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| British Rail class 97/6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) 97651 at Radyr in August 1982. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheBritish RailClass 97/60-6-0 dieselshunting locomotives were purpose-built fordepartmental duties byRuston & Hornsby atLincoln in 1953 (97650) or 1959 (97651-654). There are minor technical differences between 97650 and the 1959 batch.
This class of five locomotives is outwardly similar to theClass 04 diesels built around the same time, but internally they are quite different. The Class 97/6 isdiesel-electric, while the Class 04 isdiesel-mechanical.
The Class 97/6 is related to the olderBritish Rail Class D1/3, which was a0-4-0 diesel-mechanical version of the Ruston & Hornsby 165DE.
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The fleet was originally numbered PWM650-654 in theWestern Region Permanent Way Machines series, hence were commonly referred to as the “PWM shunters” or simply “PWMs”.[1] Between 1979 and 1981 they were renumbered asClass 97 locomotives. Originally painted in BR Green livery, this was later superseded byBR Blue and finally Civil Engineering Yellow. They were employed at various locations, includingReading West (97650/653/654),Gloucester /Cardiff Canton /Radyr (97651) andPlymouth Laira (97652).
A notable feature of this class is that the electric traction motor can be disengaged from the wheels. This allows the locomotive to be hauled by another locomotive at speeds above 20 mph.
With theprivatisation of British Rail in the mid-1990s, these locomotives were largely made redundant. Three locomotives had already been withdrawn from traffic, and only nos. 97651 and 97654 survived long enough to pass intoEnglish Welsh & Scottish (EWS) ownership. Number 97654 was sold to an infrastructure company based inEdinburgh, and remained in use until 2005, when it was preserved. Number 97651 was one of the first locomotives sold by EWS into preservation.
Three of the five locomotives have been preserved onheritage railways.
Incomplete remains of 97653 were stored at the formerMinistry of Defence depot atLong Marston, Warwickshire until taken to Hurst's, Andover for scrap in August 2011.[2]
| Key: | Preserved | Scrapped |
|---|
| Number(s) | Built | Final livery | Withdrawn | Disposal | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97650 | PWM650 | 1953 | BR Blue | 1987 | Preserved | |
| 97651 | PWM651 | 1959 | CE Yellow | 1996 | Preserved -Swindon and Cricklade Railway | |
| 97652 | PWM652 | 1959 | CE Yellow | 1987 | Scrapped (1990) | |
| 97653 | PWM653 | 1959 | CE Yellow | 1993 | Scrapped (2011) | |
| 97654 | PWM654 | 1959 | CE Yellow | 2005 | Preserved | |
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