Trivia: Least used main line loco.

[vidal]

There's figures around that show some Class 52 "Westerns" did upwards of 1,000,000 miles in revenue earning service, HSTs doing multiple million miles and Pendelino's easily surpassing these figures to get around 10 million miles plus. Which locos or units had the easiest but longest (regular) service life? Class 08 - well over 50 years but not really wearing out the odometer.

James

 

[Doomotron]

When you say longest, are you referring to time or mileage? One of those million mile 52s probably would have similar mileage to 08s that lasted a lot longer time-wise.

 

[vidal]

When you say longest, are you referring to time or mileage? One of those million mile 52s probably would have similar mileage to 08s that lasted a lot longer time-wise.

Longest time in service. Some Class 08s may have done a few tens of miles each week for many years, but were used pretty intensively.

James

 

[Ianigsy]

The North Eastern Railway’s EE1 electric loco 13 spent 28 years doing pretty much nothing apart from pottering up and down on test trains.

 

[randyrippley]

Possibly the class 44 Peaks?
They spent years pottering around the Midlands on engineering trains doing not a lot

 

[12LDA28C]

Possibly the class 44 Peaks?
They spent years pottering around the Midlands on engineering trains doing not a lot

Not sure they qualify for a long service life as quoted in the OP. Twenty years wasn't it? All withdrawn by 1980.

 

[etr221]

Some of the class 92 Channel Tunnel loco sub-fleets saw, AIUI, virtually no use betwee n construction and withdrawal

 

[boiledbeans2]

[...] Pendelino's easily surpassing these figures to get around 10 million miles plus. [...]

If EMUs such as the Pendos are included in the trivia, then I'd nominate the least used to be - Class 701.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

That 70 that got dropped off the crane on arrival in the country will take some beating!

For whole fleets, the two 151s never seemed to stray too far from Derby even when they were used in service.

Edit: Nevermind, completely misread the OP!

The 139s could be candidates though, depending on how much longer they last- another 5 years needed to meet the OP's requirements. Though even the short shuttles back and forth on the branch probably mount up over the years.

 

[Strathclyder]

The Caledonian Single (No. 123) covered 780,000 miles* in her 49 years of frontline service (1886-1935), including her key role in the 1888 'Races To The North', a pilot engine for when the Royal Train visited Balmoral and hauling the LMS directors saloon, among other duties. Not bad for a loco built to be a exhibition piece.

*: that figure leaps out at me for some reason, honestly can't remember whether or not it factored in her later excursion career with BR between 1958 and 1965.

Big Bertha covered nearly 840,000 miles in her 37 year career iirc. Not really a surprise given how intensively she was used.

The North Eastern Railway’s EE1 electric loco 13 spent 28 years doing pretty much nothing apart from pottering up and down on test trains.

EE1 is what immediately came to mind when I saw the thread. Sticking with the NER electrics, I wonder how many miles each of the two ES1s covered in their near 60 year career.

 

[The exile]

In terms of miles in service in the UK over all years between construction and withdrawal, then how about E26000? 11 years before it started doing what it was built for and even once it entered service over Woodhead I doubt the diagramming was that intensive.

 

[greyman42]

How about the class 89?

 

[Ayrshire Roy]

That 70 that got dropped off the crane on arrival in the country will take some beating!

It's been rebuilt and is a test mule for GE in America so it's still clocking up miles.

 

[D7666]

. Which locos or units had the easiest but longest (regular) service life?

Sarah Siddons ?

101/102 years old depending if you count the 1922 or 1923 build date - but ceased their original duty in 1961; at least into 1990s it was officially a departmental loco where it did have an easy life as a shunter / engineers train loco , and sort of drifted more by default than any thing else into its present 'preserved' state. Averaged of ~40 years on Met passenger + ~60 years on overall very light duties must make it a candidate.

(( Not going into the issue if 1-20 were new or rebuilds of earlier locos; research seems to suggest they really were new locos fudged for accounting reasons from the earlier 1-10 and 11-20. But if anyone wants to say they are rebuilds of the 1906/1907 fleet then it actually strengthens the case by another few years. ))

Before someone comes along and bumbles on about main line locos, then refer to TOPS 89212.
_

Possibly the class 44 Peaks?
They spent years pottering around the Midlands on engineering trains doing not a lot

44s were quite intensively deployed on Toton / Washwood Heath, and Toton / local power station coal trains for years; that started when they were restricted off passenger work (1962 ?) with the electrical troubles in the high-er speed ranges, and lasted on that coal work through the 1970s they did that for nearly 20 years.
_

It's been rebuilt and is a test mule for GE in America so it's still clocking up miles.

Miles ?

Surely it is a test rig within the GE factory is it not ? That is a question not a statement.

 

[Ayrshire Roy]

Miles ?

Surely it is a test rig within the GE factory is it not ? That is a question not a statement.

Freightliner 70012

I came across this clip on YouTube, showing 70012 (the loco dropped during unloading at Newport). It was videoed out on test runs in the US last Friday, with a very smart paint job. I have no info' about the purpose beyond what's shown with the clip and in the comments.

www.railforums.co.uk

It's even been repainted in Freightliner colours.

 

[70014IronDuke]

... 44s were quite intensively deployed on Toton / Washwood Heath, and Toton / local power station coal trains for years; that started when they were restricted off passenger work (1962 ?) with the electrical troubles in the high-er speed ranges, and lasted on that coal work through the 1970s they did that for nearly 20 years.
_

Saved me writing that.

And Toton - Wellingboro too, I think, at least until 1966.

But let's not forget their first two years of main-line life, when they were used quite intensively on a WCML that was desperate to put diesels on heavy expresses that otherwise needed expensive Class 8P traction.

True, only two years (and a bit), but not inconsequential.

 

[Magdalia]

Possibly the class 44 Peaks?
They spent years pottering around the Midlands on engineering trains doing not a lot

Class 44s were also frequently on Toton-Whitemoor freights.

Class 08 - well over 50 years but not really wearing out the odometer.

If class 08s count, then what about the class 13 Master and Slave locos? 20 years only shunting the Tinsley Yard hump with the depot nearby. Even works visits were only a short trundle to Doncaster.

 

[D7666]

If class 08s count, then what about the class 13 Master and Slave locos? 20 years only shunting the Tinsley Yard hump with the depot nearby. Even works visits were only a short trundle to Doncaster.

I'd say 13 are nowhere near qualifying; the OP in the third post quantified age as the marker not mileage

(a) the 13s were converted were from higher numbered 08s some 10 years younger than the older ones; other dedicated 08s of humping e.g. MG and WH were low and middle numbered ranges so older and olderer than the 13s donors;

(b) TI hump was heavy duty - and possibly heavier duty than 08s / other yards - which is precisely why they were developed;

[c] 13s were also 1980s withdrawals so removing themselves from the longevity point of the OP;

 

[Magdalia]

There's figures around that show some Class 52 "Westerns" did upwards of 1,000,000 miles in revenue earning service, HSTs doing multiple million miles and Pendelino's easily surpassing these figures to get around 10 million miles plus. Which locos or units had the easiest but longest (regular) service life? Class 08 - well over 50 years but not really wearing out the odometer.

The opening post is clearly about mileage, or, more precisely, lack of it.

the third post quantified age as the marker not mileage

The third post is a clarification of the opening post. My reading is that, for classes with roughly equal mileage, then time in service is the tie-breaker.

Otherwise it reduces to the even more trivial question of which class was in service the longest.

 

[westernpunk]

well some of the western region class 14s hardly turned a wheel in revenue earning service, before going into industrial use, certainly not long service, but they saw very little use

 

[12C]

Based on the OP’s criteria of longest time in service vs lowest mileage, how about the Class 139 on the Stourbridge branch? They’ve been in service around 16 years now but can’t imagine they’ve clocked up many miles just pootling up and down the branch.

 

[norbitonflyer]

The North Eastern Railway’s EE1 electric loco 13 spent 28 years doing pretty much nothing apart from pottering up and down on test trains.

I think that will be difficult to beat. No 13 was built in 1922 for the North Eastern Railway's planned electrification of the York to Newcastle line, which was shelved after the Grouping. It may have done some test runs on the Newport to Shildon line (electrified in 1915 and de-electrified in the late 1930s) but it never operated in service.
Like all ex-NER locomotives, it kept its original number on the LNER until the 1946 renumbering, when it became No 6999. BR initially numbered it 26999 and later 26600, but it was scrapped in 1950, along with the Newport-Shildon fleet (NER/LNER 3-12, later LNER 6490-99, BR 26502-11) which had been mothballed in 1935 - there had been a proposal to use them on the Woodhead route but ten extra EM1s (class 76s) were built instead.

So 28 years and never earned its owners a penny in revenue. It would be another 40 years after No 13 was scrapped before the line from York to Newcastle was finally electrified, and then it was on 25kV ac instead of 1.5kV dc.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'd say 13 are nowhere near qualifying; the OP in the third post quantified age as the marker not mileage

(a) the 13s were converted were from higher numbered 08s some 10 years younger than the older ones; other dedicated 08s of humping e.g. MG and WH were low and middle numbered ranges so older and olderer than the 13s donors;

(b) TI hump was heavy duty - and possibly heavier duty than 08s / other yards - which is precisely why they were developed;

[c] 13s were also 1980s withdrawals so removing themselves from the longevity point of the OP;

13 001 and 13 003 were withdrawn in January 1985, so very close to their 20th anniversary from conversion which was in 1965 - do we know which month(s) in 1965 the conversions were carried out?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Based on the OP’s criteria of longest time in service vs lowest mileage, how about the Class 139 on the Stourbridge branch? They’ve been in service around 16 years now but can’t imagine they’ve clocked up many miles just pootling up and down the branch.

With six return trips per hour, even the paltry 0.8 mile length will mount up over time.

 

[randyrippley]

It was never in revenue stock but does DS1169 count? By it's very nature that couldn't get far.....
Or the Western Region's PWM shunters?

 

[Spartacus]

My first through was EE1, perhaps another contender could be 01002 which spent a decent part of it's life on Holyhead Breakwater maintenance (itself a bit of an outlayer, retaining broad gauge until 1913)

 

[TheHovisKid]

01001 was used less?

Some of the early barbecued AC electrics must have been quite low mileage?

And the 47555s if you average them all out.....

Steam-wise, 46202 as rebuilt must be a contender in the mainline category. There were early write-offs of 33s, 37s and 47s too

 

[Taunton]

It was never in revenue stock but does DS1169 count? By it's very nature that couldn't get far.....
Or the Western Region's PWM shunters?

The PWM shunters used to get sent out on many weekends, sometimes quite a distance, to where works were in hand; they didn't stay wholly within their base. Their electric transmission (they were not mechanical) had been designed such they could be readily hauled by a locomotive as part of the works train, then connected back up when they got to site, to move things around there.

 

[The exile]

01001 was used less?

Some of the early barbecued AC electrics must have been quite low mileage?

And the 47555s if you average them all out.....

Steam-wise, 46202 as rebuilt must be a contender in the mainline category. There were early write-offs of 33s, 37s and 47s too

The criterion was basically low mileage over long life - so anything that has a low mileage because of early withdrawal after accident damage etc is out of the running. Those Holyhead shunters must be in with a shout, though “main line” may be stretching it a bit in their case!

 

[Spartacus]

01001 was used less?

I'd discounted 01001 as for most of it's career on the breakwater it was nothing but a source of spares for 002.

Those Holyhead shunters must be in with a shout, though “main line” may be stretching it a bit in their case!

I reckon being allocated to Stratford for their early part of their career must surely qualify them?