The British Rail Class 06 is a class of

0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...

diesel-mechanical A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

shunters built by Andrew Barclay Sons and Company from 1958 to 1960 for use on the

Scottish Region of British Railways The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex-London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creation o ...

. They were originally numbered D2410–D2444 and later given the

TOPS Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom. TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), S ...

numbers 06001–06010.

Technical details

Engine is a Gardner 8-cylinder 4 stroke "8L3" connected to a Wilson-Drewry CA5 5-speed

epicyclic gearbox An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) consists of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear revolves around the center of the other. A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and rotates the planet and sun gea ...

with Vulcan-Sinclair type 23 fluid coupling and a Wiseman type 15 RLGB gearbox. While all technically similar, the locomotives had two different designs for the back of the cab, the first 15 locomotives having three windows, the remaining 20, having two.

Numbering

They were originally numbered D2410–D2444. The ten still in service in January 1973, nos. D2413/14/20–23/26/37/40/44, were given the

numbers 06001–06010.

Withdrawal

With a decline in shunting, BR was forced to reduce its shunter fleet in the 1960s and 70s, resulting in mass withdrawals. The first class 06 locomotive to be withdrawn was D2441 in March 1967 and the last was 06002 (formerly D2414) in September 1981.

Preservation

A single locomotive survives, number 06003 (formerly D2420). It was the second last locomotive of the class in service when it was withdrawn in February 1981. It was transferred to the departmental fleet following withdrawal and renumbered 97804, and used at the Reading Signal Works where it replaced 97020. After being withdrawn again in 1984, it was sold to Booth's scrapyard in Rotherham (date unknown) before being saved for preservation by the local

South Yorkshire Railway The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster and ...

based at Meadowhall in Sheffield. Later owned by HNRC and visited several locations before been stored at the Museum of Science and Industry, Liverpool Road, Manchester, and in 2013 was moved into the

Heritage Shunters Trust Heritage Shunters Trust (HST) is a trading name of ''The South Yorkshire Railway Co. Ltd.'' which was founded in 1989. Overview HST is a railway preservation society and is the only preservation society that specialises in the preservation of ...

collection at

Peak Rail Peak Rail is a preserved railway in Derbyshire, England, which operates a steam and heritage diesel service for tourists and visitors to both the Peak District and the Derbyshire Dales. The preserved railway line is over 3½ miles (5.6 km) in ...

, Rowsley. One locomotive, D2432, was sold to P. Wood Shipbreakers of Queenborough, Kent in 1969. It was exported to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 1977, but its subsequent fate is unrecorded.

Model Railways

In 1963

Hornby Railways Hornby Railways is a British rail transport modelling, model railways manufacturing company. Its roots date back to 1901 in Liverpool, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy. The first clockwork train was pr ...

launched its first version of the BR Class 06 in

OO gauge OO gauge or OO scale (also, 00 gauge and 00 scale) is the most popular standard-gauge model railway standard in the United Kingdom, outside of which it is virtually unknown. OO gauge is one of several 4 mm-scale standards (4 mm to 1 foot, ...

. Since 2011 Hornby have produced a basic representation of the prototype as part of their Railroad range in BR Blue, whilst past examples have carried a variety of liveries. An etched brass kit of the 06 is in the range of Judith Edge Kits.

References

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External links

Image of 06005 at Dundee in 1980
{{British Rail Locomotives 06 Andrew Barclay locomotives B locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1958 Standard gauge locomotives of Great Britain