Book Description

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 32. Chapters: British Rail Class 04, British Rail Class 20, British Rail Class 37, British Rail Class 40, GWR 9400 Class, Iraqi State Railways PC class, NS Class 8800, Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, South African Class 15E 4-8-2, South African Class 19D 4-8-2, South African Class 1E, South African Class 3E, WAGR Z class. Excerpt: The British Rail Class 37 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Also known as the English Electric Type 3, the Class was ordered as part of the British Rail modernisation plan. The Class 37 became a familiar sight on many parts of the British Rail network, in particular forming the main motive power for Inter-City services in East Anglia and within Scotland. They also performed well on secondary and inter-regional services for many years. The Class 37s are known to some railway enthusiasts as "Tractors," a nickname due to the agricultural sound of the diesel engine of the locomotive. As part of the large scale dieselisation brought about by the British Rail modernisation plan a need was identified for a number of type 3 locomotives of power output 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) to 1,999 hp (1,491 kW). English Electric had already been successful with orders for type 1 and type 4 diesels, and had produced locomotives of similar power to that which was required for railways in East Africa. A design based on the exported locomotives was put forward and accepted. The design was for a general purpose locomotive and initially found service in British Rail's Eastern Region. There was no prototype. British Rail first placed an order for 42 Class 37 locomotives in January 1959. The first of these was delivered in November 1960 (entering service on 2 December), with the last of this original batch complete by mid 1962, by which time subsequent orders had been placed. The last of the 309 built was delivered to the Western...