60 years of the ‘40s’
As the Class 40s celebrate their 60th anniversary, DAVID CLOUGH charts some major landmarks in the history of the Type 4s
As the Class 40s celebrate their 60th anniversary, RAIL charts some major landmarks in the history of the Type 4s.
During the second half of 1954, several high-powered committees within the British Transport Commission (BTC) drew up plans for the modernisation of all aspects of its activities, among them railway motive power.
Arising out of these deliberations was the decision to order a small number of a broad range of diesel locomotive types, which became known as the Pilot Scheme.
In February 1955, it was decided to order 20 diesel-electric Type 4s - ten to be built in the Railways’ own shops and ten by a contractor. English Electric (EE) had supplied equipment for all the large diesel prototypes that had been built to date, and it was no surprise that the company became the successful contractor.
The resultant design was based largely on the 1954 prototype 10203, which was showing itself equal to prevailing schedules for the largest express steam traction in everyday service during 1955.
Installed engine power was the same at 2,000bhp, and the same Southern Railway design of 1Co bogie was used, with a maximum speed of 90mph. Numbering was in the range D200-209, and the livery was BR Locomotive Green, embellished with a horizontal light grey line between the cabs at cantrail level.
In an interesting choice of depot allocation, D200/202-205 were based at Stratford (east London) and the remainder at Hornsey (north London), effectively from new in 1958. It was interesting because from the start of the deliberations that led to the Pilot Scheme, the Eastern Region (ER) had signalled orders that locomotives of this power were inadequate for its requirements on the East Coast Main Line.
Eventually all ten were based at East Anglian depots until 1967, when they moved to the London Midland Region (LMR). In East Anglia the prototypes were put on the Liverpool Street to Norwich turns, where they proved themselves more than equal to the timings based on a Class 7 ‘Pacific’ steam engine. Thus D200 made the service debut for the class on April 18 1958 on this route.
In 1957, severely deteriorating finances forced BR to abandon the Pilot Scheme concept of trialling a range of designs in traffic before deciding to replicate the successful ones. Instead, the Regions were invited to draw up schemes to dieselise discrete areas. The LMR, North Eastern (NER) and Scottish Regions (ScR) all bid for Type 4s.
Despite the ER’s continuing reservations, an order to EE in February 1960 for a further 75 ‘D200s’ allocated 60 examples to the Region. These seem to have been for freight work, because the latest ER objection was that the 1Co bogie would be incapable of operating in hump marshalling yards.
Ever keen to win more business, EE wrote to BR on February 3 1960 offering to give retrospective discounts on its tender prices, which would be based on total orders placed in a year. The BR Board agreed to this proposal, and the upshot was 200 of the type were built, with D399 going to Gateshead on September 5 1962.
The bids for area schemes (see table, page
76) must have been based on the submissions by the Regions for approval by the BTC, but deliveries sometimes went to other areas.
Of note is that Class 40s were actually drafted onto the Western Lines (the routes of the former London & North Western Railway, such as the West Coast route), rather than those of the former Midland Railway that centred on Derby, for which the bids had been submitted. The latter instead received the Derby-built D1 Type 4s, most of which had conversely been applied for as part of schemes to dieselise the Western Lines.
Construction was divided between Vulcan Foundry and Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn, both of which were acquired by EE. The former turned out D200-304 and D325-399, with the remainder produced by the latter.
The practice with all the early diesel orders was the continued use of the headlamp train describer system, but with white circular discs substituting for hand lamps.
Nose-end gangway doors permitted the crews on locomotives working in multiple to move between them. These arrangements were fitted to D200-324, but BR then decided to use the four-character train number in place of the discs and two-digit boxes were fitted either side of the gangway doors.
From D345 a further policy change dispensed with the gangway doors, which were a source of draughts, and a central train indicator box was fitted. D260-266 were retrofitted with this arrangement.
In June 1958, the BTC Chairman stated that 2,000hp diesels did not have sufficient power to haul expresses at the faster speeds envisaged, but left the final decision to the Regions. His view was generally heeded, and Class 40s did not feature in plans for modernised top-flight heavy passenger duties on either the East or West Coast routes. In consequence, by the late 1960s, the class acted only as stand-ins for a shortage of higherpowered traction on the principal expresses on most routes.
Instead the class was assigned an increased share of freight and civil engineer’s work, which fitted well with being on hand on summer Saturdays to power holiday trains in northern England.
An indication that the ‘40s’ remained a key part of the diesel fleet came in March 1963, when five examples were chosen (along with the same number of Class 47s) to be fitted with air brake equipment in preparation for the introduction of container trains. Most of the class eventually received this modification.
D322 was withdrawn in 1967 after sustaining collision damage. When fleet-wide renumbering for the TOPS system took place in 1973, D200 filled the gap left by D322 to become 40122, otherwise D201 to D399 became 40001-40199.
By the start of 1976, all bar two further collision-damaged examples remained in traffic. However, withdrawals due to being surplus began in that year.
As the decade drew to a close an increasing quantity were sidelined, and by 1982 half the class had gone.
Classified overhauls ended in 1981, and by October 1983 only the LMR had an allocation. The final withdrawals came in late January 1985 - except for 40122, which was retained for charter train duties. In May, four examples were reinstated to handle civil engineer’s workings associated with the remodelling of Crewe station. They survived until March 1987.
After being withdrawn in 1981, D200 owes its survival to action taken by RAIL, which led to the locomotive’s reinstatement in April 1983.
It was noteworthy that it became the last example of the class on BR’s books, surviving until April 16 1988, 30 years after making its debut in East Anglia. The locomotive is now part of the National Collection.