The reduction over time in the demand for shunting locomotives meant that they were progressively withdrawn from 1968 onwards, many being sold to private industry, including three that were exported to Belgium.

[4] In 1998, one of the Isle of Wight locos, 03179, was reinstated by the West Anglia Great Northern for service at Hornsey depot.

[7][8][9] The engine is a Gardner 8-cylinder, 4-stroke 8L3 of 204 hp (152 kW) connected to a Wilson-Drewry CA5 R7, 5-speed epicyclic gearbox with RF11 spiral bevel reverse and final-drive unit.

Originally the Class 03s were often deployed where their attributes of short wheelbase and light weight enabled them to operate where other shunters could not.

On lines such as that to Ipswich docks, bridge weight restrictions prevented the ubiquitous Class 08s from operating.

Another common use was as station pilot, usually coupled to a shunters' truck to ensure operation of track circuits which did not always register the passage of the 03 due to its short wheelbase.

[14] Their duties included shunting (for example at Burry Port), and hauling full coal trains down from the valley's pits.

When the company later took the decision to produce the Class 04 in its place the tooling was altered, retaining the split chassis power arrangement.

[83] In early 2011, Modelzone released special edition examples of the Isle of Wight prototypes, which were produced by Bachmann.