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Originally Posted by richard thompson
When its put down like that it is interesting. Could it be as simple as the unused numbers were available for designs which were never built?
Richard
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Maybe ? That's what I initially thought in the 70's when I first got interested in railways. When I noticed all the gaps in the no. sequence of classes of locomotive (Diesel and Electric) I became inquisitive (my nature), I then discovered all the Classes that had been withdrawn by that time such as Warships, Baby Deltics and others. Over the years I have from time to time had another look, and found others such as Class 53 D1200 (former prototype D0280), and the more I look at the way BR used the no.s the more I believe that locos were actually allocated to each and everyone at the time, and the only no.s not actually used in 1967 were after the only Type 5 in service at the time Deltics, Class 55, i.e 56 and onwards.
For example Type 1's were "allocated" the no.s 15-20, 15-17 were used then the EE Type 1's were given 20 ? why were they not given 18 ??, as in all other instances BR was allocating the no.s in order, but in this case they "skipped" 2 no.s, or did they ?
BR also seemed to put the classes in power order also (or at least try), the lowest for hp getting the lowest no. in the no. range, that's why the EE Type 1's got 20 because they had the highest hp in the power range, so got the last no., so if my theory is correct the "missing" locos would be the same or in-between the Classes 17 and 20, the 15's were 800hp, 16's also 800hp, 17's were 900hp and 20's 1000hp, so 18 & 19 would be locos that were 900-1000hp, but I have not identified any yet, perhaps they were a sub-class of another class later on ?
I recently found some info suggesting that the LMS prototype 10000 and sister 10001 were allocated Class 34 !
I have not had this confirmed anywhere, but as for circumstantial evidence, 10001 was still in service (although only for a short time after & by 1967 10000 had been withdrawn but not yet scrapped) and they both fit into the Type 3 power range profile for that no.
However more recently I found a list which states that Class 34 was allocated to what became sub-class 33/1 locos, which also fit, again I have not had any other info to confirm this.
I don't believe that the missing no's are for missing locos!, just that they were either for prototypes or members of other classes between 1967 -1974, that for whatever reason never took up that Class no. in 1974 when Tops no.s were allocated, either withdrawn/scrapped or just entered into the prevailing Class in another way such as the 33/1's if that is the case. They were mostly Dxxxx no.s and not given any other ID to indicate what Class they belonged to, we all know D9000 was a Class 55, but it did not have anything on the loco to say it was a Class 55, it was stated in a book. So could it be that the people who wrote and printed the books back in the late 60's did not identify the missing classes ?
The Class 48's D1702-D1706 are such an example, given Class 48 as they had a different engine and slightly higher power range than the 47's, they only became 47's when they were re-engined to the same as the 47's before 1974, and when Tops no.s came about the were given Class 47 no.s so not many people would have been the wiser, I certainly wasn't, I only discovered that sometime in the 90's
It is possible that some of the no.s were for Locos or Loco classes proposed around that time, but never got built, but I don't think the no.s were 'saved' for Locos in the future.
Michael