British Rail Class 04


The British Rail Class 04 was a 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunting locomotive class, built between 1952 and 1962 and was the basis for the later Class 03 built in the British Railways workshops.

History

The prototype locomotive was built in 1947 and served as a departmental shunter at Hither Green depot as number DS1173, before being transferred to the capital stock list as D2341 in 1967.
The Class 04 locomotives were supplied by the Drewry Car Co., which at the time had no manufacturing capability. Drewry sub-contracted the construction work to two builders both of whom built other locomotives under the same arrangement. Early locomotives were built by Vulcan Foundry, and later examples were built by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns.

Design evolution

A clear line of development can be seen in the Class 04 from the 0-4-0DM locomotives built by Andrew Barclay and Drewry/Vulcan Foundry in the early 1940s. Similar 0-6-0DM locomotives had been built before the first Class 04, and others were built for industrial use.
The design continued to develop during the construction period, although this was generally confined to minor changes, including the diameter of the wheels.
The first batch were equipped for street-running.
The second batch were fitted with conical exhaust stacks and shaped cab front windows ; these changes continued on all subsequent batches.
From the fourth batch the small cab side window of the earlier batches was replaced with a much larger window, the rear half of which slid open. The wheel diameter was also increased from 3'3" to 3'6".
From locomotive D2274 onwards, the wheel diameter was again increased, from 3'6" to 3'7".

Use on tramways

The first four of these locomotives were fitted with side skirting and cowcatchers for use on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway and on the Yarmouth Docks tramway system, since British law requires locomotives running on unfenced street trackage to be so equipped for the protection of pedestrians and animals. At least two later engines were also fitted with cowcatchers and skirting for use on the Ipswich docks tramway system.

Usage

The class was distributed throughout the British Railways system, but the significant decline in the traffic for which they were designed resulted in a large surplus of shunting engines on the network. With this reduction in the need for shunters it was decided to standardise on the Class 03 as a light diesel-mechanical shunter and the Class 08 and 09 as larger, diesel-electric shunters, leading to the withdrawal of the class 04 engines.

Technical details

Overview

Mechanically they were identical to the Class 03, with the same 24 litre Gardner engine, 5-speed epicyclic gearbox and the same overall layout. They had a straight bonnet from the front to the rear-mounted cab, unlike the 03s which bulged higher towards the rear, and the cab's rounded roof met the sides at an angle instead of with a curve as in the 03, with a lip all the way round. The internal cab layout was almost symmetrical to allow the driver to work from either side as required.

Drive Train

The engine is a Gardner 8-cyl, 4-stroke 8L3 developing at 1200 rpm, connected to a Wilson-Drewry CA5 R7, 5-speed epicyclic with RF11 spiral bevel reverse and final drive unit mounted on a jackshaft. The drive to the wheels was by coupling rods from the jackshaft.

Numbers

The prototype was numbered DS1173 in departmental service. The first 60 production units were numbered in the sequences 11100–11103, 11105–11115, 11121–11135, 11149–11160, and 11212–11229.
From 1957, new production units received numbers in the D-prefix numbering series. All existing units were renumbered in the same series, sequentially from D2200 to D2259, with the new production units continuing from D2260 to D2340. Finally, the prototype locomotive left departmental service and entered the service fleet, being re-numbered as D2341; thus the oldest example of the class was allocated the last number in the numbering sequence.

Withdrawal

The Class 04s were withdrawn from service earlier than the Class 03, being taken out of service between June 1967 and May 1972, with some sold for re-use by industry. Four were exported to Italy about 1972, with D2289 reported as still in service until 2012.
YearQuantity in
service at
start of year		Quantity
withdrawn		Locomotive numbers
196714213D2203/07/54/63/66/73/75/88/90–92, D2303/39.
196812974D2200–02/08–09/13–14/18–22/24/26–28/30/32–36/38/40/45–46,
D2250–52/55–57/59/62/68–70/81/86–87/98,
D2301/04–09/11–16/18–29/31/34–38/40–41.
19695528D2204–06/15/25/29/31/37/42–43/47/53/64/67/71/74/76–77/83/85/96,
D2300/02/10/17/30/32–33.
19702715D2210–12/44/48–49/58/60–61/65/72/78/82/97/99.
19711212D2216–17/23/39/41/79–80/84/89/93–95.
197200D2217.

Preservation

21 examples of the class were preserved. Of these, 20 were BR Class 04 locomotives, and 1 was of the same type, but operated privately by the CEGB. One preserved engine, D2267, was scrapped in 2003, leaving 20 in preservation, including 19 originally operated by British Rail.
NumberImageBuiltOriginal AllocationCurrent OwnerCurrent LocationStatusNotes
D220319/07/1952Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam RailwayOperationalOnly surviving locomotive from the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway.
D220514/03/1953ThornabyHeritage Shunters Trust, Peak RailUndergoing restorationAllocated to Middlesbrough Dock and sold to the Port Authority in 1969. Preserved at Kent and East Sussex Railway, then West Somerset Railway. Sold to the Heritage Shunters Trust in October 2012.
D220714/02/1953North Yorkshire Moors RailwayNorth Yorkshire Moors RailwayOperationalFull overhaul completed 2018. BR Green with Wasp Stripes. Usually based at Pickering C&W.
D222928/11/1955Heritage Shunters Trust, Peak RailStored, out of useAfter sale by BR, operated by the National Coal Board at Manton Wood Colliery, Worksop.
D224512/11/1956Leeds Neville HillPrivateDerwent Valley Light Railway OperationalPreviously owned by the Derwent Valley Light Railway.
D224606/12/1956Devon Diesel SocietySouth Devon RailwayOperational
D226720/01/1958North Norfolk RailwayScrappedPreviously preserved, but scrapped at NNR around April 2003.
D227114/03/1958South Devon RailwaySouth Devon Railway
D227228/03/1958Heritage Shunters TrustPeak RailStored, out of use
D227915/02/1960East Anglian Railway MuseumEast Anglian Railway MuseumOperationalPainted in BR Green with wasp stripes. Used regularly for shunting and on occasional passenger trains.
D22801960Gloucestershire Warwickshire RailwayGloucestershire Warwickshire RailwayUndergoing overhaulAfter many years stored out of use at the North Norfolk Railway, it moved to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway and in 2019 was nearing end of overhaul at Toddington diesel depot.
D228425/03/1960Heritage Shunters TrustPeak RailStored, out of use
D228900/00/1960Heritage Shunters TrustUndergoing overhaul
D229811/10/1960Buckinghamshire Railway CentreUndergoing overhaul
D230231/10/1960D2578 Locomotive Group, Moreton Business Park
D231022/12/1960Battlefield LineOperational
D232426/04/1961Barrow Hill Roundhouse
D232529/04/1961Mangapps Railway MuseumOperational
D233425/07/1961HeatonPrivateMid-Norfolk RailwayUndergoing overhaulBuilt by RS&H, at Darlington Works in 1961; allocated to Heaton from 25 July 1961; Percy Main from 8 June 1963; Gateshead from 30 January 1965; Darlington from 24 February 1968. Sold to National Coal Board 1968 for Manvers Main Colliery, then Wath, then Thurcroft, and finally Maltby. Sold for preservation in 1985.
D233730/08/1961Heritage Shunters TrustPeak RailStored, out of use
2574 10/12/1957PrivateGloucestershire Warwickshire RailwayOperationalNever a BR loco, but the second of two built by RS&H after 11212 and before 11213, for industrial use at Willington Power Station. It is actually DC/RSH 2574/7860, but has been painted to impersonate D2260. The original D2260 was scrapped in 1983.

Related engines

British industrial units

A number of almost identical industrial locomotives were supplied to various private companies in the United Kingdom. One example supplied to Adams Newport in 1948 is preserved at the Mangapps Railway Museum where it has been modified to recreate a Wisbech and Upwell Tramway class 04, using the number 11104, which was not used in the actual class 04 numbering sequence.

Export engines

The class 04 design was the basis of some related narrow gauge industrial engines built for export overseas. An example of this was the Tasmanian Government Railways V class which ran on 3'6" gauge, necessitating an outside frame design, which was the main visible difference.

Fictional locomotive

The first batch Class 04 locomotives were the basis for the character Mavis in The Railway Series books written by the Rev. W. Awdry, and the subsequent Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends TV series.

Models

Airfix produced a plastic OO kit in the 1960s; this is still available in the Dapol range as kit number C60.
Bachmann produced an example in N and 00, 0 and 1 gauge. An HO gauge model was made to be used as the Thomas and Friends character Mavis.
In O gauge Vulcan produced a Kit and Bachmann produced ready to run models.

Footnotes