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Class 03 D2051 (03051)
(Photo: Coral Gillespie)
History
The Class 03's (as they became) were originally produced
from 1947 by the Drewry Car Company for evaluation by LNER.
They were developed by British Railways and built in BR's
workshops at Swindon and Doncaster. These shunters used
mechanical transmission with a five speed gearbox and a
reverse gear, giving a top speed of 28 mph. The engine is
a Gardner 8-cylinder, 4-stroke 8L3 of 204 hp 152 kW
connected to a Wilson-Drewry CA5 R7, 5-speed epicyclic
with RF11 spiral bevel reverse and final-drive unit. Drive
is through a jackshaft mounted beneath the cab, driving
the wheels through coupling rods.
The Class 03 locomotive is one of BR's most successful
smaller 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunters. The class was
built by British Railways' Swindon and Doncaster works in
1957-1962 and numbered D2000-D2199, D2370-D2399 (later 03004 to 03399).
A total of 230 were built for shunting and station
piloting duties. Occasionally they were used for branch
freight. They lasted until they were finally withdrawn in
the late nineties.
Like other shunters of this type, they were built for
lighter duties where a larger locomotive was not needed,
especially at locomotive and carriage depots and as
station pilots. The reduction over time in the demand for
shunting locomotives meant that they were progressively
withdrawn from 1968 on, many being sold to private
industry, although some stayed on for much longer, on the
Isle of Wight, remaining in service there until 1993. In
1998, though, 03 179 was reinstated into service by the
West Anglia Great Northern Railway Company (WAGN) for
service at their Hornsey depot.
A fairly large number of the class survive in preservation
and the NNR has been fortunate enough to acquire two of
them D2051 and D2063
Some of the information above was obtained from the
Southern E-Group website
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