Diesel electric 0-6-0 BR 12069 - 12102 (Order #'s 4311 & 5127)

This order was simply a follow on from the previous LMSR batch, the only change being that it was ordered under the auspices of post-Nationalisation British Railways. A following order for 12103 - 12138 was given to Darlington Workshops for construction.

The Derby built examples remained in service from December 1968 until June 1972. Nine went into industrial service, a number of those lasting long enough to reach preservation.

Diesel electric 0-6-0 BR 13000 series (Various Orders)
(Later number series D3000+, 3000+, 08001+)

After completion of the LMSR/BR orders for the Class 11 shunters British Railways continued ordering what would become a fleet of almost twelve hundred 0-6-0 shunters. Derby would build 508 of these locomotives, Darlington, Crewe, Horwich & Swindon also received orders. The most significant alteration to the existing design was the increase of the wheel diameter to 54 inches, which allowed the coupling rods and cranks to come within the universal 'L1' loading gauge. In addition the chassis was designed to accomodate equipment supplied from various sources with the minimum of alterations.

The first of the standard Class 08's - 13000 to 13014 were completed at Derby during 1952, none went to the LMR, they were about equally divided between the WR, ScR & SR.

The first variation occurred with 13117 - 13126 (later 3117 - 3126). These ten machines were powered by a Crossley 6cyl ESNT engine with Crompton Parkinson providing the two traction motors. Whilst dual sourcing of equipment has advantages it soon became obvious that the non-English Electric equipped shunters were considered 'non-standard' and were the first to be withdrawn. These ten locomotives were retired between December 1966 and July 1967, all were broken up by May 1968. 3121 ended its days at Derby Works.

There followed two other variants but these were not built at Derby. All the remaining Class 08's built at Derby were of the standard design. Although Derby's last shunter built was 4010, its order books originally contained a further order for D4011 - D4027, these were diverted to Horwich at the end of 1960. However the Works would remain heavily engaged in the building and repair of Classes 24/25/44/45/46 and the repair of much of the other LMR diesel fleet, and the commissioning of news diesels left the Workshops very busy!

The Modernisation Plan, 1955 onwards
The Sulzer powered Bo-Bo's & 1Co-Co1's

With the established history of diesel locomotive building at Derby Works it was no surprise that two of the Modernisation Plan designs were to be built there. Frames for twenty of the BR/Sulzer Type 2's & ten BR/Sulzer Type 4's were laid down in 1958/1959. The 'meltdown' of the intended direction of the 1955 Modernisation Plan led to many new orders being placed. The BR/Sulzer Type 2 had become one of the favoured 'standard' designs with the result that a further 131 were ordered, with Crewe & Darlington sharing in the orders. For the BR/Sulzer Type 4's a further 127 were ordered, shared between Derby & Crewe.

The first of the Class 24's, D5000 was completed during the summer of 1958, coming off the production line amidst new Class 08's D3545 - D3555. Based on my humble list D5000 was the 465th diesel locomotive to be built at Derby. A year later, in September, the first of the BR/Sulzer Type 4's was delivered, D1 'Scafell Pike' amidst shunters D3777 - D3783 and Type 2's D5020 - D5023. D1 was (give or take) the 527th diesel locomotive built at Derby.

As the 1950's closed Derby was busy, very busy, the last of the Class 44's, D10 'Tryfan' was about to be delivered, the shunters had reached D3802 and the Class 24's had reached D5068. The Works was also handling the repairs for the growing LMR diesel fleet and was commissioning the new diesels that were to be allocated to the LMR.

During 1960 the Class 08 & Class 24 production lines continued with the first of the Scottish Class 24's, D5114, turned out in April, featuring a redesigned cab roof incorporating a four charachter route indicater, and a cleaned up cabfront with the circular indicator discs removed. During spring a new production line opened up, being a follow on from the Class 44's, now with the uprated 2,500hp engine. The last half of 1960 was probably one of the busiest times at Derby with these three diesel types in production and ongoing repairs to both the diesel & steam fleet. As the year closed out Derby's final shunter, D4010 emerged alongside the last few examples of the Class 24's and the first half dozen Class 45's.

1961 started with the last Class 24, D5150, delivered in February leaving Derby to concentrate on construction of the Class 45's from the block D11 - D49. If my calculations are correct D21 became the 700th diesel built at Derby, outshopped in March. When the order for the Class 45's was completed another fifty six had been ordered (D138 - D193), substantially the same except for the electrical equipment, this last build became the Class 46's. The first of these was outshopped in November 1961.

Production of the Class 46's continued throughout 1962, with the last example, D193 being outshopped in January 1963, just in time to experience one of the severest winters in fifteen years. Coming after this production run was a further batch of Type 2's, now equipped with the uprated 1,250hp engine, the first of which had gone into D5151 - D5175, being built at Darlington. For Derby's examples the bodystyle remained similar to the final Class 24's, though with some noticeable changes, gone were some of the styling features and the boiler/fuel tank arrangement was altered. Derby's batch ran from D5186 - D5222, the order for D5223 - D5232 was transferred to Darlington whilst Derby worked on a cleaned up redesigned bodyshell for the next order of Class 25's. As usual with such a large order there were bound to be 'odd men out' and for Derby it was D7568 - D7577, these ten machines followed on from D5222 retaining the same body style but with GEC series Two equipment, yet numerically out of order.

D5201 was the 800th diesel locomotive built at Derby, delivered during June 1963.

At the end of the summer of 1963 the first of the frames were laid for the redesigned Class 25 bodyshell, by December 1963 D5233 was ready to go into traffic. Unique to this batch (D5233 - D5238) was the fitting of boilers, beyond D5239 all the Class 25's coming out of Derby were without train heating equipment.

Production continued on through 1963 & 1964 with the 900th diesel rolled out in November 1964, the lucky winner being D7502.

More of the same occurred in 1965, Derby's 950th diesel locomotive appearing as D7552 in July 1965. Oddball D5299 was delivered way out of sequence during November 1965. This had been the intended testbed for the R series Sulzer 6 cylinder engine, but major problems with the 12LDA28C in the Class 47's diverted all available resources away from new projects. Thus D5299 was completed as a normal Class 25 a year after its numerical sisters.

In September 1966 D7623 came off the production line, the 992nd diesel constructed at Derby. It would have been the last except for the request by Beyer Peacock Ltd, Manchester, who were building D7624 - 7677, to be released from their contract for the final eighteen locomotives. Derby took back the construction for D7660 - D7677 with the final locomotive delivered to traffic in May 1967, the last of 1,010 diesel locomotives built at Derby Works.

Requiem
If the accounting standards for the economic life of a diesel locomotive are applied to the Derby built units then most were able to meet that target of fifteen years service.

Obviously for the vast majority of the LMSR ordered shunting locomotives (and the follow on BR Class 11's) the fifteen year 'life' was met and exceeded quite considerably in many cases. And for some that included a second lease on life in industrial service. For some of these this proved beneficial as they lasted long enough to find a further span of life in the preservation movement, useful not only as maids-of-all-work on a miriad of preserved lines, but also of historic interest as part of the evolution of the diesel locomotive in the UK.

Similarly for the huge run of Class 08's most proved to be a bargain for their owner. With the exception of the Crossley powered Class 08's - withdrawn in 1966/67 - the first extensive withdrawals of the Derby built Class 08's began in the mid 1970's. A fair number of these withdrawals were purchased for further industrial use, with several of these eventually reaching preservation. Obviously the earlier builds were favourites for retirement as heavy repairs became due and as traffic volumes dwindled during the 1970's & 1980's. For some of the later build life extension was guaranteed by the fitting of dual brake equipment from the mid 1970's, allowing some to have a lifespan of 35 - 40 years (as this is written).

For the mainline diesels the picture was not one of such longevity, but most fulfilled the accountant's standard of fifteen years.

With the exception of several accident damaged/rundown locomotives Derby's Class 24's survived until 1975/76, although 24023, 24073 & 24133 lasted until 1978. Only one Class 24 was broken up at Derby, D5005 in 1969, at the time of the mass withdrawals in 1975 several withdrawn examples were at Derby Works, but these were quickly removed to Swindon. None of the preserved examples were built at Derby.

The Class 25's followed a similar route as the Class 24's with the first inroads into the class occurring during 1977/78 - this ignores the two accident victims, 5278 & 7605. However it would take ten more years for the class to become extinct in March 1987. Derby's longest lived example, 25037, remained in service for almost twenty four years. Of the nineteen examples that reached preservation most were Derby built.

The first Class 44's withdrawn occurred at the same time as that of the later Class 24's - in the summer of 1976. By November 1980 the last three were withdrawn. Two reached preservation, Derby Works breaking up all the rest. The last of the big Type 4's built at Derby - the Class 46's - entered service between late 1961 and early 1963, the first withdrawals in late 1977/78 were due to fire/collision damage. The summer of 1980 brought the first major inroads, principally of Laira based locomotives, by November 1984 the final Gateshead examples had been withdrawn. Three reached preservation whilst 46009 gained infamy in the destructive testing of a nuclear flask at Old Dalby.

Without a doubt the Class 45's were the longest lived of Derby's Type 4's. The first - D11 (45122) - had a working life of almost twenty seven years, prolonged no doubt due to it being fitted with electric train heating equipment in the mid 1970's. Withdrawals had begun in 1980 (apart from accident damaged 45067) and the last of the Class 45's were withdrawn from regular revenue earning service in the summer of 1988. However some would linger for a further six years in storage at March before making one final trip to Glasgow for breaking. Three of Derby's Class 45's reached preservation.

Useless Details
Locomotives built at Derby that were broken up at Derby
No Class #; 12011, 12029, 12030
No Class #; 10100 (Fell locomotive)
Class 11; 12062, 12089, 12091
Class 08; 3020, 3034, 3051, 3089, 3121, 3172, 3193
Class 24; 5005
Class 25; 7605, 25038, 25043, 25045, 25066, 25085, 25092, 25094, 25165, 25170, 25174, 25216, 25217, 25261, 25267, 25271, 25272.
Class 44; 44001 - 44003, 44005 - 44007, 44009, 44010
Class 45; 45011, 45025, 45030, 45031, 45035
Class 46; 46003, 46005, 46024, 46040, 46053

The Wandering Few
Not all the locomotives built at Derby remained in the UK for all their working lives, some travelled further east than Skegness and further south than Bognor Regis.
Algeria 7109
Belgium 70260, 70261, 70262, 70263, 70265, 70270
Denmark 70273
Egypt 7100, 7101, 7102, 7103, 7104, 7105, 7107, 7108
France 70260 - 70270, 70273
Italy 7103, 7104, 7105, 7106, 7109
Liberia 3047, 3092, 3094, 3098, 3100
Netherlands 70260 - 70269
Tunisia 7106, 7109
West Germany 70270, 70273

They made the News, usually the bad News
1961, July; D34 (45119) - recognised by British Railways as the 1,000th main line locomotive built for British Railways.
1962, March 28th; D153 (46016) tested on the 'Royal Highlander' Inverness - Perth.
1965, December; D16 (45016) snowed up at Dent.
1971, December 16th; 7605 with a Liverpool - Nottingham parcels collides head on with a westbound coal train hauled by 8115 & 8142 on the ladder crossover at Lenton South Jct. Two drivers and a guard are killed, my local newspaper, The Derby Evening Telegraph provided front page coverage.
1979, March 1st; 46036 working the 07.40 Cardiff - Newcastle hits a rubbish lorry at Naas Level Crossing (Lydney). The two locomotive crew and the rubbish lorry driver are killed, the story was well covered by the TV & Press.
1979, October 22nd; 25083's failure on a Glasgow - Dundee working at Invergowrie is one of the elements that led to a rear end collision by a following Glasgow - Aberdeen service hauled by 47208. The two crewmen on 47208 and three passengers on the Dundee train were killed. The last two coaches of the Dundee service end up in the Tay estuary. This again was extensively covered by the TV and Press.
1984, July 17th; 46009 of course receives major TV and Press in its destructive collision at Old Dalby whilst testing the integrity of a nuclear flask.
1984, December 4th; 45147 on the 10.05 Liverpool - Scarborough rearends a stationary loaded oil tank train at Eccles where the line parallels the M602.The collision resulted in a major fire, the driver of the Class 45 & two passengers were killed. Such was the newsworthy 'content' of this story that it was carried by a major TV station in Los Angeles on the evening news, & witnessed there by your scribe.
1995, October 1st; 46035 - first preserved diesel to run on 'BR' after certification.

Postscript
Although D7677 was the final diesel locomotive built at Derby, the Works completed one more 'locomotive' order, for six electric non-driving motor coaches to power the six Advanced Passenger Train formations. These were built in 1978/79 and were numbered 49001 - 49006.

Principal Sources Used in no particular order:

Diesel & Electric Disposal; A Butlin, Coorlea Publishing 1987
Diesel Locomotives of the LMS; JWP Rowledge, The Oakwood Press 1975
LMS Diesel Locomotives & Railcars; EV Richards, RCTS 1996
BR Locomotives & Other Motive Power (Combined Volume); Ian Allan - various years

Page update January 19th 2004

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