GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - British Railways Period Locomotives: gwrbsh1164

British Railways Type 4 Warship class D827 'Kelly' waits at Platform 7 with the 7 30am Shrewsbury to Paddington service due to arrive at 11 am in London on 13th October 1962. Built at Swindon on 4th October 1960 the Warship class were not considered to be a success and consequently had very short working lives, with D827 being withdrawn on 1st January 1972 to be scrapped on 13th October 1972 at Swindon works. The Western Region of British Railways had decided upon hydraulic transmission with lightweight alloy construction for its new diesel locomotives to replace 'King' and 'Castle' class steam locomotives. This was partly because of the stiff gradients between Exeter and Plymouth on the London to Penzance Line and to save fuel, the reduced weight of the locomotive up these gradients allowing an extra revenue-earning passenger coach to be added to the train. The class were allocated to Bristol Bath Road, Plymouth Laira, Newton Abbot and Old Oak Common sheds.

The D800s were originally intended for the Paddington-Birmingham route and tests proved that their extra weight and power allowed them to run to a two hour schedule with 368 tons in tow: one coach more than a Class 40 could manage. These plans were put back when Paddington became the temporary London terminus of choice for Birmingham during the early 1960s, whilst BR's preferred route from Euston via Rugby was electrified. Loads of greater than 370 tons would be required and the service remained steam-hauled until the advent of the more powerful "Western" diesel-hydraulic locomotives. The first service route for the class therefore became Paddington-Penzance, either via Swindon and Bristol, or via Newbury and Westbury on the 'Berks and Hants' route. This allowed for elimination of steam on the difficult-to-operate railway west of Newton Abbot. In October 1958 D800 became the first locomotive to take up the class' new diagram of the up Cornish Riviera Express (Penzance to Paddington), the 18:30 Paddington-Bristol and the 21:05 Bristol-Plymouth - the last part of the diagram allowing the locomotive to return to the brand new depot at Laira in Plymouth once this was fully operational in 1961.

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