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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Denne historien er fra April 2020-utgaven av Rail Express.
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LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store
The ongoing pandemic restrictions and major engineering works have resulted in the complete withdrawal of the last remaining ‘Electras’ from passenger service, although the plan is to resurrect them in the summer.
Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars
A SURPRISING number of Mk.1catering cars have survived to see service on the privatised railway, in private operator and charter trains. They may turn up on anything from an enthusiast special to higher-end dining trains and have been formed in trains as prestigious as the locomotive-hauledBlue Pullman’ set, the ‘Great Britain’ tours operated by West Coast Railways and the ‘Northern Belle’ tour train.
Powerscene
Our authoritative class-by-class review of newsworthy locomotive workings.
End for Freightliner Class 86/6s
The company’s Class 86/6 fleet down to just two examples as seven locos are stored.
Service reductions as Covid cases increase
An increase in Covid-19 cases in early January saw the governments in Ireland and Northern Ireland impose stricter lockdown measures that impacted on public transport.
East West Rail funding go-ahead
Although it was expected, £760 million of funding has now been confirmed to build the Western Section of the East West Railway scheme.
Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car
Hornby expands its range of retooled ‘OO’ gauge Mk.1 coaches with a brand new tooling for the Diagram 24 Restaurant-Buffet car (RB) and the Diagram 33 refurbished version (RBR). It models the vehicles in both original form, finished in BR maroon and Southern Region green, together with the RBR refurbished coaches. They remained in frontline service well into the 1990s, including Cross-Country workings.
Class 92 revolution
Despite its complex shape and high detail ratio compared to other modern six-axle locomotives, Revolution Trains chose the Class 92 to be its first 'N' gauge locomotive model.
Bottling it!
A dig into the Rail Express archive has revealed some rarely-seen photographs of the former rail-connected Express Dairy bottling plant in South West London, which today is the site of a large mosque.
1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950
Work on the ‘N’ gauge Class 950 Track Recording Unit project, a conversion based on a standard Graham Farish Class 150/1 model, is concluded by finishing the model in 1990s condition.
