A pair of Germans that thought they were Hydraulic, but found themselves spinning a Genny ! And outrageously stuffed inside what many thought was a Class 47 bodyshell. You know Maybach engines also powered the Tiger & King Tiger German Panzers of world war two, and I'm probably the last person alive who's worked on both ! (The worlds only working Tiger with original Maybach engine today, is part of the British National Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset. It was captured by the British from under both German and American military noses at the Kasserine pass in Tunisia).
Such a shame this unique and good looking (and sounding!) locomotive wasn't preserved. Even more of a shame that the section of line through Derbyshire shown was closed.
I was based at Old Oak common from 1969 as fireman/second man after transferring from Crewe..I'm sure got to work this about 1970 from Paddington to Birmingham new street, I pushed this through the 100mph to about 108, my regular driver and I shared the driving he drove one way and me the other...This was a regular practice at that time anyway,I preferred the class 47 to all he rest they were a good loco....However the westerns class 52 were another powerful and comfortable ride, the class 47s were 2750HP at the time but they reduced them to 2500 for a reason that now escapes me...I left the railways about 1975 as the shifts were brutal and seriously interfered with my love life...
I believe the de-rating was introduced in because of failures in the crankcases due to overstress. Must have worked OK are there are still a few about :-)
I believe ALCO engines also had a similar issue? One locomotive series here (only 2 examples, Romanian Railways class 61) had ALCOs fitted and initially 3000HP untill they were limited at 2600HP... maybe it was the same reason, or ALCOs had other issues? (apart from consumption, misery they generated, etc)
She was allocated to Bristol Bath Road for the bulk of her time on WR - finally ending up in Ebbw Junction. OOC must have 'borrowed' her for that turn. That sort of thing did happen from time to time. In 1970 she had just had a major overhaul at Swindon, once run in she would have been in fine fettle for high speed running.
I saw Falcon twice, the first time was in Paddington when I realised the headcode wasn't in the same position as the Brush 4 beside it. The second time was a couple of years later when I saw it run through Didcot. Pity it wasn't preserved.
+Graham Bentley I miss that sound, used to send me to sleep when i used to travel on the Brighton/Victoria line, lol, lost count of the time i missed my station because i had fallen asleep, a mixture of the old jointed track, and the soft comfortable seats of the old class 421's.
The Derbyshire footage appears to be showing the old Monsal Head viaduct over the River Wye. Now closed but developed into a brilliant cycle and walking route. This stretch of line was about three miles south of the busy countryside junction at Millersdale which forms part of the same cycle and walking route. Sad we've lost this stretch of line and a magnificent loco but all is not lost with this wonderful location.
Travelled two times from Paddington to Cardiff 1967/68 with Falcon . I used to persuade my mum and ask " can I look at the engine " thats how I remember Falcon .
During the 70's this Loco FALCON (Class 53) was always to be found on Ebbw Junction Shed in Newport Gwent until 1976 & always carried the old number 1200 as it was not allocated a TOPS number, it was in the old BR blue colour scheme, I believe it was scrapped @ Newport in Cashmore's scrap merchants, just a shame it was not saved to put into York Railway Museum.
I actually saw Falcon once sitting alone in a platform at Kings Cross. I searched my Ian Allan book but it wasn't there it was so new! Sadly, I didn't have a camera with me.
+batman51 I saw it at the very end of its life pulling a coal train through Cardiff station, I was about 6 at the time and couldn't work out why everyone was going mad about it
I love British trains.. I'm Moroccan.. We have mostly French trains here Japanese one "Hitachi" electric loco was built only for Morocco.. and some American diesels.. And some Italians and Belgium EMUs. I love them too.. And the TGV project is going to be done soon.. We already bought some TGV duplex units.
I was a freight guard at Ebbw jcn MPD in the early seventies ,the Falcon was based on that depot , it was only used on the branch to Uskmouth power station dropping off and picking up at various foundry and steel works on the way . A local enthusiast got on the loco and unbolted the falcon emblem the police found it on his bedroom wall ! In the video its only a "picture" when we had it the falcon was a hefty casting. The loco spent more time under repair than working and as a one off there were no spares
The Weston’s were mainly Laira based when I was a spotter between 1973-79 although they were withdrawn early 1977, the last 2 I saw passing Canton Depot bridge was 1013 & the final Paddington to Swansea normal service Western I saw was 1023 Western Fusilier still going strong in early 1977, I was lucky to get around Swindon Works in 1974 /75 to see earlier types being cut up Along with lots of 08,24 & 25’s few 31’s & the odd class 40 & plenty of Class 52 in various derelict States.
I remember in the sixties when this loco was sheded at Bristol Bath road it was often rostered on the summer school holidays bucket and spade relief ( not time tabled) Bristol to painton and evening return, also appeared to be used for traction training , it certainly made some spirited runs. TC.
The most powerful of the diesel prototypes was HS4000 Kestrel completed in '67. As the number implies she had 4000 hp. She ran trials for approx 3 years and then was sold to Russia. At that time, she was really more powerful than the British Railway system had operational requirements for.
@@bobtudbury8505 true we were a world leader up to the sixties, the degenerate politicians joined that awful institution without our consent, just look at the state of education today absolutely woeful, I gather the reason those new degenerate pilitcians are happy to let the illegals in is because we have no workforce who can make anything, build anything or repair anything, thanks to 50 years almost of cowardice in high government
I love these locos but I am a ‘Western lover’ at heart! The class 52’s had such short lives 😪 47’s still run today! Lickey incline either makes or breaks a new loco! Many modern locos struggle on it!
Extremely rare sight at 4:00. As this is a special test, (no passengers) permission for the banking engine, a class 94xx ex GWR design 0-6-0PT tank, has been instructed to follow the train, at a given distance, should the test train grind to a halt. This is normally totally forbidden as you effectively have two trains in section, and a crash between two trains becomes a possibility. Normal banking in steam days allowed the banker to push without being coupled up, and to drop back at the top of the gradient, either in sight of a signalbox, or at a point where a plunger communication could indicate to the signalman you had stopped safely but where still occupying the section. The banker in most cases where banking was necessary, would then crossover to return to a layby siding at the bottom of the hill.
Some have commented that it looks like a 47. In fact it was built utilising a pair of Class 31 cabs with a lower headcode panel and two piece windscreen instead of three. It even utilised the same bogie type as Class 31.
Definitely a Brush product in all but the engines. I didn't know about the bogies though. Does that mean the 47's have the same bogies as the 31's. or did the former take its wheelset from Lion?
The cab is nothing like a class 31, certainly has a family resemblance to a class 47. The bogies were similar but had 3 traction motors per bogies compared to the 31’s two.
Boris Johnson to British manufacturers... "I want a new diesel electric loco capable of 3000hp , please submit tenders (excuse the pun) for a fleet of 500 units." How many British companies could fulfill this request entirely within our shores ?
Brois Johnson oh our party privatised and then sold them for a cost prise. Damn why did Labour win and then I could a theacher all over again.. I know just mable some right wing clap trap and John and Jane Smith lap it up.
I believe the loco never got over 95mph and was happiest below that, it was powerful and often favoured fir the evening run to Wales with heavy weight passenger work it was smooth, powerful but not fast
I saw Falcon at Reading in the summer of 1968. By then, the engine had a metal nameplate falcon motif. The 94XX salutes the cameraman on the Lickey Incline! Falcon was great but Sulzer not Maybach got the job! Life can be so unfair.
I'm interested that the designers took the trouble to equip the loco with a scoop to replenish the heating boiler from the water troughs. Surely they knew that water troughs wouldn't be around for long and would disappear within a few years when steam engines were withdrawn? It must have been part of the B.R. spec. I doubt there was ever a plan to keep and maintain water troughs just so that diesel locos could top up their train heating boilers?
Falcon was like a 47 on Steroids. We used to watch it go though Didcot and it was a bit special, almost a Western. The two other oddities in those days were the Blue Pullman and double headed 37's. A pair of Warships on the Cornish Riviera on Reading West curve were pretty awesome too.
At about 3.20 liked it when the commentator mentioned the gradient on the "Lickey Incline" as being 1 in 38,when the film shows the gradient as being 1in 37.75
Did they make a similar film for the Kestral, I was surprised when I checked it, but that proceeded this design, but strangely despite its success in trials was handed back to Brush after little more than a year, while they kept the Falcon for five years before breaking it up.
@@grahamariss2111 Mainly that BR policy was moving away from mixed traffic locos and to specialist freight and passenger ones. HS4000 was packed full of stuff which made maintenece hard, and there was no production line for the Sulzer engine, which by then EE had the rights to develop.
They might have done. I can vaguely remember seeing some footage as an item in a TV programme in the 1960s; maybe it was a death sentence appearing on 'Tomorrows World'! Couldn't find any Brush footage, but this is useful: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_HS4000
There isn't a modern equivalent as she was a 'one off' and British Rail decided against twin engined units although she was a good locomotive. Modern british railway diesels have around about the same horsepower but advances in technology make them far more efficient in getting that horsepower down onto the rail, than locomotives being designed and built in the late 50's early 60's could ever be. The most powerful of the diesel prototypes was HS4000 Kestrel completed in '67. She ran trials for approx 3 years and then was sold to Russia. At that time, she was really more powerful then the British Railway system had operational requirements for.
Falcon: I’m a good machine, please build my sisters so I’m a class of 53s! British Railways: No! No! That will never do! Build over a hundred Class 17s instead! Falcon: :(
Was this the Falcon that was based on Ebbw Jcn MPD around 1974? if so it was used on mundane trip workings on the branch to Uskmouth power stn and factories and a foundry en route
Indeed it was ! Its best years were behind it by then so it just pottered about the Newport area on steel trains and the workings that you mention . It was scrapped at John Cashmores yard at the end of the Dock St. branch in Newport more or less right under my nose as I lived very near to it .
Her prime function at ebbw junction was working the air braked iron ore trains, for which her extra horsepower was useful. She finally went to Cashmore's in March 76
I assume this was the prototype for the Brush type 4's (later Class 47) locos but with more power? Looks very similar but production class 47's only had 2,500hp with a TE of 60,000lbs. Lovely film I remember seeing class 47's coming out of Crewe works in undercoat paint in early 1960's.
I too would have guessed it was the prototype for the BR Class 47, merely going by how it looks haha! I know there is more to it than the shell. Did not like Lion, why was it painted that awful off white colour?
Falcon was a prototype based on the Class 52 but using electric transmission with Brush electrics. You can see the similarities with the Class 47 style power handle. Was a great loco and a shame it got cut instead of preserved.
Lion was not the 'prototype' for the Brush Type 4 anymore than Falcon was. Lion was built by BRC&W collaborating with AEI. The only thing in common was the Sulzer engine, just as Falcon shared the same engine (s) as the Westerns - which is why the bulk of Falcon's operational life was spent with the 'Western' fleet, because the depots they used had the knowledge and equipment for servicing the Maybach engines. The Brush type 4 (class 47's) never had a prototype, but insyead had a batch of twenty built straight off the drawing board for evaluation before Lion even started trials - which led to further orders from Brush and also batches built at Crewe works.
The story of how the Class 47s came to be built is laid out in detail in Class 47 50 Years of Locomotive History published in 2012. It explains how Falcon and indeed Lion fit into what happened. Its a complicated tale for sure.
The Deltic had good clean lines.......a cleaner design than the Falcon imo. The Falcon looks very like class 47. Was it preferred (class 47) over the Falcon?
@Cj Schneider The loco used Maybach engines correct. These engines were built under licence by Bristol - Siddeley and were used by Brush as it meant they kept everytjhing "in house" as both they and Bristol Siddeley were part of the Hawker Siddeley Group.
The original Maybach engine wasn't up to the job and was having metallurgy problems, when Siddley got involved they used different materials that were being used in aero engines, these new materials made it possible to use the Maybach engine with relatively few adjustments, as there was only ever one loco built they really didn't have any spares for maintenance, such a terrible shame it was a great loco
As much as I like this prototype, you can't really say 19 coaches were started successfully from a standstill when you clearly see a 9400 Pannier behind the train, both as it's climbing and as it crests the incline.
its basically a hybrid between the 47's and Westerns. It had twin Maybach engines where as the 47's just had one Sulzer engine. apparently the electric bits were similar
It was not a prototype for the class 47's. The 47's had no prototype, but they built a pilot batch of 20 straight off the drawing board. Falcon was an attempt to use the the light weight high revving Maybach engines of the Western Hydraulics with electric rather than hydraulic traction. However, the BTC decided against high revving and twin engined units so it wasn't developed further.
