class-50

The BR Class 50 was a series of 50 Co-Co diesel-electric locomotives built by English Electric at their Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows, between 1967 and 1968, designed as powerful Type 4 locomotives for the West Coast Main Line north of Crewe where electrification had not yet reached and where the demanding Anglo-Scottish expresses required maximum sustained power. The Class 50 used the English Electric 16CSVT engine producing 2,700 bhp, giving it the highest power output of any English Electric diesel type and making it capable of hauling the heaviest Anglo-Scottish expresses at express speeds on the non-electrified sections of the WCML between Crewe and Glasgow.

The Class 50's WCML career was relatively brief: WCML electrification reached Glasgow in 1974, and the class was transferred en masse to the Western Region where it replaced the withdrawn diesel-hydraulic fleet on WR express services for the next decade and a half. The Western Region crews and enthusiasts adopted the Class 50 warmly — they were powerful, fast, and handsome locomotives that gave WR express services genuine quality — and the class worked the Paddington–Plymouth and Paddington–Bristol expresses until progressive withdrawal from the mid-1980s as HST units took over. Many were given names during the WR years.

An exceptional seventeen examples are preserved — more than a third of the class — reflecting the widespread affection for the Class 50 among British railway enthusiasts.