Cotswold Mainline Diesel Group
Owners of Class 26 No. 26043 and Class 45 No. 45149
26043 was built by the Birmingham Railway & Carriage Works in Smethwick, entered service with British Rail in October 1959 as number D5343, and was allocated to Haymarket depot. It saw use in many areas until the whole class of 46 locomotives gravitated to Scotland, where they were mainly used on secondary passenger services between Glasgow and Inverness and various freight workings.
The loco weighs 75 tons and the Sulzer in-line 6 cylinder 6LDA28B power unit develops 1160hp. Its’ top speed was 75mph. In January 1974, it was renumbered under the TOPS (Total Operations Processing System) scheme to 26043. The loco was last overhauled in May 1985, which included extensive rewiring, and removal of the steam-heat boiler, effectively making it a freight-only machine. It finished its days allocated to Inverness in the Civil Engineers pool and was withdrawn on January 18th 1993, after sustaining a traction motor earth fault while employed on snowplough duties.
Initially stored at Perth, it was taken
to MC Metals in Glasgow, where the cabs were heavily stripped to
allow for removal of the asbestos insulation. The loco was purchased
from BR in late 1993, and arrived at Toddington in April 1994.
The below pictures are of 26043 in service from the collection of the late Norman Smart of
Elgin and are copyright and used by permission. Thanks to Mike Cooper for providing them, and my apologies for taking so long in uploading them !
