03079 arrived to our railway in April 1997. It was delivered to British Rail in January 1960 to Thornaby depot near Middlesbrough where it spent a short time before being transferred to Darlington and a few years later to Gateshead near Newcastle. It spent most of its life with BR around the norh east, being used as far north as Tweedmouth, near Berwick, where it was unofficially named 'Borderlass" for a time. After being withdrawn from traffic for some time, it was sent to Eastleigh, near Southampton, and then the Isle of White where it was resident shunter and permernant way loco on the island, untill the arrival of 03179. The cab roof had to be cut down so that it cleared Ryde tunnel, which can be seen clearly in the photograph. The loco was bought from the Isle of White in near working order, and has worked almost faultlessly since arrival at the DVLR.