__NOTOC__ The

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

Class 48 was a diesel locomotive class which consisted of five examples, built at

Brush A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...

Falcon Works in

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second large ...

and delivered between September 1965 and July 1966.Engineer's notes
Derbysulzers.com - Retrieved on 2007-11-25 They were part of the

British Rail Class 47 The British Rail Class 47 or Brush Type 4 is a class of diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in the 1960s by Brush Traction. A total of 512 Class 47s were built at Brush's Falcon Works in Loughborough and at British Railways' Crewe Wo ...

order, but differed from their classmates by being fitted with a Sulzer V12 12LVA24 power unit producing , as opposed to the standard 12LDA28C twin-bank twelve-cylinder unit of the remaining fleet.

In service

The locomotives, numbered in the D1702-D1706 series, mainly worked from Tinsley depot in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

on both passenger and freight work. In 1969, they moved to

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

depot where they worked on express trains between there and

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

. The 12LVA24 engine, however, was found to be unreliable and the locomotives spent more time out of service than their standard counterparts. Engine failures were common and repairs were often expensive. After conversion to Class 47s, they moved to Stratford depot, in East London, until they were displaced by examples fitted with electric train heating equipment. Subsequently, the batch went their separate ways to several depots.

Rebuilding

Eventually, it was decided not to continue with the 12LVA24 experiment; the engines were removed and the locomotives were fitted with the standard 12LDA28 engines. D1702 was the first to be so treated at

Crewe Works Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1840, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s, a lot ...

, using parts from D1908 which had been withdrawn after a serious accident; it emerged back into service in December 1969. All five locomotives had been so converted by early 1971 and then became standard Class 47s. The power units were sold to

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

and used in their Class A1AA1A 68000 locomotives.

Further service and preservation

The locomotives continued in service for many years afterwards and were renumbered 47114-47118 to conform with British Rail's TOPS system in the early 1970s. Four of the locomotives were withdrawn from service between December 1990 and January 1991 with the remaining locomotive, 47 114, being sidelined in 2002. Engine 47 117 (D1705) was subsequently bought for preservation by rail enthusiast and pop music producer

Pete Waterman Peter Alan Waterman, (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Water ...

. It is now owned by the Type 1 Locomotive Association and works on the private

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

.D1705 at the GCR
- Retrieved on 2007-11-25 At the GCR, it has been restored to BR two-tone green livery with its pre-TOPS number D1705, though it retains its Class 47 engine. It has also been named ''Sparrowhawk'' in the tradition of Brush Works policy of naming locomotives after birds of prey (qv Kestrel, Falcon, etc.), though it never carried this name in service. The other four locomotives have since been scrapped.

References

Sources

External links

A photograph of D1705 as a Class 48 in 1969.

{{British Rail Locomotives 48 Brush Traction locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1965 Co-Co locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of Great Britain Diesel-electric locomotives of Great Britain