class-26-birmingham

The BR Class 26 was a series of 47 Bo-Bo diesel-electric mixed-traffic locomotives built by Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. between 1958 and 1959 using a Sulzer 6LDA28 engine and Crompton Parkinson electrical equipment, allocated principally to the Scottish Region of British Railways where the class worked mixed-traffic freight and secondary passenger duties across the Highland and Lowland routes for over two decades. The Class 26 was closely related to the concurrent Derby-built Class 24 in its use of the same Sulzer engine, but Birmingham RC&W's own bodywork gave the Scottish locomotives a slightly different visual profile from the Derby types.

The Scottish Region allocation of the Class 26 made the class a familiar sight on the West Highland Line, the Inverness routes, and the secondary lines of central Scotland, where the mixed-traffic capability of a Type 2 Bo-Bo diesel was well suited to the varied traffic of the Scottish network. The class worked coal, oil, general freight, and secondary passenger trains across the Scottish Region system, giving reliable and economical service on routes where the heavier Type 4 locomotives were unnecessary and uneconomical.

Seven examples are preserved, including D5300, D5301, D5310, D5343, 26035, 26038, and 26043.