David Element's Railway Web Page 18

David Element's Railway Web Page 18...

Diesel Locomotives 2

Clayton Class 15 D8213

Beyer Peacock Class 35 'Hymek' D7056

BRC&W Class 27 D5410

BRC&W Class 33 D6542

BR 'Warship' Class 42 D825 'Intrepid'

BR 'Western' Class 52

Metro Cammell Blue Pullman

These photographs have been scanned from original prints taken with an old box camera during the late 1960s and they may now have curiosity or nostalgia value despite their technical shortcomings. Although diesel locomotives would have been frowned upon by steam afficionados at the time - including the photographer who rarely took more than one exposure - they have their own following and (with the exception of the Blue Pullman multiple unit) examples of all of the above classes have survived in preservation. The single-cabbed Class 15 is believed to have been photographed at Finsbury Park and it had just been freshly painted in the new BR corporate blue livery with full yellow ends, a very early example of this version and one that suited this locomotive well (when clean!). Despite the pristine appearance of D8213 this was a short-lived Class of locomotive, unlike the rather similar looking and far more reliable Class 20 and this particular locomotive was withdrawn at the end of 1968* - presumably still in very good external condition. At the time of writing classmate D8233 is currently being restored to full working order, having escaped the cutter's torch by being employed as a pre-heating unit. Heljan are shortly going to manufacture 4mm models of this Class and the photographer might be tempted if they produce D8213 in this livery. As a matter of irony and pure coincidence all of the other locomotive classes shown on this page have already been reproduced by Heljan in 'OO' scale apart from the 'Warship' although this had already been covered by Bachmann. The Class 33 has not appeared in its original livery (yet) other than as a special edition and the roof profiles of the later 33/1 and 33/2 are a significant improvement over that of the 33/0. The Heljan 'O' gauge 'Hymek' is an excellent model. The working lives of the Western Region diesel hydraulics was also comparatively short - although this was more a consequence of non-standardisation rather than poor performance. The remaining locations have been remembered accurately. The Blue Pullman unit and Hymek were photographed at Didcot, the unidentified Western at Dawlish, the green 'Warship' with adjacent 4 Cor EMU at Waterloo, (at the end of BR steam in 1967), the Class 27 D5410 (later 27 123; 27 205, withdrawn 1987 and since preserved*) at Clapham Junction and the Class 33 'Crompton' D6542 (later 33 024, withdrawn 1986*) at Wimbledon, also prior to the end of steam. A few examples of this very successful locomotive are still in revenue-earning service and many others have been preserved. The photographer's shadow is all too evident in this photograph as it was clearly taken on a rather sunny day! More recent photographs of 34067 'Tangmere' taken from the same viewpoint many years later are shown elsewhere on this web site.