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Fifty years ago on the 17th February 1958, the first 鈥淲arship鈥� diesel engine pulled a train from Paddington. Four months later, it was the turn of the Cornish Riviera to get the diesel treatment. The introduction of these locomotives meant the days of the King and Castle steam engines were numbered.

Warship class diesel introduced 1958

Soon after the railways were nationalised in 1948, a programme of modernisation was proposed. Steam locomotives were to be replaced by diesel and electric engines much as they already had been in the USA and on the continent.听

There were no plans to electrify the railway to Cornwall so the Western Region of British Railways turned to Germany for inspiration.听 There managers saw a revolutionary diesel design that used hydraulics to transfer the motion from the engine to the wheels (all other BR regions chose electrical methods which made the locomotives heavier).

So it was that in 1958, the 鈥淲arship鈥� class of diesel engine left the factory in Glasgow and took to the rails. The first one D600 called 鈥淎ctive鈥� left Paddington on February 17th with a train for Bristol. In June, another member of the class D601 鈥淎rk Royal鈥� pulled the Cornish Riviera from London to Penzance.

Western Region managers were not happy with the power to weight ratio of these first engines so they set about making their own. In June 1958, the first one D800 鈥淪ir Brian Robertson鈥� left the assembly plant in Swindon. A total of 70 more were to follow over the next four years 鈥� all named after Royal Navy warships.听 Each weighed 79 tons and generated 2200 horse power.

Western class diesel introduced 1962

The Warships were joined by other locomotives with hydraulic transmissions during the 1960s.听 They replaced steam and helped cut the journey time on the Cornish Riviera express between London to Penzance from 6 hours 40 minutes in the summer of 1953 to 6 hours 25 minutes in 1963 and 5 hours 25 minutes in 1970.

These Western Region locomotives were retired before their time; victims of a decision to standardise electric transmission across the whole of the network.

Today only two Warship diesel locos remain in preservation 鈥� one on the East Lancashire Railway and one on the Severn Valley Railway.