What if? Class 35 and 52 not declared non-standard

[35B]

The hydraulics possibly arose just because "Swindon" liked to think it was still part of GWR, and wanted to be "different" to the rest of BR. Discuss, please..........Perhaps the only surprise it that the hydraulics didn't get copper-tipped exhausts. (being cynical).

I suggest a read of David Clough “Hydraulic vs Electric” - it pretty well demolishes that myth.

 

[Pigeon]

I recall from youthful times long ago that D870 was recognisable from a distance, approaching our footbridge lair at Taunton, by its horn being in a roof housing. Wonder how that got connected with the other changes.

They moved the horns to make room to fit the ETH jumpers.

The last 5 in the Warship list D866-70 were back to being built at Swindon. Were they originally ordered from North British but they went out of business before they could be completed?

It was basically a matter of capacity. North British were expecting/hoping for an order for 33 more D600s, but were given the order for 33 D800s in place of that. Those final five were an addition to the original order, about a year later. At that point Swindon were within a month or two of completing the first of their batch, while NBL were still fiddling about trying to get their heads around the stressed skin construction and were well behind (in the event the first of their batch didn't appear till about a year later). So the extra five went to Swindon (as well as it being the "natural" choice anyway).

NBL kept going long enough to finish their batch of D800s but went bust shortly afterwards. They had not looked for (nor been offered) any more hydraulic orders after that one, so that batch was their last.

There were also 'unofficial' workarounds. I've told this one before about a North British D63xx laid aside at Taunton for a trivial part, so I'll just link to it:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/1975-western-region-locos.255243/page-2#post-6434316

Neat! Gooch would have been proud.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Jan 2026 ==

I suggest a read of David Clough "Hydraulic vs Electric" - it pretty well demolishes that myth.

Ordered, thanks for the recommendation. (Not that I believed the myth, but it looks like it will be a very useful addition to my bookshelf.)

 

[43096]

The hydraulics possibly arose just because "Swindon" liked to think it was still part of GWR, and wanted to be "different" to the rest of BR. Discuss, please..........Perhaps the only surprise it that the hydraulics didn't get copper-tipped exhausts. (being cynical).

The story also goes that the ghost of the Western Region’s hydraulics influenced GWT’s decision to go for hydraulic transmission in the 180s rather than electric as on the 22x fleets.

 

[Clarence Yard]

Which also is wibble. I was involved in discussions to acquire new 180 units for another TOC and electric transmission was not on offer.

The choices for me were 22x with electric or 180 with hydraulic.

Back to the original question. WR had 684 type 2 to type 4 diesels delivered new. Once steam had finished on WR, there was a surplus of power and a sizeable proportion of their cl.37 and cl.47 fleet were whisked away to other regions to replace steam there.

At the end of 1970 that WR diesel main line total of 684 had dropped to 486. By the end of 1975 (i.e. immediately pre-HST) it had dropped further to 408. Ten years later it was only 287.

Thanks to a reduction in DML duties, the hydraulics were simply not needed and could be replaced by surplus diesels from elsewhere and also, thanks to that reduction in work, on a less than one for one basis.