Diesel Locomotives - British Railways Class 08-17: Books

Class 08 / 09 Locomotives

The Class 08/09 were to become the main diesel shunter of the British Railways era. Just over a thousand were built from 1952 onwards at five different British Rail workshops over a ten-year period. Just about every corner of the UK would be home to one or more of these shunting locomotives.

They were ideal for yard and depot shunting, and also acted as station pilots at nearly every major station. The main difference between the two classes was that the Class 09 had a different maximum speed, and most were also fitted with extra air pipes to work with Southern Region EMUs.
With the constriction of UK freight workings, a lot of yards were taken out of use, and the trip workings that these locomotives performed soon ceased.

With the advent of multiple unit trains, the need for them as station pilots also ceased. A large majority of the two classes have been withdrawn and scrapped, but a fair number still survive, doing what they were built for over fifty years ago.
A large number have also entered preservation, and the classes have carried a multitude of different liveries over the years.

Class 08 Locomotives in Scotland

NEW

Since their inception in the 1950s, the Class 08, a ubiquitous British Rail shunter, has played a pivotal role in various regions across the UK. Employed for shunting operations and movements within stations and yards, these machines boasted widespread allocation across most depots. Notably, Scotland once hosted over 200 units, some of which endure in preservation.

This comprehensive book meticulously chronicles the journey of Class 08s, spanning from the British Rail era to privatization and beyond. Capturing diverse locales across Scotland, the volume is adorned with a collection of hitherto unpublished images.

BR Swindon Type 1 0-6-0 Diesel-Hydraulic Locomotives - Class 14 - Their Life on British Railways

In 1957 the Western Region of BR identified a need for 400 Type 1 diesel locomotives for short-haul freight duties but it was 1964 before the first was introduced. General-purpose Type 1s were being delivered elsewhere but WR management regarded these as too expensive for their requirements.
After completion of design work on the 'Western' locomotives, Swindon turned to creating a cheap 'no-frills' Type 1.

At 65% of the cost of the Bo-Bo alternative, the Swindon 0-6-0 represented a better 'fit' for the trip-freight niche. Since 1957 the privatised road-haulage industry had decimated BR's wagon-load sector; whilst the 1962 Transport Act released BR from its financially-debilitating public-service obligations, the damage had been done, and the 1963 Beeching Plan focused on closing unprofitable routes and associated services.

By 1963 the original requirement for 400 Type 1s had been massively reduced. Fifty-six locomotives were constructed in 1964/65. Continuing traffic losses resulted in the whole class becoming redundant by 1969.
Fortuitously, a demand for high-powered diesels on the larger industrial railway systems saw the bulk of the locomotives finding useful employment for a further twenty years.

This book covers the life of these locomotives on British Railways; a companion volume will provide an extensive appraisal of "Their Life in Industry" for the forty-eight locomotives which made the successful transition after withdrawal from BR.

BR Swindon Type 1 0-6-0 Diesel-Hydraulic Locomotives - Class 14 - Their Life in Industry

In 1957 the Western Region of BR identified a need for 400 Type 1 diesel locomotives for short-haul freight duties but it was 1964 before the first was introduced.
General-purpose Type 1s were being delivered elsewhere but WR management regarded these as too expensive for their requirements. After completion of design work on the 'Western' locomotives, Swindon turned to creating a cheap 'no-frills' Type 1. At 65% of the cost of the Bo-Bo alternative, the Swindon 0-6-0 represented a better 'fit' for the trip-freight niche.

Since 1957 the privatised road-haulage industry had decimated BR's wagon-load sector; whilst the 1962 Transport Act released BR from its financially-debilitating public-service obligations, the damage had been done, and the 1963 Beeching Plan focused on closing unprofitable routes and associated services.

By 1963 the original requirement for 400 Type 1s had been massively reduced. Fifty-six locomotives were constructed in 1964/65.
Continuing traffic losses resulted in the whole class becoming redundant by 1969. Fortuitously, a demand for high-powered diesels on the larger industrial railway systems saw the bulk of the locomotives finding useful employment for a further twenty years.This companion book to "Their Life on British Railways" provides an extensive appraisal of "Their Life in Industry" for the forty-eight locomotives which made the successful transition after withdrawal from BR in 1968/69.

The BTH and North British Type 1 Bo-Bo Diesel-Electric Locomotives - British Railways Classes 15 and 16

The British Railways 'Pilot Scheme' orders of 1955 included ten BTH and ten NBL Type 1 locomotives, these being introduced during 1957-61 for use in East London, and on the Great Eastern and London, Tilbury & Southend lines.
The BTH fleet subsequently expanded to forty-four, as a consequence of their light axle-loading and the availability of spare manufacturing capacity which BR chose to exploit in their quest to eliminate steam traction.
Further construction of these two classes ceased after the fifty-four units, with preference being given to the highly reliable English Electric product which by mid-1962 had proliferated to 128 examples.

The NBL fleet survived until 1968, being withdrawn after ten years of indifferent performance. The BTH locomotives followed by 1971, although four lingered on as carriage pre-heating units.
Dramatic reductions in goods traffic during the 1960s/70s particularly impacted local trip and transfer freight duties, the 'bread and butter' work for the Type 1s, and it was inevitable that the less successful classes were retired from traffic first.

This book looks at the short history of these two classes, making extensive use of archive sources, combined with the primary observations of numerous enthusiasts.
Previously unpublished information, covering the introduction, appearance design and performance issues of the locomotives, form a central focus, and, allocations, works histories, storage and disposals, liveries and detail differences are covered in the same level of detail as previous volumes in the 'Locomotive Portfolio" series.

The Clayton Type 1 Bo-Bo Diesel-Electric Locomotives - British Railways Class 17 - Development, Design and Demise

The 'Claytons' were originally conceived as the British Railways "standard" Type 1 diesel-electric locomotive, superseding other Type 1 classes delivered as part of the 'Pilot Scheme' fleet. The early classes suffered from poor driver visibility, and the plan from 1962 was for subsequent trip-freight and local yard shunting locomotives to be centre-cab machines with low bonnets to dramatically improve visibility.

To this extent the Claytons were highly successful and popular with operating crews. However, the largely untested high-speed, flat Paxman engines proved to be highly problematical, resulting in deliveries being curtailed after 117 locomotives.
Further requirements for Type 1 locomotives after 1965 were met by reverting to one of the original 'Pilot' designs! Deteriorating traffic levels ultimately led to the Claytons being withdrawn from BR service by December 1971.

Considerable amounts of archive material have been unearthed to enable the issues surrounding the rise and fall of the 'Standard Type 1' locomotives to be fully explored.
Further sources provide insights into the effort and money expended on the Claytons in a desperate attempt to improve their reliability. Individual locomotive record cards, together with personal sighting information, allow histories of each class member to be developed including allocations, works visits, liveries and disposal details.
Supported by over 280 photographs and diagrams, dramatic new insights into this troubled class have been assembled for both historians and modellers alike.