Class 47 History Stuff.

SN1 19-5 · 25 May 2019

Hello.

I used to be a spotter a long time ago. When we still had D and E numbering. I spotted most of the class 47 Brush 4's except for three of 47304/306/373/376. As far as I remember, they were Tinsley/Immingham ones. I only ask as I was on the last HST runs last Saturday and saw 57306 (?)
at Reading, I did ask a train dude at the time what was this loco's 47--- number. He didn't know.

I hope that one of you will know.

Renumbering from D17-- to 473-- was a bit hit and miss back in the day. Re-renumbering even more so. I am interested with the loco numbers above.
Are any of these still running?

Cheers!

RailUK Forums

Richard Scott · 25 May 2019

57306 was renumbered from an ETH loco (47814, I think) so not one of those listed above. However 47306 does survive and, I believe, is at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway whilst 47376 is also extant at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. Unsure of the fate of the other two.
Hope this helps?

PHILIPE · 25 May 2019

57306 is now a DRS loco on long term lease to GWR and is used to haul EMUs around the London area and to and from Reading Depot where it is based. It is frequently used to haul the Night Riviera Sleeper Stock between Reading and Paddington and also gets an outing to Penzance on the Sleeper, in fact has been there this week, if there is a shortage of GWRs 57/6s

43096 · 25 May 2019

Richard Scott said:
57306 was renumbered from an ETH loco (47814, I think) so not one of those listed above. However 47306 does survive and, I believe, is at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway whilst 47376 is also extant at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. Unsure of the fate of the other two.
Hope this helps?

47304 cut up by EWS at Wigan CRDC in May 2000
47373 cut up by MC Metals in Nov 1994

Correct with everything else - including 57306's former number.

SN1 19-5 · 25 May 2019

I got as far as 47702 Lady Diana Spencer I think that that was her number. Spotted at Waverley when they did the PP's to Glasgow.

Years earlier, I spotted some 26/27's doing the same trips. I never worked out which loco Lady Di used to be. I lost interest soon after.

Been riding on trains whenever I can ever since. I still look out of the window looking for them. I just don't write their numbers down.

Dave91131 · 25 May 2019

47304 was originally D1785, scrapped at Wigan CRDC in 2000.
47306 was originally D1787, not sure of current location but definitely still extant in preservation.
47373 was originally D1892, scrapped by MC Metals of Glasgow in 1994.
47376 was originally D1895, preserved at Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway to my knowledge.

Hope this helps.

Helvellyn · 25 May 2019

www.class47.co.uk - a wealth of info

SN1 19-5 · 25 May 2019

47304 cut up at Springs Branch? I knew that I had seen one of the missing four. That is where I saw it! Many thanks! Been to Wigan loads of times.

I was there earlier this month. Going past Springs Branch on the train from Bryn.

Peter Mugridge · 25 May 2019

SN1 19-5 said:
I got as far as 47702 Lady Diana Spencer I think that that was her number.

47 712, not 702.

Previous identity 47 505 and before that D1948.

SN1 19-5 · 25 May 2019

Off to Gloucester we did go. EE Ii Ee I E I O! Worked right by Cheltenham Race Course a bit back. I might have to blag another work job there!

373 had the orange whirly light.
306 and 376 are still about? Smile!

Many thanks. I will keep me eyes open!

The_Train · 25 May 2019

@47403 will be frothing with excitement when he sees this thread

SN1 19-5 · 25 May 2019

Smile!

I believe that they are now called Duffs. Everybody hates them. Like I said earlier, I used to spot some of them when they was D1100 and up!

I liked the Stratford Silver Roof ones. Been on a few of the from Yarmouth to Liverpool Street in the past.

GusB · 25 May 2019

SN1 19-5 said:
Smile!

I believe that they are now called Duff's. Everybody hates them. Like I said earlier, I used to spot some of them when they was D1100 and up!

I liked the Stratford Silver Roof ones. Been on a few of the from Yarmouth to Liverpool Street in the past.

I wouldn't say everybody hates them - I certainly don't. I have fond memories of the ScotRail push-pull days, and 47/4s were the main traction on my local services for a time. The Queen Mother was a familiar sight in my younger days.

47403 · 25 May 2019

Too right not everyone hates them. They're my favourite class of loco.
Some folk think Duffs was a derogatory term for them, not to me, when I was growing up they'd always been nicknamed Duffs or Spoons, I find it's a term of endearment.
47541 The Queen Mother, then got renumbered to 47773.

The_Train said:
@47403 will be frothing with excitement when he sees this thread

Ever so slightly Mr Train. <:D

Loved the push pulls, spent many a time, whizzing back n forth between Edinburgh - Falkirk - Glssgow Queen St.
Love the Scot Rail livery too

A fine looking 47765 at Rawtenstall at the East Lancs Deisel Gala last year.

What a wonderful.thread :wub:

neilmc · 25 May 2019

I managed to see all the class 47s bar one in my trainspotting days from 1967 to 1971, giving up when I went to university that year. But I still kept an eye out when on rail journeys and saw my last one, D1937/47495 at Bristol Temple Meads in 1974. I also saw my last class 40, D395, going through Huddersfield on a coal train during that period even though I'd have died rather than admit I still had any interest in loco numbers.

SN1 19-5 · 25 May 2019

I just landed from HST land last week. Spotted a 57 that used to be a 47 when I was a lad.

I swa it and just thought.....

47403 · 26 May 2019

SN1 19-5 said:
I just landed from HST land last week. Spotted a 57 that used to be a 47 when I was a lad.

I swa it and just thought.....

.............What the hell have they done to a perfectly good 47. Bodysnatchers they're nicknamed. The 57/3's, especially the fronts, they look awful.
I did see all the 47s, 47123 being the last, had over a 3rd of them for haulage. Then they renumbered them, I slipped out the hobby on and mainly off for a decade. The GD Gennies were my favourites, my home depot so too speak, had many a mile off 47401-47409, normally on the Trans Pennines turns. When the 158s took over from the 47s, I spat my dummy.out and said, ok that's it, no more. Mind you beer, gigs n women had became more alluring too.

Chris217 · 26 May 2019

I loved the 47s.
My favourite one...and a mileage machine
was 47 465.
My last one I needed was 47 467 which was an Inverness machine.
I finally got to see it in 1989 when I moved to Liverpool.
Ha,made sure I got it for haulage too as it was on a TransPennine service.
I miss these on the Cross Country services.
Probably why I hate voyagers.

GusB · 26 May 2019

Chris217 said:
I loved the 47s.
My favourite one...and a mileage machine
was 47 465.
My last one I needed was 47 467 which was an Inverness machine.
I finally got to see it in 1989 when I moved to Liverpool.
Ha,made sure I got it for haulage too as it was on a TransPennine service.
I miss these on the Cross Country services.
Probably why I hate voyagers.

My last 47 haulage would probably have been a Cross-country working - 90/91, perhaps. Actually, it was the day that Billy Graham was preaching at Pittodrie Stadium. My friend and I went to Aberdeen in his beige Metro and spent the day not going to hear Billy Graham*. We did Aberdeen to Stonehaven on a then new 158, then returned on a 47-hauled train which I think had come from Penzance. By then the Inverness - Aberdeen route was all Sprinters (156 and about to go 158) so this is definitely my last memory of Duff haulage.

* My friend's parents were under the impression that we were both going to hear the sermon. I was aware of the event, and why the rest of his family were making their way to the Granite City, but I was well and truly atheist at this point and didn't care for it. I was unaware of the dishonesty going on. It was a rather tense conversation around their dinner table later that evening when I was asked what I thought of the event, and blurted out that we didn't actually go...

47403 · 26 May 2019

47402, 47403 and 47550 were beasts and big favourites but when the 143s were pulled in the North East due to some fault, a unit shortage meant we got loco hauled locals between Boro n Carlisle.

A whole magnitude of NB locos got to play out. Two 47s in a whole raft of 47s stand out, 47363 and 47361, 2 absolute TE stonkers but these turns threw out a few more, 47120, 47207, 47291, 47305, 47319, 47348, 47350 were ones off the top of my head amongst the 31s, 37s, ETH 47s too and the odd wagon pushed into service too, the wagons I tended to refuse, unless there was something decent coming back.

The Stratford 47s would cause excitement in the North East for my mates n I. The mere sight of a white roof, had us looking through our havasavks for the platform 5', thinking this could be a cop, not only that, the SF 47 were probably the celebrities of the 47s too. White roof, always immaculate, mostly named too. Also the Western region ones, with the plates positioned low on the locos. They were also rarities in the North East. Later on the GWR Green 47s became similar celebrities too.
Also GD 47s, wether in BR Blue or Large logo, were never truly blue, caked in grime, most GD 47s were 90% greyey blue and were easily indentifiable due to the town's cost of arms being above the number

I remember starting a North East Rover, walking into Central and the Newcastle to Poole, maybe Penzance, one or the other, was already on platform 8, so I walked down the Platform to be met by Brunswick Green 47484. Great start off to a week's worth of bashing. To York I went with that beast.

xotGD · 26 May 2019

While some people wanted to get a 47, the majority of bashers were just totally withered when one rocked up in place of the anticipated Deltic, Hoover, Peak, Whistler or Syphon*.

'Bowled out by a Duff' was an all too common experience!

Other nicknames are/were Strumbox, Strummer, Joe Strummer, Joseph, Sir Keith Joseph, etc.

* That would be class 55, 50, 45/46, 40 or 37

Chris217 · 26 May 2019

Ha,I love talking about my class 47 bashing days.
Most noticeable disappointment though
was going up to Scotland for a week to get all my Scottish beasts in only to get
47 510 Fair Rosamund on an Aberdeen to Inverness service lol.
I wonder where they got that from?
Got to say the Push Pull services were always entertaining.
I remember D200 40 122 was on one of the overnights which I rejected,to do
47 105 which was working south.
Must have been around 1980.
Was tempted to do the 40 but it had 1 half of a mk1 as seated accommodation,the rest were sleepers
so I knew I wasnt getting on that!

Bevan Price · 26 May 2019

The renumbering history is quite complicated. Apart from 47401-20, the rest of the 47/4s were mostly renumbered in order of fitting with ETH, but with no simple linear relationship to their previous numbers.
Only managed haulage by 509 of them - the 3 others self-destructed before I could get them.

SN1 19-5 · 26 May 2019

Don't know how many I got hauled by. Some from Gloucester- Derby, Brum, Bristol etc. Some from Yarmouth to London/Norwich. Some from Victoria to Leeds. Edinburgh to Glasgow and back. LDS was one of them.
Never really was worried about haulage, or, cabbing either.
I did cab just about every loco that was at Horton Road on a Sunday though. If I was there. I'm not a fradger!
I did have some Western haulages. I haven't a clue what they are though, apart from the one that went up to Carlisle a few years ago.
That was a good day out. Pity that Eastleigh didn't fill her up with diseasel. We had to get re-fuelled at Carlisle.
Methinks that there were 508 47's running around when I was looking for them. Two are still around? I like that!

fowler9 · 26 May 2019

I used to hate it when a Spoon turned up on a train I was catching but I would kill for one now. I live backing on to the Liverpool spur of the WCML near West Allerton station right by a signal so you would get them stopped there all the time light engine at the bottom of the garden. Just took them for granted.

Chris217 · 27 May 2019

The ETH ones were the best.
Good for accumulating mileage
if you were a basher.
One of my last NB 47s on the
mainline was Freightliner liveried 47 150 on Warrington BQ-Crewe drags.
Mostly worked by RES 47s back then though.
I had full respect for 47s even though they weren't my favourite class.
Tbh,I enjoyed all locomotive haulages..
At least some LH trains have returned over the last few years.
A very good friend of mine who works for Freightliner said to me once
" the 47s were a magnificent machine to work with,but by the time we got them,they were falling apart."
"The 66s were a Godsend and are a perfect product for what they have to do here"

My favourite livery for 47s was BR Blue large logo with Inter City executive a close second.

Coming from Cardiff,we used to have many 47s and 37s day in day out,and although if you were a 37 fan,you usually hated 47s and vice versa.
47s played a vital part in BR history and will never be forgotten whatever side of the fence you sat lol.
Not a fan of bodysnatchers though it still beats getting on a vomiter...sorry!
Voyager!

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