The Brush Type 4 – the first 10 years

The Brush Type 4 – the first 10 years

The Brush Type 4 celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2022 and remains one of the most popular and successful locomotives ever, as EVAN GREEN-HUGHES describes.

Class 47

Above: Brush Type 4 D1523 stands at Darlington Bank Top with the up 'Tees-Tyne Pullman' in 1965. Gordon Hepburn/Rail Archive Stephenson.

As has been recounted previously, plans to replace steam with diesels on British Railways did not always go as intended. An intention to thoroughly test small numbers of prototype locomotives was overtaken by the necessity for a more rapid move away from steam. As a result many more of the prototype designs were ordered without proper testing and in some cases before even a single locomotive had been built.

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