It is now 60 years since the first Class 47, No D1500, entered service with British Railways. For many years, this type was the cornerstone of the locomotive fleet, capable of working a wide variety of both passenger and freight services. It was at the forefront of modernisation, being the favoured motive power for the new Freightliner containerised freight trains and the Merry-Go-Round coal trains taking coal from pit to power station with continuous loading and unloading.
This book reviews the first 20 years of service. All the key technical changes are depicted along with the different liveries created in BR’s evolution from original two-green to the new corporate blue and yellow and on to the futuristic Large Logo first seen in the early 1980s.
Photographs are arranged into chapters, each covering a different subject, including:
- Background and The First Order
- Design Changes and Early Modifications
- Green Gives Way to Blue
- The Early 1970s
- Maintaining the Fleet
- Special Trains and Workings
- The Later 1970s
Each chapter consists of an introduction, followed by a series of photographs of the locomotives at work. Each photograph is accompanied by a caption. 96 pages.