CLASS 47 No. 47 635 SERVICES ON SUNDAY 17th JUNE 2007

News Item and Press Release from Andrew P.M. Wright - dated 13th June 2007
Official photographer & press officer, Swanage Railway.
Photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright unless otherwise acknowledged.
To view a larger version of any photograph on this page, just click on the thumbnail photograph and subsequently use the Back button on your browser to return to this page.

To see the full set of over 50 photos of No. 47 635 in service on Friday 25th May 2007, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

By Andrew P.M. Wright.

This Sunday, June 17th, 2007, offers the rare chance to ride behind a throbbing 120 ton Class 47 diesel locomotive on the Swanage Railway - all day if you like!

To illustrate what visitors can expect to see on Sunday, the photos on this page show No. 47 635 on Friday 25th May 2007 hauling the Swanage Railway's innovative Friday Night Special fish and chip evening trains, driven by Pete Pickering with second man Mick Hatton. For full timetable details for Sunday 17th June, please click here.

The Brush-designed diesel-electric locomotives used to run on the Swanage branch during the summers of 1965 and 1966 when they occasionally deputised for steam traction on the summer Sundays-only Eastleigh to Swanage train.

For Class 47/4 No. 47 635 is operating in the second path between Swanage, Herston, Harman's Cross, Corfe Castle and Norden park and ride throughout this Sunday with the steam service which will be operating in the first path - steam and diesel passing at Harman's Cross station.

And the driver is set to be Mike Standhaft, former Swanage Railway operations manager and now senior operations inspector, who was a fireman and driver with BR at Bournemouth motive power depot at the central station who still recalls driving the first Class 47 down to Swanage in the summer of 1965.

Departures from Norden park and ride are at 11.10am, 12.30pm, 1.50pm, 3.10pm, 4.30pm and 5.43pm while departures from Swanage at 10.30am, 11.50am, 1.10pm, 2.30pm, 3.50pm and 5.10pm.

Adult day rover tickets for unlimited travel cost from £9.50 while concession day rover tickets cost from £6.50.

For the technically minded, No. 47 635 is 63 feet long, 12 feet high and nine feet wide. The wheelbase on its four bogies is 14 feet while the diameter of each wheel is three feet nine inches. The load on each axle of the Class 47 is 19 tons while the locomotive's fuel tank capacity is 810 gallons of diesel. When operating on the national system, No. 47 635 had a top speed of 95 mph.

When the Class 47s first came out in September, 1962 - the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the month that the last 'Pines Express' ran on the Somerset and Dorset line - they were originally weighted at 2,750 brake horsepower. Because of problems with the Sulzer-manufactured twelve cylinder four-stoke LDA 28-C engine on the locomotive, the power rating of the Class 47s was downrated shortly after they came into use to 2,580 brake horsepower.

Class 47 No. 47 635 was built for British Railways at Crewe and was brought into traffic on 29th July, 1964. Its builder's number was 'Crewe 400' and it was outshopped in the then two-tone BR green livery.

During its working life, the locomotive carried two names - 'Jimmy Milne' between 7th April, 1987, and April, 1991, and then 'The Lass O' Ballochmyle' between 25th July, 2003, and March, 2004.

The locomotive's first number was D 1606 which it carried between July, 1964, and April, 1974. Between April, 1974, and January, 1986, the Class 47 carried the number 47 029 and the standard BR blue livery while its final number - carried from January, 1986 - in national railway service was 47 635.

During this final period, the locomotive carried its current livery of BR blue with a large white 'double-arrow' BR logo and first a grey roof and then a blue roof.

It was in January, 1986, that the locomotive was became a 47/4 - meaning that it was fitted with ETH (electrical train heating system)

While D1606 from July, 1964, the locomotive was based at the following depots:
07/64: Swansea Landore.
02/65: Cardiff Canton.
12/65: Old Oak Common.
10/67: Bristol Bath Road.
11/67: Old Oak Common, London.
10/68: Cardiff Canton.
03/69: Swansea Landore.
1/70: Stafford Road, Midlands.
3/73: Saltley, Birmingham.
5/73: Bescot, Midlands.
2/74: Cardiff Canton.
While 47 029 from April, 1974, the locomotive was based at the following depots:
2/75: Plymouth Laira.
11/78: Cardiff Canton.
5/81: Plymouth Laira.
10/82: Cardiff Canton.
06/84: Bristol Bath Road.
While 47 635 from January, 1986, the locomotive was based at the following depots:
1/86: Eastfield, Midlands.
5/87: Inverness.
11/90: Crewe diesel depot.
12/90: Crewe with Regional Railways.
1/91: Tinsley, Midlands.
1/91: Tinsley with Railfreight Distribution.
7/91: Crewe diesel depot.
7/91: Crew diesel depot on parcel duty.
1/99: EWS Crewe and available for duties countrywide.
3/00: EWS Crewe and no longer available for duties countrywide.
12/2000: EWS Crewe and available for duties countrywide..
4/01: EWS Crewe in the dual brake pool and available for duties countrywide.
1/04: Toton, Midlands.
3/04: Toton, Midlands - EWS in storage but available for use.
4/07: Moved to Eastleigh.
10/05/07: Entered preservation at Swanage.
Thanks to Bournemouth signalman and Class 47 authority Steve Anstey for the information about the history of No. 47 635.