Class 47 (Brush Type 4)

The Class 47, known before the 1968 TOPS renumbering as the Brush Type 4, was the standard main-line diesel of British Railways. More were built than of any other British main-line diesel class, and they worked passenger and freight across every region for decades. A reader arriving from a period Ian Allan ABC would have known them as the Brush Type 4, in the D1500 and D1100 number series.

Design and build

The class was built from 1962 to 1968 by Brush Traction at Loughborough and by British Railways at Crewe, to a Type 4 power rating, on a Co-Co wheel arrangement. It was powered by a Sulzer twin-bank engine, a design chosen after the earlier and heavier Type 4 designs proved thirsty on axle weight. In all, 512 were built, making it the largest class of main-line diesel locomotive in Britain. The class entered service after 1960, and so belongs to the Modernisation Plan fleet that was replacing the steam described elsewhere in this archive.

Numbering

As built the class carried numbers in the D1500 to D1999 series and a further batch in the D1100 to D1111 range. Under the TOPS scheme introduced from 1968 the class was renumbered into the 47xxx series, with sub-classes reflecting train-heating equipment and, later, slow-speed control for merry-go-round coal traffic. The pre-TOPS to TOPS correspondence is set out in the standard class histories.

In service and preservation

The Class 47 became the general-purpose main-line diesel of British Railways, at home on express passenger, parcels, and heavy freight across all regions. The class remained in front-line service for many years and a number survive today, both in preservation and in continued main-line use with charter and freight operators. Because this class postdates 1960, it is filed here as part of the Modernisation Plan story rather than the 1960 snapshot.