The British Rail Class 29 were a class of 20 diesel-electric

Bo-Bo B-B and Bo-Bo are the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and British classifications of wheel arrangement for railway locomotives with four axles in two individual bogies. They are equivalent to the B′B′ and Bo′Bo′ classifications in ...

locomotives produced by the re-engining of the NBL Type 2 units. The units were designed for both passenger and freight trains.

Background

The machines were produced from 1963 onwards from the North British Type 2 (later Class 21 under TOPS) by replacing the original unreliable licence-built

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engines of the Class 21s with

Paxman Ventura The Paxman Ventura is a diesel engine for railway locomotives, built by Davey, Paxman & Co. The type YJ or ''Ventura'' was developed in the mid-1950s as Davey, Paxman's first high-speed diesel engine. With a view to the forthcoming modernisati ...

V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The f ...

s at Paxman's

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works. The first unit to be re-engined was D6123, a further 19 machines were re-engined in 1965–1967 at Glasgow Works and mostly Inverurie Works, along with other modifications including the fitting of four-character headcode displays in the nose ends (D6123 retained its original front ends and so did not receive a headcode panel). After rebuilding, they returned to service from Eastfield depot in

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. The allocation of all twenty locomotives in August 1967 was Eastfield.

Withdrawal

Although these offered more power and much improved reliability over the original Class 21s, they did not survive much longer, due to their small class size and the use of a non-standard high-speed diesel engine. D6108 was withdrawn in May 1969 and scrapped by McWilliams of Shettleston in 1971, while the other 19 were withdrawn between April and December 1971 and scrapped at BR's Glasgow Works in 1971–72. No Class 21, 22 or Class 29 locomotives survive today.

Numbering

The rebuilt locomotives were numbered: * D6100 * D6101 * D6102 * D6103 * D6106 * D6107 * D6108 * D6112 * D6113 * D6114 * D6116 * D6119 * D6121 * D6123 * D6124 * D6129 * D6130 * D6132 * D6133 * D6137

Model railways

In 1978

Hornby Railways Hornby Railways is a British 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 produced in 1920. In 1938, ...

launched its first version of the BR Class 29 in BR green and blue liveries 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, ...

. Dapol have more recently produced a Class 29 in multiple liveries.

References

Sources

* * * * Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, summer 1966 edition

External links

Paxman Ventura engine
- at Richard Carr's Paxman History pages 28 Bo-Bo locomotives NBL locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1963 Standard gauge locomotives of Great Britain Diesel-electric locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives Rebuilt locomotives {{diesel-loco-stub