My personal tally of failures looks something like this:
Class 20
1 pair that demultied on a railtour in Scotland, ground to a halt, got going again.
1 pair on a Carstairs - Edinburgh where a single loco shut down and the other loco continued unassisted after some delay.
Class 25
Despite their appalling reputation, I seldom experienced outright failures from them. One pair over the S&C on a railtour where the inside loco was providing heat only and the front loco traction only resulted in lengthy delays, and a few instances of engines shutting down but restarting OK.
Class 26
The very first pair I had failed on me! On a Glasgow - Inverness working the locos dropped out of multi in Cowlairs Tunnel so we slogged up the bank with only the front loco working. We made it to Cowlairs, where after a lengthy delay the locos were split and the inside loco then worked solo to Perth.
I've had one complete shutdown on an Edinburgh - Dunbar service. The loco coasted to a silent halt at Drem station, where we terminated.
Class 27
One outright failure at Kirkconnel on the 1730 Glasgow - Carlisle. Not a position of strength.
Several instances of locos low on power, causing significant delays. A source of amusement and exasperation in equal quantities.
Class 31
I avoided the Paignton fiascos referenced above - but still managed a few of my own.
When the Trans Pennine DMUs were replaced by 31s I had a few instances of low power. I just avoided a failure on the very first day, when I alighted from a struggling Leeds - Hull train at Selby, and it subsequently failed at Eastrington. (We found out the hard way that you need to start the day with a full tank of fuel on those diagrams!).
I also suffered when I took a pair on the morning Paddington - Manchester for a pair of 37s on the Birmingham - Ramsgate. We had lost time en route, but I thought we could make the 37s at International. We didn't. What's more I was en route to Ramsgate at the start of a Continental holiday, so this wasn't a good start.
Class 33
Never had one fail on me. I hold these locos in high regard.
Class 37
A class I've spent a lot of time with over the years. A couple of stand-out failures. One at Curriehill on an Edinburgh - Carstairs portion working, which snarled the job up for some time, and one at Lentran on the Sundays Inverness - Lairg. Another was at Corrour on a Fort William - Glasgow daytime working. One I managed to avoid was when there was a return footex run from Glasgow Queen Street to Aberdeen. The ECS was returning to Cowlairs, so a few bashers of the more adventurous nature decided to bunk it rather than wait for a 47/4 back at 05:00. Sadly the loco failed at Errol on the return ECS, and the guard decided he didn't want any uninvited interlopers around when the assisting loco showed up, so they ended up walking from Errol to Perth. Generally the class 37 did more rescuing of other failures than it ever incurred itself.
Class 40
I'm a long-time fan of these locos, but I have to admit they were very marginal in the radiator capacity, so prone to overheating. Other quirks were occasional air leaks from the control air system causing the loco to refuse to rev faster than a slow idle. Outright failure locations included Little Bytham, Dumfries, Farnley Branch Junction, and Princes Street Gardens. Many hours were spent waiting for class 40s to turn up late - or not at all.
Class 43 (HST)
Several failures to depart from Paddington during my time commuting into London. Only one outright failure on the line. I boarded a Newcastle - Kings Cross HST at York as the first leg of a trip to Poland. Both power cars were running but only the rear one was powering. At St Neots we ground to a halt and sat there for a couple of hours whilst a 31 was fired up at Peterborough to rescue us.
Class 45
Generally a solid if unspectacular performer. Only one outright failure, on a Liverpool - Newcastle service where the brakes could not be released after application at Chaloners Whin Junction. Eventually the York station pilot - an 08 - hauled us the rest of the way to York loose coupled!.
Class 46
Similar to the 45s, i.e. not my favoured type of traction, but I had to do a fair bit of travelling with them at one time or another. No outright failures.
Class 47
The scenes of my complete class 47 failures are:
-3 miles west of Marsden
- Quedgeley Junction
- York (having lost 90 minutes in running from Edinburgh)
- Chevington Loop
- Leeds
- Retford
- Dumfries
- Shap Summit
- Daw Mill Colliery
- Westbourne Park
Add to that the myriad array of partial traction failures, boiler failures, and general air of withering despair which I can't be bothered to list. Draw your own conclusions.
Class 50
One loco on a Plymouth - Birmingham kept shutting down, so we stopped on the curve at Gloucester for a can of oil. 30 mins delay.
On the same train on another date the loco was feeling poorly so we diverted into Gloucester station and re-engined there for a 47.
Finally in NSE days I noticed the loco on my train home from Paddington to Reading was suddenly cutting out at 95 mph, and each time it did so there was a puff of smoke from beneath the loco (which I suspect was a traction motor flashover). We stopped at Maidenhead after a report of fire, then continued to Reading where the train terminated. The loco transferred to Laira, had a Main Gen flashover within a week, and was withdrawn.
Generally a pretty good record - although I didn't do much on the Waterloo - Exeter route where they proved to be rather fallible.
Class 55
Only one outright failure, several miles south of Carstairs in a blizzard. Plenty of instances of running on one engine and losing time.
Other
I never had a failure with a Western, although my mileage off them was quite limited. I had a 56 on the Nuneaton dragging sit down on me once - and it was one of the UK built ones, almost brand new at the time.
By contrast I've had very few AC loco failures, despite racking up some decent distances.
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