Lauded by many as one of the best looking of all the first-generation diesel classes, the Class 35 ‘Hymeks’ nevertheless had short working lives, with the last withdrawn almost half a century ago. EVAN GREEN-HUGHES explains the story of this distinctive hydraulic design.
ALTHOUGH mixed traffic locomotives such as the LMS ‘Black Five’, GWR ‘Hall’ and LNER ‘B1’ 4-6-0s were the staple traction for much of the railway’s work in the early years of nationalisation, British Railways did not include a diesel design of similar capability in its 1955 Modernisation Plan. Instead the idea seemed to be that smaller locomotives working in multiple would be used. The deficiencies of this arrangement rapidly became apparent and, as a result, arrangements were put in hand for the design of a number of locomotives in the 1,500 to 1,750hp Type 3 category.
