and driving the growth of the town. She worked at Felixstowe until her retirement in 2001, when she was purchased by a small group of enthusiasts for preservation and moved to the Spa Valley Railway in Tunbridge Wells. Helston Railway acquired her from the Spa Valley Railway in 2023.

Only three or four Class 10s survive today, making D3489 one of a genuinely rare handful.