Oldest diesel
 

Hi all,

While looking at a photo this morning of a class 03 with the funnnel. I got to wondering if any of these old diesels are still in working order or evne still intact?

Also would I be completely batty, as the novice I am, to assume that there were class 02 and class 01 diesels as well at some point back in the 40s or
50s?

And also, anyone know the "golden" date of when the first diesel pulled a regular service passneger train?

Thanks
James

Hi James,

yes indeed there are many of these shunters stiil about, I believe some may still be at work in Industry,with most most heritage lines having an example of one sort or another. The class numbers exist 01,02,03 etc upto 17. I know the heritage shunter trust have a website full of info and there are many books on the subject. The HST are based on the Peak Rail Line at present. There was/is a website preservedshunters.co.uk with many photo's and details too.

Hope this is helpful

regards

Very helpful Byan. Thank you very much.

I'm going to go over to that shunters site straight away.

James

James,

Wikipedia also has good articles on them all:

Class 01
Class 02
Class 03
Class 04
Class 05
Class 06
Class 07
Class 08
Class 09
Class 10
Class 11
Class 12
Class 13
Class 14

Some of them bring back great memories, such as wandering around knackered old sheds in Scotland in the early 80s looking for forlorn Class 06s, and peering through the crack of the shed at the disused class 01s in Holyhead.

Wikipedia also has stuff on the history of diesel locos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_locomotive#History

Thanks, very helpful!

We have two working 03's at The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway at Wirksworth in Derbyshire. I will post a couple of photos later.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I don't know the date, but I assume the loco in question would have been LMS 10000, so late 1947 or early 1948 ?

PS assume we are talking about the UK here ...

Two photos of the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway 03s as promissed:

1. 03084 (built Doncaster 1959) in Wirksworth Yard in 2006 in company with the then resident 37075 (now at Churnet Valley Railway)

2. D2158 (built Swindon 1960) pulling one of the special trains on 8th March 2008 to celebrate the reopening of the line to Idridgehay.

First Question James do you mean diesel powered or diesel hauled?

If the former it would probably be the GWR rail cars in the 1930's although the Southern may have had diesel DMUs before that.

If the later it would have been 10000 in December 1947 just in time to be before Nationalisation. I am not sure that it entered revenue earning service until 1948. Will do some more research!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Thanks for that info John. And I meant hauled i.e. loco not railcar.