English Electric Class 50 Diesels

A gallery of spectacular photos celebrating the history of these popular locomotives of the late twentieth century. Peter J. Green first photographed Class 50 diesels in action in 1975, while they were still being transferred from the London Midland to the Western Region of British Rail. But it was in the early 1980s, when they were named and painted in Large Logo livery, that his interest in the class really took off. For Peter, they stood out from most other locomotives that were painted in the rather drab Rail Blue livery. The sound of the locomotives, particularly when running at speed, was also very impressive, producing shouts of “50!” from waiting photographers, even before the train was in sight. The class became a particular target for his railway photography and many of his trips were made with them in mind. They regularly worked trains around his hometown of Worcester, so if he did not want to go too far, it was easy to find a satisfactory subject at which to point his camera. Before their withdrawal in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were used on many rail tours, which always provided good photographic opportunities. Today, with many of the class working on heritage railways, and a number of privately owned locomotives registered for main line use, there is still plenty to keep his cameras occupied. A selection of Peter’s best photos of the Class 50 diesels, taken over a period of forty-five years, appear in these pages.

In this superb collection of colour photographs Martin Hart records the iconic 1960s diesels built by English Electric. This is the first volume in the Amberley Railway Archive series.

A stunning pictorial survey of the Class 37/4s, covering their operations in Scotland, England, and Wales. In the prelude to the privatisation of British Railways, the Provincial Sector (later Regional Railways) became responsible for local / secondary train services. It initiated the refurbishment of thirty-one Class 37 locomotives, fitted with train heating equipment—hence designated Class 37/4—to support the shortfall of DMU trainsets. Their initial task was to work services on Scottish lines radiating from Inverness to points north and Glasgow to service the West Highland Line with a small batch based in South Wales to service Cambrian Line services and services from Cardiff traversing the Marches Line to serve Liverpool. These services were soon replaced by Sprinter trainsets thus releasing the fleet to other duties including freight operators hence, at privatisation in April 1994, the fleet became owned by freight companies who subsequently hired locomotives to both other freight companies and passenger operators. Throughout their working life, the fleet members have proved invaluable and capable of powering a variety of services whose history confirms both the locomotives’ adaptability and prowess in handling the duties allocated to them. Fred Kerr’s book seeks to show this adaptability by detailing the reason for their initial creation and the tasks successfully undertaken once released from their initial roles as support for the shortage of DMU trainsets. The advent of privatisation saw an increased demand for their ‘go-anywhere do anything’ ability which is also displayed by the range of photographs that illustrate the wide range of duties performed by class members. Once withdrawn from service some class members were purchased for preservation and—such was their adaptability—that preserved examples were hired by train operators to cover duties that no other class of diesel locomotive was capable of achieving.

The Class 50 locomotives were built by English Electric between 1967 and 1968. Fifty examples were built, and were initially used to haul express passenger trains on the, then non-electrified, section of the West Coast Main Line between Crewe and Scotland. They were originally hired from English Electric Leasing, and were eventually purchased outright by BR around 1973.Class 50s were nicknamed "Hoovers" by rail enthusiasts because of the distinctive sound made by the air-filters originally fitted (these proved unreliable, and were removed during mid-life refurbishment, but the "Hoover" nickname stuck). Once the electrification of the line from Crewe to Glasgow was completed, the locomotives were moved to services in the south west of England, primarily on the mainline from London to Exeter, and were eventually retired from service in 1994 after being progressively replaced by the InterCity 125 High-Speed Trains (HSTs).

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'.

Stunning previously unpublished photographs of English Electric locomotives. Shows them in service all over the BR system from 1966 to 2019 working a wide variety of trains.

In the prelude to the privatisation of BR the Provincial Sector (later Regional Railways) became responsible for local / secondary train services and initiated the refurbishment of 31 Class 37 locomotives, fitted with train heating equipment – hence designated Class 37/4 - to support the shortfall of DMU trainsets. Their initial task was to work services on Scottish lines radiating from Inverness to points north and Glasgow to service the West Highland Line with a small batch based in South Wales to service Cambrian Line services and services from Cardiff traversing the Marches Line to serve Liverpool. These services were soon replaced by Sprinter trainsets thus releasing the fleet to other duties including freight operators hence, at privatisation in April 1994, the fleet became owned by freight companies who subsequently hired locomotives to both other freight companies and passenger operators. Throughout their working life the fleet members have proved invaluable and capable of powering a variety of services whose history confirms both the locomotives’ adaptability and prowess in handling the duties allocated to them. Fred Kerr’s book seeks to show this adaptability by detailing the reason for their initial creation and the tasks successfully undertaken once released from their initial roles as support for the shortage of DMU trainsets. The advent of privatisation saw an increased demand for their ‘go-anywhere do anything’ ability which is also displayed by the range of photographs that illustrate the wide range of duties performed by class members. Once withdrawn from service some class members were purchased for preservation and – such was their adaptability – that preserved examples were hired by train operators to cover duties that no other class of diesel locomotive was capable of achieving.