BR Class 27 D5410

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BRBritish Rail or British Railways Class 27 D5410
Kidderminster Carriage Shed - D5410 awaiting restoration with 20177.JPG
D5410 in 2015 (Wikimedia Commons)
Built By BRCWBirmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company
Configuration Bo-Bo
Power type Diesel Electric
Status Former resident. Stored
Loco Number D5410
Other Numbers 27123, 27205
History
Built 1962
Designed By British Railways
Type Class 27
1987 Purchased by Sandwell Council
2015 Left the SVRSevern Valley Railway
Technical
Length 50ft 9in
Weight 77t

Diesel Locomotives

D5410 is a BRBritish Rail or British Railways Class 27 Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotive. 69 of these were built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (BRCWBirmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company) during 1961 and 1962. They were capable of delivering 1,250 horsepower, they were designed to work light mixed freight traffic at up to 90 mph.[1]

D5410 in service

D5410 was built by BRCWBirmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company as Works No DEL253 of 1962. It was first allocated to Cricklewood East on 30 August of that year, working Tilbury Boat trains and Cross-London freight services. After re-allocation to London (Midland) in 1965 and Nottingham Division in 1968, D5410 moved to Eastfield Depot in Glasgow in March 1969.

While in Scotland, the locomotive was used on the Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street express service, where unreliable DMUs were replaced by pairs of specially adapted Class 27s fitted with push-pull equipment to top and tail rakes of six Mark 2 carriages fitted with air operated disc brakes. In August 1971, following a transfer to Edinburgh Haymarket, D5410 was fitted with air brakes, becoming classified as Class 27/1. A final return to Eastfield took place the following year.

As Class 27/1, the locomotive was renumbered to 27123 on 1 January 1974 under TOPSTotal Operations Processing System, an American computer system adopted by BR from the late 1960s to number and manage rolling stock.. In December of that year, it was fitted with electric train heating alternator equipment, thus becoming a Class 27/2 and being re-numbered as 27205.

By the 1980s the Class 27 push-pull sets were being phased out, and following removal of the special equipment the Class 27/1s and 27/2s were reclassified as 27/0, with the locomotive becoming Number 27059 in February 1983. Thereafter it would have seen service on Edinburgh-Dundee semi-fast passenger services as well as freight duties. Withdrawal took place in July 1987.[2]

D5410 in preservation

Following withdrawal, D5410 was purchased by Sandwell Council who wished to retain an example of a BRCWBirmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company locomotive. It appeared at the SVRSevern Valley Railway Diesel Gala in October 1987, after which it was moved to the Birmingham Railway Museum at Tyseley (now known as Tyseley Locomotive Works). During the next few years all blue asbestos was removed from the locomotive and it was restored as D5410. By May 1991 it had returned to the SVRSevern Valley Railway.

The Council termed it "the Sandwell Engine", with funds allocated in 2006-8 to "develop an annual events programme at the Severn Valley Railway to make [the] engine accessible to the Sandwell community in partnership with Smethwick Heritage Trust."[3] By May 2011 the Council was seeking help to care for her.[4] Sandwell Council's Press Release 18 February 2011 said: "Sandwell Council is appealing for workshop space to help with the restoration of a historic railway engine. The council is working with volunteers to find a way of bringing new life to the Sandwell locomotive, built in Smethwick. It is appealing for a storage space where volunteers can work on the engine which was built around 20 years ago. Built in the 1960s, it is a class 27 diesel locomotive, one of around 30 which saw service in Scotland. It is currently based at Kidderminster under the care of the Severn Valley Railway, but it needs full restoration. Cabinet member for youth, culture and leisure Cllr Ann Shackleton said: "The Sandwell locomotive was built in Smethwick and is an important part of our industrial and railway heritage and we are determined to ensure its future. “We would love to hear from a business in Sandwell that has spare storage space so that we could bring the engine back to the borough so that with some tender loving care it could be restored piece by piece."

Departure from the SVRSevern Valley Railway

Following a period in store at the SVRSevern Valley Railway, it moved to UKRail's facility in Leicester in November 2015 for bodywork overhaul, then moved to Cranmore Traincare and Maintenance Services on 23 February 2016.[5] Images of bodywork repairs have appeared on Preserved Diesels' Facebook page and added to SVRLive. By March 2018 images showed it in the open outside the workshop at Tyseley with bodywork repair complete, and by May it had moved by road transport to Knighton Junction. On 6 August it moved by rail back to Leicester LIPLocomotive Inspection Point.[6]

In December 2019 the Chairman of the SVRSevern Valley Railway Diesel Committee announced it was no longer an SVRSevern Valley Railway Locomotive.[7]

See also

Former Residents
Locomotives running under different identities

References

  1. Alan Williams and David Percival, British Railways Locomotives & other motive power, (London: Ian Allen, 1975), p.32.
  2. BRDatabase website
  3. Sandwell’s Heritage, July 2005, p. 24 (retrieved 26 January 2017)
  4. Railway Magazine, May (2011), p. 93.
  5. SVR Meet the Locos
  6. Jonthan Dunster, via Facebook, 26 August 2018.
  7. Jonthan Dunster, via Facebook, 20 December 2019.

Links

BR Class 27 on Wikipedia