(44) Proteus
Proteus is an Ex-Great Central Railway/Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway Class 5 0-6-0ST, designed by Harry Pollitt for handling the tightly curved docks of Grimsby and other locations. Locomotive 891 would be build at Gorton works in 1897, being completed during the final days of the MS&LR before the railway became the well known GCR. Upon the completion of 891, the locomotive caused a stir of concern and fascination, as the engine was out shopped with a defect that left him blinded. After the railway completed sister engine 892, a test was conducted on both engines, and it was found that the defect present on 891 wasn't going to become a class wide defect. Following this experiment, 891 was sent to work at Grimsby, being given limited work due to the engines disability causing an over reliance upon the crew, depressing the tank engine as it wasn't allowed to work to it's full potential. However, as the engine became more and more upset, he began to mentally train himself to be able to map the layout of the yard in his smoke box, and this eventually culminated in 891 being able to sense his way around the yard, losing the restrictive limits placed upon hims shortly after. In November 1907, the Skarloey Railway approached the GCR for a small short wheel based saddle tank for work at the growing slate quarry, and on new years eve, number 891 would arrive on the Skarloey line, arriving after the lines 2 express tender engines. Following a few years of mine shunting, Proteus, the name he would be given after a greek deity, would be reassigned to pilot duties at Skarloey to help speed up the turnaround times of services running through their. Throughout their stay on the north western Proteus has been painted in a yellow with red stripes livery with significant amount of weathered spots across his boiler, and the blind engine would first be allocated to the Rheneas slate quarry, before ending ub being based at Skarloey.