How the Class 57 continues to play a prominent role in today's railway

David Clough explains how the Class 57s came into being, and reviews their continuing relevance to today’s railway.

When diesel motive power was divided between operators in the lead-up to railway privatisation, Freightliner received an allocation of 125 Class 47s, of which seven were stored and four withdrawn.

These were generally well-advanced in their maintenance cycle, but they had to handle some heavy trains and were seen as unreliable.

It took until 1997 for the company to announce plans to address the situation.

During the 1980s, BR’s engineers had judged that the Class 47 engine was becoming beyond long-term overhaul, and Brush Traction privately had discussions with General Motors to offer a re-engineering project based on the substitution of a GM power unit.

The project was dropped because it was judged too much of a hot potato, but was revived after rail privatisation in 1994.

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