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    British Diesel Locomotives of the 1950s and ‘60s
    British Diesel Locomotives of the 1950s and ‘60s
    British Diesel Locomotives of the 1950s and ‘60s
    Ebook87 pages44 minutes

    British Diesel Locomotives of the 1950s and ‘60s

    By Greg Morse

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    About this ebook

    After the Second World War, the drive for the modernisation of Britain's railways ushered in a new breed of locomotive: the Diesel. Diesel-powered trains had been around for some time, but faced with a coal crisis and the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, it was seen as a part of the solution for British Rail. This beautifully illustrated book, written by an expert on rail history, charts the rise and decline of Britain's diesel-powered locomotives. It covers a period of great change and experimentation, where the iconic steam engines that had dominated for a century were replaced by a series of modern diesels including the ill-fated 'Westerns' and the more successful 'Deltics'.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJul 28, 2016
    ISBN9781784421793
    British Diesel Locomotives of the 1950s and ‘60s
    Author

    Greg Morse

    Greg Morse has worked in railway safety since 2005 and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators. He has written extensively about the importance of remembering the past when making decisions about the future, and has spoken on that subject at many safety conferences and events. A rail historian, he grew up in Swindon, where he witnessed the end of the town’s railway factory and the birth of the Inter-City 125s.

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      Book preview

      British Diesel Locomotives of the 1950s and ‘60s - Greg Morse

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

      PILOT PIONEERS

      POWER STRUGGLE

      SETTING THE STANDARDS

      THE RATE OF CHANGE

      PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE (AGAIN)

      DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE TYPES FEATURED IN THIS BOOK

      FURTHER READING

      PLACES TO VISIT

      INTRODUCTION

      I’ve seen some of these loco drivers climbing into a diesel as if it was the grave.

      So said the narrator of the British Transport Films recruitment short A Future on Rail in 1957. Though the idea was to show the positive aspects of modernisation – ‘these drivers’ soon learn to enjoy the comforts of the cab after the toil and heat and sweat of the footplate – the truth was that many men left the industry for good when forced to leave steam behind. And why not? Steam engines breathed; diesels were just ‘boxes on wheels’ – you got in, pushed a button and off you went. It just wasn’t the same. There just wasn’t the dignity – the heroism – in this brave new world. Not that it was all that new…

      At Guildford in 1963, ex-Southern ‘N’ class no. 31870 waits while a porter takes a barrow of parcels up the platform – a world of tradition that would soon change for ever.

      The German State Railway’s SVT 877 – the ‘Fliegender Hamburger’ – was launched in 1933 and reached 100mph in service.

      Invented in 1892, the diesel engine was first used to power a railway vehicle in 1912. Initial trials weren’t terribly successful, but a breakthrough came two years later when American giant General Electric produced a reliable control system. By 1929, Newcastle-based Armstrong Whitworth was building diesel-electric locomotives for Argentina, but in 1933 the German State Railway launched SVT 877 – the ‘Fliegender Hamburger’ – a unit train that demonstrated the technology’s true potential by reaching 100mph in service.

      The elegant Art Deco lines of GWR railcar no. 4, built by AEC and introduced to traffic in 1934.

      British railway companies were a little slower off the mark: the London Midland & Scottish had dipped a tentative toe in the water in 1927 with the production of a diesel railcar, but around the time the SVT 877 was taking off, another Armstrong Whitworth locomotive was being tested – to no great success – on the London & North Eastern. It and the Great Western would also experiment with diesel railcars, but while each of the ‘Big Four’ – the GW, LMS, LNER and Southern – would explore the possibilities of diesel shunters, steam remained dominant, and it was not until after the Second World War that engineers started to think more deeply about putting internal combustion engines to heavy main-line use.

      This Armstrong Whitworth 800hp diesel-electric locomotive was tested on the LNER in 1933. In a ‘diesel-electric’, the engine is connected to a generator that creates the power to drive the traction motors.

      An LMS diesel shunter working at Toton marshalling yard in July 1939.

      As it turned out, only no. 10000 – a joint venture between the LMS and English Electric

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