RAILSPOT RELOADED

People have often asked me what happened to Railspot, and the good news is that it is - slowly - coming back. Even better news is that as I am no longer restrained by the limitations of a newspaper on the Internet, I can revisit some favourite topics, update them and add new pictures and web links. I can even do my own proof reading!

Here is a reload of some of my articles on the Type 3 Co-Cos built by English Electric

ENGLISH ELECTRIC TYPE 3 CO-COS

The LMS Chief Mechanical Engineer - H.G. Ivatt - collaborated closely with the English Electric Company during design and building of the new 1 600 bhp Co-Co, which took only seven months from drawing board to completion just ahead of Nationalisation on 1 January 1948.

As a single unit - powered by a 750 rpm four stroke English Electric16 SVT prime mover already exported to Egypt -10000 was seen as an equivalent of a Stanier "Black Five" 4-6-0 but working with its twin - 10001 - the combined installed 3 200 bhp could equal a "Princess Coronation" pacific to handle the heaviest 16 carriage Anglo-Scottish expresses.

While powering such named trains as the "Bournemouth Belle" and "Royal Wessex" 10000 and 10001 were allocated to Nine Elms Depot ( 70A ) alongside the Southern Region's own English Electric powered 1Co-Co1 diesels 10201 and 10202. However, the poor reliability of the LMS twins required works attention at Brighton among other places.

Following a repaint from silver lined black to orange and black lined Brunswick Green in 1956, later work on London Midland Region included fast freight during winter ( partly due to unreliable train heating boilers ) and outer suburban turns, by which time standard production diesel classes were taking over British Railways locomotive duties. 10000 was withdrawn in December 1963 and 10001 in March 1966 but sadly neither diesel was preserved.

In practice however, not all locomotives were compatible. Class 37 locomotives - such as 37 215 pictured above - were built with the "Blue Star" coupling code, which means that they can not only work in multiple with any other Class 37 but also with Classes 20, 25, 26, 31, 33 and certain members of Class 47. Class 50 locomotives meanwhile have "Orange Square" MU wiring, Classes 56 and 58 "Red Diamond" and Class 60s can only work among themselves. This is quite logical as the larger diesels can usually manage trains on their own,and so do not need help from their less powerful brethren.

In the 1960s though, the manufacture of similar horsepower locomotives by a range of different companies led to a whole host of coupling codes appearing. Names, forgotten now, like "Red Circle", "White Diamond" and "Yellow Triangle" were commonplace, making multiple unit working harder to achieve outside of regular localised diagrams.

BR also discovered the hard way that one large locomotive is cheaper to maintain than two small ones. Consequently the fleet of Type 1-3 designs ( each yielding less than 2 000 horsepower ) has been rationalised in the last 30 years, leaving traffic in the hands of more substantial diesels. Despite this, one legacy of the rush to dieselisation remains.

From the beginning, designers believed that when two locomotives were running in multiple it would often be neccessary for the crew to check over the unmanned unit whilst on the move. As it turned out this was not the case - but the belief meant that throughout the 1950s line service diesels were being built with small coach-style corridor connections. In turn, front-end designs suffered from being built around pairs of metal doors.

"Deltic" was the first to buck this trend, followed by the D800 "Warships in 1958 and Birmingham RCW's Class 33 in 1960. Class 37 - introduced in 1961 - was in an interesting position however. Based on both LMS 10000 and the English Electric Class 40 design of 1947, the first 119 examples had nose-end corridor connections with split headcode box displays. The final 189 units of the 308 strong class, though - including 37 215 above - had a neater centre-headcode box. This was liked not only by aesthetes but by crews as well - those corridor connections could be very draughty! In time the front end doors were welded up or replaced by single sheets of metal. Headcodes, too, were abolished in 1976 and the display boxes were either plated over or even replaced on refurbishment.

However, Class 37s 054, 065, 072 and 100 were released to traffic with split boxes at one end only after accident repairs - the source of many platform end arguments no doubt!

If two Type 2s were worked in multiple it could be argued that they were overpowered at over 2 000 bhp for many mixed traffic duties but underpowered individually. Similarly, new Type 4 classes were becoming ever more powerful.

Thus, to bridge the ever widening gap, English Electric in 1957 made a radical proposal to power a 1700 bhp Type 3 Bo-Bo locomotive with an 18 cylinder Deltic engine - either in a single cab format similar to the Class 20s then being produced at Newton Le Willows or in a two cab format similar to what would become English Electric's Class 23. Introduced in 1959, these "Baby Deltics" with nine cylinder Napier prime movers sandwiched between two-section windscreens and nose ends were one of British Railway's least successful classes, and perhaps explained the wariness with which English Electric's proposal was approached.

What English Electric could offer instead though was a 12 cylinder 1 750 bhp version of the 16SVT 2 000 bhp engine already being installed in the firm's Class 40 diesel electrics - fitted inside a body that shared cab doors, windows, nose ends, gangways and many other superstructure components with the production Type 4 1Co-Co1s. Indeed, when D6700 - the first of what would become Class 37 - left the Vulcan Foundry in December 1960 it weighed 30 tons less than 10000 and 10001 but developed 150 bhp more with an engine block four cylinders shorter. Unlike other private British locomotive builders too, English Electric could build their new Type 3 Co-Cos simultaneously at both Vulcan Foundry in Newton-Le-Willows and at the former Robert Stephenson Hawthorn works in Darlington.

D6700 itself was fitted with push-pull controls by BR's Derby Research Centre in 1968 and in February that year trialled on 90 mph services between Edinburgh and Glasgow. As it turned out however, these push-pull services were to be powered by BRCW Type 2s before Class 47/7s took over.

Late 1985 also saw the conversion of 37 253 to 37 699 - essentially a non ETH fitted Class 37/4. The refurbished 37/5s also featured a traction alternator, snowplough brackets, headlights, dual brakes and One Man Operation equipment to make them adept freight locomotives - coping with trainloads of Cornish china clay, Peak District limestone and Welsh coal.

1986 meanwhile saw the creation of the heavyweight Class 37/7s, boasting a Brush or GEC built alternator and ballasted up to 120 tons in weight to give better adhesion when working Merry-Go-Round coal trains to power stations, petroleum products around the Thames estuary or steel in Scotland.

Class 37/3s meanwhile were intermediate overhauled Class 37/0s with refurbished CP7 bogies and either a single 890 gallon fuel tank or twin tanks with a capacity of 1698 gallons. The first candidate for Class 37/3 conversion was in fact 37 119, the original D6700, which was outshopped in green from Crewe in March 1988 as 37 350.

Looking ahead to a time beyond the life of the Class 37 design was the six strong 120 ton twin tank 37/9 sub class, outshopped in 1986 and used as test beds for new engines and alternators. Four examples were powered by an eight cylinder Mirrlees MB275T of 1 800 bhp coupled to a Brush alternator while the final two 37/9s had similarly rated GEC / Ruston RK270T prime movers and GEC alternators. By the start of the 1990s, the first Class 60 diesel electrics were being rolled out of Brush at Loughborough with a longer version of the Mirrlees engine.

Starting life as D6897, 37 197 was a Thornaby locomotive until the mid 1980s when it moved to Cardiff initially to haul coal trains. In 1989 however it became a Railfreight Metals asset.

Numbered D6606, the last built "Growler" bar two became 37 306 under TOPS in the 1970s. By the mid 1980s though, many standard Class 37s were being adapted for more specialised work and to avoid confusion with the regeared, rebogied 37/3 sub class 37 306 was renumbered 37 273 in 1989. The original 37 273 had been converted in 1985-6 to 37/4 specification, complete with radio electronic token block and electric train heat, and was subsequently numbered 37 410, named "Aluminium 100" and based at Glasgow Eastfield depot.

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