LONG-associated with the Scottish Region, the BRCW Class 27 or ‘MacRat’, a name shared with the Class 26, was a stalwart of the West Highland line and Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pull workings that saw the class divided into three distinct sub-classes.
Built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (BRCW) in 1961 and 1962, the Class 27s were numbered as D5347-D5415 and allocated to depots as far apart as Eastfield (Glasgow), Thornaby (Teesside) and Cricklewood (London). Leicester received an allocation as locomotives were transferred away from Cricklewood and Thornaby.
The reallocation of Class 25s on the Midland Region resulted in the Class 27 becoming solely a Scottish locomotive replacing the unreliable Clayton Class 17s.
The majority were constructed with steam-heating and became Class 27/0 with TOPS, working on the West Highland line and Central Belt freight and passenger workings.
At the start of the 1970s, at about the same time as TOPS numbers were being applied, the first sub-class, the Class 27/1, was formed through the fitting of dual brakes to 24 locomotives dedicated to Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pull working, with a locomotive marshalled at each end of a rake of modified Mark 2 stock in top and tail formation.
Class 27/2 was formed when Deutz auxiliary engines and generators were fitted to 12 of the Class 27/1s to provide power for electric train heating (ETH). Each push-pull set became formed of one each of the two sub-classes until reliability issues resulting from intense passenger working at sustained high speed took their toll. When replaced with Class 47/7s, Mk.3 and DBSO stock, the push-pull Class 27s reverted back to Class 27/0.
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