65 years' ago
65 years ago
April 1959 marked the introduction to traffic of the first English Electric / Napier Bo-Bo Type 2 loco. The first loco to traffic was D5903 which was delivered to BR at Doncaster mid-April and allocated initially to Hornsey.
D5900 was delivered in mid-May 1959 and is shown below in this beautiful photo by the late Tommy Greaves, Shedmaster at Hornsey at the time.
65 years later sees the 11th member of the class looking something like at Barrow Hill this week. The cab roof at this (no. 2) end has been painted in undercoat now to match the rest of the body.
Also finished this week is the first of the cab door frame reinforcements. Not a feature on Class 37s, these were only on Baby Deltics and Class 40s. They are prominent in the photos of the locos so are a necessary addition for nothing other than appearance purposes. The two photos shown the door frames before the installation of the reinforcements and after tacking into position, they've since been fully welded in.
