UK Maybachs - "Western" Class

British Railways Swindon & Crewe "Western" Class locomotives - later BR Class 52

British Railways operated these extremely popular Maybach engined locomotives between December 1961 and February 1977. All were built to operate on standard gauge railways. (4ft 8½inches, 1435mm)

These locomotives were mechanically based on the German ML3000 prototype although the Voith transmission was used instead of the Mekydro. The design of the body was handed to industrial stylists Professor Misha Black and J. Beresford-Evans, who designed arguably the best looking diesel locomotive ever to have run in the British Isles. The engines for these locomotives were manufactured by Bristol-Siddeley Engines Ltd, with the Voith L630rV transmissions being manufactured both in Germany (60 units) and by the North British Locomotive company in Glasgow (103 units). The first locomotive into service was D1000 in December 1961, with the last to enter service being D1029 in July 1964. Originally 35 locomotives were ordered from Swindon and 39 from Crewe, but because of various delays, the last five of the Swindon order (D1030-D1034) were constructed at Crewe. All of the Crewe built locomotives were in service before the last Swindon built example, though to be fair to Swindon, D1029 was used for testing of modifications for some months before it was finally released to traffic. All of the locomotives were given names prefixed with "Western", from which the "Western" nickname was derived. Originally, the locomotives were to be named after West Country beauty spots, which might have made more sense to people than some of the names chosen!

As originally built, the "Westerns", in common with the other British Railways hydraulic classes, were fitted to operate solely vacuum braked trains. In the late 1960's the decision was made to fit 70 of the "Westerns" with train air brakes so that modern coaching stock could be hauled. This decision condemned D1017-D1020 (the vacuum brake only locomotives) to an early withdrawal, but allowed the majority of the class to survive into the mid 1970's. The air brake equipment had to be crammed into the already tightly packed interior of these locomotives - the most significant change being the replacement of one boiler water tank underneath the locomotive with a compressor unit. This altered the boiler water capacity from 940 to 800 gallons.

For reasons known only to those who were there at the time, these locomotives achieved a cult following amongst British railway enthusiasts, who recreated scenes of locomotive adulation previously only seen during the twilight days of British steam a decade before. The final "Westerns" were withdrawn from service on 26th February 1977.

Westerns in preservation

Seven "Westerns" have been preserved, D1010 on the West Somerset Railway at Williton with the Diesel & Electric Group (originally owned by Foster Yeoman and disguised as D1035 "Western Yeoman"), D1013 at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway, where it is owned and maintained by the Western Locomotive Association, D1015 at Old Oak Common by the Diesel Traction Group, D1023 at York as an active exhibit of the National Railway Museum, D1041 privately preserved at Bury on the East Lancashire Railway, where it is looked after by the Bury Hydraulic Group, D1048 privately preserved at the Midland Railway Centre, Butterley and finally, D1062 which is owned and maintained by the Western Locomotive Association at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway.

Current Status at 10th January 2009:

Currently, no Westerns have an operational train heating boiler fitted.