United Kingdom

 

D821 at the East Lancashire Railway in July 1998

BR D800 class, later Class 42.

2xMD650 engines, 2xMekydro K104 transmissions

D1023 at Minehead on the West Somerset Railway, May 2000

BR D1000 class, later Class 52.

2xMD655 engines, 2xVoith L630rV transmissions

D7076 on the East Lancashire Railway, July 2001

BR D7000 class, later class 35.

1xMD870, 1xMekydro K184U transmission

British Railways were the first non German railway company to show enough interest in the German locomotives, to the extent that they licensed and built 71 locomotives based on the V200, plus a further 74 locomotives based on ML3000. 101 locomotives were also designed and produced by Beyer-Peacock. These were an independent design, not derived from the DB V160 with which it shared the engine & transmission types.

On the non hydraulic side, Brush Electrical Machines Ltd of Loughborough, England produced a single high powered prototype which was fitted with two MD655 engines driving an electric transmission. Depending on which publication you read, this locomotive was rated at 2800 or 2880hp. The locomotive was named "Falcon" and carried the number D0280. The overall design of the locomotive was similar to the Brush/Sulzer/BR Type 4 (later class 47) although the cab end tended to look closer to the Hymek cab end than the 47. British Railways allowed Brush to test this loco on expresses and heavy freight and eventually they bought Falcon, re-numbered it D1200 and used it on trains in South Wales, where it was finally withdrawn and scrapped in 1975. Under the BR TOPS renumbering scheme, Falcon was  allocated the number 53 001, which it never carried.

Brush were also involved with Maybach engines with their "Hawk" AC traction project in the mid 1960's. They acquired former LMS prototype 10800 and replaced the original 16 cylinder Paxman engine with an MD650. The original DC electric transmission was replaced with an AC-AC thyristor controlled system. The loco tested successfully but was ultimately a dead end for Brush in the UK as BR was not interested in taking advantage of such a radical means of traction and the loco was covered with a tarpaulin at the back of their works by 1972. It was used as a stationary generator by Brush during the fuel crisis of 1973 and was finally dismantled in 1976.

The links for "Hawk" and "Falcon" are to the Railways Online website.

It is worth mentioning that some former DB 211 locomotives fitted with MD650's worked on British soil in conjunction with the construction of the Channel Tunnel in the early 1990's. These locomotives were used inside the tunnel on overhead line installation trains, for which purpose they were fitted with an exhaust extraction & scrubbing unit which was carried on an adjacently coupled wagon. For a better understanding of the work involved (although there is very little about the DB 211's) go to the "Rail UK" website's "1990's Gallery - Channel Tunnel Construction" page.

On a smaller scale (almost literally!) the Welsh Highland Railway has some former PKP (Polish) Lyd-2 diesel hydraulic locomotives. These locomotives were built in Romania and fitted with a Romanian produced copy of the GTO V12.