Help identifying an old diesel loco

[Warbonnet]

Just to repeat what I said for those who seem to find plain English so difficult to understand, for your conveiniance I will this time highlight in red.

Please please please don't take this the wrong way as I mean no malice but its just that I find it absolutely staggering that you don't know what a 47 is!
They are / were the UK's most common mainline diesel loco and have been about since 1961. At one time you couldn't go anywhere (almost) in the UK without seeing the bloody things!

Please remember that I may have an opinion that maybe different from yours and everyone is entitled to one.
Thankyou for your understanding.:roll:

 

[RobShipway]

For those of a younger age than me who is 44 years and did spot straight away that its is a class 47, these locos have and at times still do pretty much all duties. Whether it is pulling passenger coaches, mail trains, coal wagons and containers these have done it all. For over the last 50 years they have done the equivalent jobs to pretty much what the class 66s/67s/70s do today on the network.

Question from me is whether the younger people here would spot the difference between a class 47 and a class 56 from the front?

 

[NSEFAN]

Question from me is whether the younger people here would spot the difference between a class 47 and a class 56 from the front?

Easily. The 56 and 47s/57s have different shapes and headlight arrangements which give them away.

Unless you meant 47 vs 57?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Question from me is whether the younger people here would spot the difference between a class 47 and a class 56 from the front?

Easily. The 56 and 47s/57s have different shapes and headlight arrangements which give them away.

Unless you meant 47 vs 57?

Actually, 47s and 56s share the same bodyshell design and thus shape. As you say, end-on the difference is easy to see with 56s having a grille on the front among other features.

 

[NSEFAN]

Ahh, perhaps it's an illusion then as I think 56s always looked chubbier than 47s, somehow!

 

[RobShipway]

Actually, 47s and 56s share the same bodyshell design and thus shape. As you say, end-on the difference is easy to see with 56s having a grille on the front among other features.

Thank you for making my point.

 

[yummy125]

It's a Spooon Class 47

 

[30909]

Hell, yes! In fact there are some steam locos (not Tornado) that I'm older than

Happily (I think) by the end of steam loco production in 1960 there were or had been at least 2537 Steam locos built that were younger than me! That was, post Nationalisation, 1538 of pre Nationalisation designs and 999 Standard Class Locos. - yes I am very old

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Thank you for making my point.

Sorry- I just included your post to give context to NSEFAN's post. I assumed he'd misread your original.

 

[Engineer]

For those of a younger age than me who is 44 years and did spot straight away that its is a class 47, these locos have and at times still do pretty much all duties. Whether it is pulling passenger coaches, mail trains, coal wagons and containers these have done it all. For over the last 50 years they have done the equivalent jobs to pretty much what the class 66s/67s/70s do today on the network.

Question from me is whether the younger people here would spot the difference between a class 47 and a class 56 from the front?

Easy with eyes closed 47 & 56 sound so different. Both sound so much better than the North American two stroke diesels that now dominate our network, with their very good reliability and anti wheel slip technology. Mind you yesterday at Twyford around 1630, I did smile to see Hanson 590001 on a Mendip to Southall up trip, still working in very good condition. Time sometimes makes things you hate, become more acceptable.

 

[Michael.Y]

Spot the difference

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

How many people on here are now feeling very old when a diesel is younger than they are?

You most certainly can add me to your list. I am also much older than all the FIRST generation DMU..

 

[RobShipway]

Sorry- I just included your post to give context to NSEFAN's post. I assumed he'd misread your original.

No problem.

 

[Warbonnet]

Easy with eyes closed 47 & 56 sound so different. Both sound so much better than the North American two stroke diesels that now dominate our network

Yep and that's what I thought until I started taking an interest in the railways in America back about 6 years ago when I'd pretty much had a guts full of the boring scene in the UK.

It became quickly apparent that I'd been missing out on some real hell fire stuff over there for the last 30 years.
EMD's over there sound so much better than most of the stuff over here! And I include bloody 37's in that generalisation.
All of their second generation power are not fitted with silencers. (By second gen that means circa 1965 until about 1990)
If you heard a 6 pack of SD40-2's working over Donner pass with 10'000 tons behind them, you'd more than likely have a different point of view.

Just because folk think EMD stuff sounds crap here, don't runaway with the idea they sound crap everywhere! A 40-2 makes a Deltic sound like my lawn mower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJVgY9yprg&list=FLMKlE9XhHaMu9-1K0lOp2zA&index=36

 

[Genocide]

Yep and that's what I thought until I started taking an interest in the railways in America back about 6 years ago when I'd pretty much had a guts full of the boring scene in the UK.

It became quickly apparent that I'd been missing out on some real hell fire stuff over there for the last 30 years.
EMD's over there sound so much better than most of the stuff over here! And I include bloody 37's in that generalisation.
All of their second generation power are not fitted with silencers. (By second gen that means circa 1965 until about 1990)
If you heard a 6 pack of SD40-2's working over Donner pass with 10'000 tons behind them, you'd more than likely have a different point of view.

Just because folk think EMD stuff sounds crap here, don't runaway with the idea they sound crap everywhere! A 40-2 makes a Deltic sound like my lawn mower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJVgY9yprg&list=FLMKlE9XhHaMu9-1K0lOp2zA&index=36

Have you ever been to America? Easy question - yes or no.

 

[theageofthetra]

Have to admit the sounds of a thrashed Intermodal up the Cajon pass whilst driving next to it in a convertable will live long in the memory. The same train thundering past my motel window in Mojave at 5am the next morning was less welcome!

 

[Engineer]

Answer for me is yes; Union Pacific and BNSF Tehachapi Loop & Bakersfield while on business trips, Railfan needs ear plugs for safety. The USA GE Dash 9 loco's are four stroke diesels, at 20 MPH take a long time to pass, sound better than our UK EMD two stroke Chicken Shacks. New UK 70's back using higher revving four strokes. Quite happy to hear a class 60 Mirrlees Doughnut, on Theale tanks these days.

 

[Warbonnet]

Have you ever been to America? Easy question - yes or no.

Yes, Springfield, Illinois and Sacramento, Cally.
Next time will be the famous Tehachapi Loop to see the freights cross over themselves!

 

[talltim]

Actually, 47s and 56s share the same bodyshell design and thus shape. As you say, end-on the difference is easy to see with 56s having a grille on the front among other features.

I can tell them appears easily from all angles, I always thought that they had design elements in common, but that they weren't the same. I wonder, if you took the two bodies (bogies are very different) and stripped all the details (lights, grills etc) off, if you could tell the difference?

 

[CockneySparrow]

Because they were the most common locomotive on British Rail. It was the Class 66 of its day on freight services (but also did express pax work). For a spotter, it was a duff spot.

I wouldn't put them on the same level as todays 66s, nearly every freight train has a 66 in front of it in todays age

Back in the day you sometimes got a 31 or 37 instead of the 47 or sometimes a 58 in the midlands

In East Anglia you could have got anything from the Stratford stable and that goes for the livery as well

 

[Sunbird24]

For those that are too young to know it was actually a Brush Type 4 when it first came out, not a class 47, which only came about in the 1973 renumbering scheme.

 

[CosherB]

sounding bitter, Genocide?!

 

[ac6000cw]

Have you ever been to America? Easy question - yes or no.

Yes, several times - and I have to agree with Warbonnet, although nothing beats an old 1950s/60s non-turbo EMD engine for raucous diesel 'music', a set of SD 40's working hard is guaranteed to put a big smile on the face of anyone with a bit of diesel running in their veins

That said, the matched set of six GE ES44AC's (3 front, 3 mid-train) I watched climbing Tehachapi pass on a very long train a few years ago were rather impressive too....(that's a total of 26,000 HP and enough tractive effort to move a mountain almost).

 

[Tracked]

After only seeing 47's on the occasional special through Doncaster I note there's been a blue 47/8 (think it might be 47843?) knocking around the area over the last few weeks.

Seen it in the yard south of the station, in the Hexthorpe sidings and at the north end of Doncaster in the last fortnight. Makes a change from the usual 66's and 67's (saw a 70 last Saturday too), don't know if it's a regular and I've just been unlucky before.

Some 37 action would be preferred though, a month or two ago watched a couple of 20's fire up while waiting for the pub to open (Sunday, just south of Hexthorpe Bridge, I was outside the Corner Pin), good but not quite the same

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I can tell them appears easily from all angles, I always thought that they had design elements in common, but that they weren't the same. I wonder, if you took the two bodies (bogies are very different) and stripped all the details (lights, grills etc) off, if you could tell the difference?

I've never compared the silhouettes of the two, but at a guess they'd be very similar (bogies notwithstanding).

 

[plastictaffy]

After only seeing 47's on the occasional special through Doncaster I note there's been a blue 47/8 (think it might be 47843?) knocking around the area over the last few weeks.

That's one of the old "Long Range" 47/8's that is. Virgin had most (if not all) of them.

 

[Tracked]

That's one of the old "Long Range" 47/8's that is. Virgin had most (if not all) of them.

I miss them from the late 90's, it used to be "love mk2's, hate HST's", now it's "Love HST's, hate Voyagers"

 

[sprinterguy]

After only seeing 47's on the occasional special through Doncaster I note there's been a blue 47/8 (think it might be 47843?) knocking around the area over the last few weeks.

Indeed there has been: 47843 has been a regular performer on the Middleton Towers to Goole glassworks sand train (6E88) for several weeks now, while on loan(?) to GBRf.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

That's one of the old "Long Range" 47/8's that is. Virgin had most (if not all) of them.

Most, but not all: First Great Western also had a small fleet of 47/8s for the Cornish sleeper and a smattering of daytime trains under privatisation.

Of course, in BR days they used to roam a bit wider, though still primarily on the more extensive Crosscountry network, and a few 47/8s were swallowed up by the Railnet programme prior to privatisation.

 

[fsmr]

And what about 25s or Rats so called because they infested the network. Lovely unique sound, especially setting off when stalling wasn't that uncommon and often seen in pairs around here on the Syston PB line on unfitted and partial freights in the 70s and early 80s

Now like rocking horse poo on the network One day, one day

 

[Strat-tastic]

And what about 25s or Rats so called because they infested the network. Lovely unique sound, especially setting off when stalling wasn't that uncommon and often seen in pairs around here on the Syston PB line on unfitted and partial freights in the 70s and early 80s

Now like rocking horse poo on the network One day, one day

Reminds me of one glorious summer. 2 x 25 booked for the Saturdays only 12:00 New Street - Aberystwyth. Full of travelcard bashers; through the long tunnel out of Brum and up to Wolves. Marvellous.

And when one of them went bang through said tunnel..... !!!!!