Locomotives & Recollections: No. D1015 Western Champion
RAILWAY books for a tenner are becoming few and far between, so for fans of Western Region diesels the compilation of images of diesel hydraulic No. D1015 presented here is something of a bargain. This particular locomotive made a celebrity working last year, but sadly for the wrong reasons, when its B-engine suffered a serious failure on September 17, while working a test run ahead of a planned return to main line charters. It was an unfortunate recurrence of a similar failure that resulted in withdrawal from main line service for five years. Happily, a replacement engine has already been installed in
No. D1015 and it might well be seen on the National
Rail network later in 2022. In the meantime, Silver Link’s volume presents a good selection of images of the loco at work. Although BR days, including freight, are briefly covered, the book focuses primarily on
No. D1015’s exploits between 2002, when it was first recertified for main line running, and 2016. The publication’s landscape format lends itself well to the profile of the ‘Westerns’, but surprisingly little advantage has been taken to present full page images, with up to three photographs per page appearing instead. On the plus side, this means readers are getting plenty of views of the loco for their tenner!