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Class 31 31162 (5580)
(Photo: David Ballard)
D5580 (TOPS No. 31162) is
owned by the A1A Loco Group.
History
The Class 31 - 31162/5580 - A Brief History-by Steve Allen
If there is one class of ex-BR mainline diesel motive
power that is synonymous with the former M&GN system, then
surely it must be the Brush Class 31, or Brush Type 2 as
it was when it was introduced in the 1950s. Some of the
first members of the class started to work on the M&GN
even before the closure date in 1959. Post closure they
became familiar sights on the Melton Goods, through trains
to Cromer Beach, the Norwich Sand trains, the Lenwade
Concrete Beam trains, the Rudham Grain trains, the Eye
Brick trains from Murrow and so on. Members of the class
were also involved in the delivery of much of the
railway's stock to Sheringham in the late '60s and early
‘70s. Even as late as 1980 one of the class moved the
Gresley Buffet and TK to Cromer.
The class was developed as a result of the British
Transport Commission's famous 1955 Modernization Plan.
Under this scheme, locomotive builders were invited to
produce small fleets of prototype designs that would be
tested and proved, leading hopefully to large-scale
orders. As has often been the case with Britain's railway,
this plan soon became a nonsense. Large orders were
hurriedly placed for locos that were effectively only at
the design stage. Brush of Loughborough adopted its A1A –
A1A design for Ceylon Railways leading to the prototype
D5500, the first of a batch of twenty, being delivered in
October 1957.
The early examples were delivered to London's Stratford
depot for use on the former Great Eastern lines. D5500
worked its first passenger train from Liverpool Street, to
Clacton, on the 13th November 1957. The rest of the pilot
batch entered traffic during the following two years, with
all of them going to East Anglian sheds with the exception
of D5511 which went to Scotland for trials.
The BTC were impressed with the class and orders were
placed for what became the "production examples",
eventually totalling 243. The production machines had the
now more standard electro-pneumatic controls with the
blue-star multiple working system (the Pilot locos were
electro-magnetic controls, with the unique Red-Circle
multiple working system). A more visible change was that
the disc-based route indicators were replaced with roof
mounted four-character headcode boxes.
As the class numbers increased, their sphere of operation
increased to take in the whole of eastern England , and
later in their lives, western England, and finally the
West Midlands and north-west.
Serious problems were experienced with the original
Mirrlees power units and a decision was made to re-engine
the entire class with English Electric power units rated
similar to those fitted to the English Electric Type 3s
(Class 37). The first example to be re-engined was D5677
(31249) and the last was D5500.
The TOPS renumbering scheme of the mid-70s saw the class
allocated the 30xxx and 31xxx ranges, with class 30 for
Mirrlees examples and 31 for English Electric examples,
although by the time of actual renumbering all had been
re-engined.
All examples still in traffic in 1988 were fitted with
dual train brakes (air and vacuum). 68 were fitted with
electric train heating (ETH) between 1973 and 1985. From 1983
a program of life-extension was undertaken which involved
the removal of the bodyside bands and skirts and internal
re-wiring, as well as the removal of redundant steam-heat
equipment. Any example not in this programme was earmarked
for early withdrawal, but the last ones hung on until
1994. The last regular passenger workings were on the
Blackpool – Manchester ‘Club' trains that ended in the
last 1990's.
D5580 (latterly 31162) was built by Brush Traction at their
Falcon works in Loughborough, and released to traffic at
Norwich shed (32A) on the 14th of January 1960. Here it
joined our B12 and J15 already allocated there, and it
more likely than not worked over the remains of the former
M&GN system. In September that year it was transferred to
March depot where it stayed until April 1966 when it moved
to Finsbury Park. In August 1967 it returned to Norwich
until October 1969 when it again went to March.
It stayed on the books at March for eleven years, being
dual-braked in November 1973 and renumbered as 31162. It
even gained notoriety on the 3 rd of March 1977 when it
hauled 1S28 - the 07.00 Newcastle to Edinburgh! In
December it left the Fenland shed for the last time when
it was reallocated to York. In 1981 its steam heat boiler
was isolated and it started a succession of moves around
the freight depots of the north Midlands. In January 1982
it was allocated to Immingham and almost immediately on to
Thornaby a few days later. In May 1983, following a heavy
general overhaul it was reallocated to Healey Mills, then
a year later to Bescot where it stayed until 1990. Its
last passenger working the 2E34, 15.16 Carlisle – Leeds
took place on the 23 rd of August 1990. A month later it
moved to its last shed, Immingham where on the 18 th of
May 1992 it was withdrawn as life expired.
This is where A1A Locomotives Ltd. comes in. They
purchased the loco from BR and had it moved to the Midland
Railway Centre at Butterley where it hauled its first
public train in preservation, the 11.00 Butterley to
Riddings on the 3rd of July 1994. At Butterley it has
undergone a major rebuild which has included the refitting
of gangway doors, buffer fairings, and other original
fittings lost during its thirty two year career, and had
its steam heating boiler reinstated and made operable. It
was also repainted into early BR blue livery as D5580.
Since then it has appeared at several heritage railways
including the East Lancs, the Keighley and Worth Valley,
and the Nene Valley.
The full version of this article first appeared in Joint Line, the Midland and
Great Northern Joint Railway Society's award winning
quarterly journal, which all members of the Society
receive.
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