Twilight of the Peaks - Full

RailsThe around Aylesbury Vale Twilight of the Peaks

Compiled by Colin Alexander Images from The Transport Treasury archive

The Twilight of the Peaks

The

Twilight of the Peaks

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The Twilight of the Peaks

© Images and design: Transport Treasury 2025. Text: Colin Alexander ISBN 978-1-913893-65-1 First published in 2025 by Transport Treasury Publishing Limited. 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe, HP13 7PJ Totem Publishing is an imprint of Transport Treasury Publishing.

The copyright holders hereby give notice that all rights to this work are reserved.

Aside from brief passages for the purpose of review, no part of this work may be reproduced, copied by electronic or other means, or otherwise stored in any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the Publisher. This includes the illustrations herein which shall remain the copyright of the copyright holder. www.ttpublishing.co.uk Printed by Gutenberg Press Ltd, Gudja Road, Tarxien, Malta, GXQ 2902 ‘The Twilight of the Peaks’ is one of a series of books on specialist transport subjects produced in strictly limited numbers under the Totem Publishing imprint using material only available at The Transport Treasury.

Front cover. A superb example of nocturnal photography, and one which brings back many memories. Class 45/0 45076 waits beneath John Dobson’s graceful, curved train shed at platform 8, Newcastle Central, with 1V50, the 20.00 overnight mail train for Bristol on 26th January 1983. A Metro-Cammell Class 101 DMU stands in platform 11, probably on a Carlisle service. 45076 was introduced to traffic in December 1961 as D134, and withdrawn in November 1986. With the exception of the once-preserved 45015, which was broken up as recently as 2021, 45076 was one of the last Peaks to be scrapped, as late as 1994. This train included passenger vehicles until May 1982, and was one that my mates and I used to travel on regularly, sometimes for the entire 300 mile journey.

Back cover. Unlike their Class 44 predecessors, which were named after actual Peaks, the names applied to selected Class 45s and a solitary Class 46 were, with one exception, on a regimental theme. 45144, the former D55, was named Royal Signals, and this close-up of its nameplate and regimental crest dates from 26th October 1985. The Latin motto “certa cito” means “swift & sure”. This locomotive came out of Crewe works in September 1962 and was in service until December 1987. The simple, stylish borderless nameplates with Gill Sans lettering was a design unique to the BR Sulzer Type 4s.

Frontispiece. When I first began to take an interest, Gateshead shed had an allocation of half of the Class 46s, the others belonging to Laira depot in Plymouth.

Laira was home to 46026 Leicestershire And Derbyshire Yeomanry, but the locomotive was taken out of service in September 1980, and sent to Swindon works for storage. Happily, in November of that year it was returned to traffic and reallocated to Gateshead. Gateshead was not normally known for keeping its locomotives in pristine condition. 46026 was however a rare exception, and was clearly Gateshead’s pride and joy. It looks stunning inside the shed here in the company of Class 08 diesel shunter 08370, on 27th March 1983.

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A

Introduction

s part of its 1950s Modernisation Plan, which ultimately aimed to eliminate steam traction, British Railways ordered 174 diesel locomotives of fourteen different designs in order to evaluate different engines and transmissions, etc. This programme was known as the Pilot Scheme; its intention being to evaluate the reliability and performance of each type in service before commissioning larger orders. What happened in practice was that bulk orders were placed for several of those designs before any long-term testing was completed, but that’s another story. This book focuses on one of those fourteen designs that was an undoubted success.

The twelve-cylinder version of the same Sulzer engine, the 2,300hp 12LDA28A, was used to power the other Derby-built class, the most powerful of the Pilot Scheme designs. Ten of these locomotives were built, employing the same 1CoCo1 wheel arrangement used on Oliver Bulleid’s three prototype diesels 1020110203, and on the English Electric Type 4s. The sixteen-wheel design was used to spread the weight and reduce axle loading.

The new locomotives were numbered D1-D10, of Type C/Type 4, later Class 44. All ten were named after mountains in England and Wales, so they became known as the ‘Peaks’. The first one, D1 Scafell Pike appeared on test in April 1959, entering service in August, and was allocated to Camden shed in north London.

Eleven of the Pilot Scheme designs came from private manufacturers, with very mixed results, but three types were constructed in BR’s own workshops, including two diesel-electric classes built at the former Midland Railway works at Derby. One of these was a batch of twenty Type B, later Type 2 Bo-Bo locomotives powered by six-cylinder, 1,160hp 6LDA28 engines. The power units were built

by Vickers-Armstrong of Barrow-in-Furness under licence from established Swiss manufacturer Sulzer. They would become Class 24, and would eventually number 151 units.

The second of the original Peaks, D2 Helvellyn, was fitted with an uprated 2,500hp version of the Sulzer engine and trialled on the West Coast Main Line. At this time it was recorded at a maximum speed of 100mph, 10mph faster than the Peaks would officially be permitted in normal service. This uprating of the power unit was achieved by charge air-cooling, and it meant that the 12-cylinder Sulzer was the most powerful diesel engine on Western European railways at that time.

The first ten Peaks were initially used on express passenger trains on the West Coast and Midland main lines out of Euston and St Pancras, and although they were a success, from 1962 onwards they spent the rest of their working lives on Midland Region freight services based at Toton depot.

As the tower blocks of Gateshead recede into the distance, Class 45/0 45019 gathers speed past Ouston Junction, Birtley, heading for Durham with a Newcastle Central to Liverpool Lime Street train. It is overtaking a pair of English Electric’s dependable 1,750hp Class 37s, 37173 & 37101 as they run parallel with a freight train on the slow line. The date is Tuesday 22nd February, 1983. Derby-built 45019 was originally D33, and entered BR service in 1961. The two class 37s, meanwhile, soldiered on well into the 1990s.

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The Twilight of the Peaks Like many of the other Pilot Scheme types, the design was perpetuated before any long-term trials were completed. The production series Peaks had the 2,500hp Sulzer 12LDA28B installed, and also featured different traction motor gearing compared to the first ten locomotives. They began to enter service from 1960 onwards. Numbers D11-D137 were equipped with Crompton-Parkinson electrical equipment, and would become Class 45, and D138-D193 with Brush equipment were later Class 46. As well as being powerful, they were also the heaviest diesel locomotives on BR, with the Class 46s weighing almost 138 tons.

Of the class 45s, D11 to D49 were built at Derby, and D50 to D137 were constructed at Crewe. All 56 members of Class 46 were Derby-built. For more than two decades, the versatile production series Peaks were the mainstay of the Midland main line from St Pancras to Sheffield, Leeds, Carlisle and on to Glasgow and Edinburgh. They also had a long association with the northeast to southwest route from Newcastle to Bristol and beyond. The Class 46s were used on the East Coast Main Line alongside the English Electric Deltics (Class 55) and Brush Type

4s (Class 47); and in their latter years the Class 45s almost monopolised services on the arduous Trans-Pennine route between York and Liverpool.

On the 1 in 100 gradient of ‘The Long Drag’ up to Aisgill Summit on the Settle & Carlisle line, the Peaks were capable of twice the speed of the Stanier Jubilee 4-6-0s they replaced. Perhaps even more impressive was their performance on the 1 in 37 incline of the fearsome Lickey Bank, between Bristol and Birmingham.

Where previously, steam-hauled passenger trains always had to halt to collect a banking engine, the Peaks could manage unassisted. On routes with gentler gradients, they demonstrated their versatility when tested successfully on heavy freights of 1,500 tons.

In BR’s computerised Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) renumbering scheme of the 1970s, the 127 Class 45s were renumbered in a most random manner when they made the transition from the original D11-D137 series into two subclasses. Class 45/0 was 45001-45077, and 45/1 45101-45150. The fifty locomotives of the latter series were fitted with electric train heating, and had their steam heating boilers removed. The selection of locomotives for conversion to ETH was based on their condition, hence the messy non-sequential renumbering. The 56 members of Class 46, in contrast,

On 9th April 1983, a couple of weeks after its repaint and still looking immaculate, 46026 Leicestershire And Derbyshire Yeomanry is on 1M04, the 07.05 Edinburgh to Carlisle train. The train is passing beneath the NER footbridge at Stocksfield, in the Tyne valley between Newcastle and Hexham. The Class 46 had replaced Brush Class 47 47009 at Newcastle. Other than the departmental Ixion, 46026 Leicestershire And Derbyshire Yeomanry was the only Class 46 to be given a name, so it was always a bit of a celebrity.

The sixty-mile Newcastle & Carlisle Railway opened throughout in 1838, the first railway to cross the country. Many of the original 1830s station buildings survive today.

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The Twilight of the Peaks were renumbered from D138-D193 to 46001-46056 in the same order, while the original Peaks D1-D10 simply became 44001-44010.

to park their fire engine in the car park of a lineside hardware store. The Peaks were a robust design, however, and once the flames were doused, 46028 limped into Plymouth’s North Road station with the dead HST. The errant Class 46 was then dumped at Laira depot and withdrawn that same month.

Compared to many of their contemporaries, the Peaks fared well in terms of length of career. Withdrawals began in earnest in 1980, with a total of 38 locomotives being taken out of service, mostly Class 46s, and including the last of the Class 44s. Factors that contributed to this cull included the introduction of the Class 253 and 254 High Speed Trains and the continuing loss of freight traffic from rail to road.

Many of the Class 45s lasted in service for close to three decades, and just like the Westerns, the Deltics and the Class 40s, the locomotives attracted a sizeable following among dedicated enthusiasts, who were known as the ‘Peak Army’.

Happily, examples of all four subclasses, 44, 45/0, 45/1 and 46 are preserved.

The photographs in the book are from the Neville Stead Collection, and are arranged in chronological order, from 1983 until the final demise of the Peaks in 1988, and were mainly taken in northeast England.

In their latter years especially, the Peaks were prone to fire damage. I was travelling on the 08.10 HST from Newcastle to Plymouth in May 1984, when the set lost power at Exeter. Class 46 46028 was attached to the front to help us over the Devon banks, but the train was forced to stop between Laira and Plymouth for the locomotive to receive attention from the local fire brigade, who were able

Thanks are due to the excellent BR Loco Database and Derby Sulzers websites.

Thanks also to Craig Oliphant for his contributions.

On 29th April 1983, Class 45/0 45038 heads 6E13, a heavy Carlisle to Healey Mills freight consisting mostly of 16-ton mineral wagons across an occupation bridge on the approach to Birkett Tunnel, south of Kirkby Stephen. This is on the much-photographed Settle & Carlisle line, constructed in the 1870s by the Midland Railway as part of its trunk route from St Pancras to Scotland. The locomotive would be working hard here on the continuous 1 in 100 incline up to Aisgill Summit, known by steam men as ‘The Long Drag’. 45038 carried the preTOPS number D48, and was withdrawn from service in 1985.

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Class 46 46004 passes the grounded body of an ex-Southern Railway box van at Derwenthaugh, west of Gateshead, with 8E14, a Carlisle to Tyne Yard freight train on 20th June 1983. The photograph was taken a matter of hours before a collision involving Brush Class 31 31326 and a bridge at York. The damage sustained by 46004 brought about its withdrawal, having entered service in 1961 as D141. The Class 46s could be distinguished from the 45s by the lack of the diagonal cross-shaped ribs on the battery boxes between the bogies. Also, all 56 members of the class ended their days with the additional small side grille above the battery boxes, whereas many of the 45s never received that modification.

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On 29th June 1983, Class 45/1 45108 has just crossed Ribblehead Viaduct and is passing the lonely station of the same name with 1E23, the 10.00 Carlisle to Leeds train. The station had closed in 1970, but reopened in 2000. Whernside, seen in the background, is one of the three peaks that surround Ribblehead, and all three gave their names to original BR Peaks, the other two being Ingleborough and Penyghent.

Britain had a long tradition of applying fine names to its best locomotives. Some of the more recent choices of name, such as that bestowed in the 1990s on Class 86 electric 86222 Clothes Show Live, were less inspired! 45108, formerly D120, is preserved as part of the extensive heritage diesel fleet at the East Lancashire Railway, Bury.

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The wonderfully-named Nine Standards Rigg forms the background for this shot of Class 45/1 45146. Its number is positioned a little higher than was usual, a trademark of Crewe works, which had replaced Derby as the venue for Peak overhauls. It is heading north with 1M09, the 08.57 Leeds to Carlisle on 5th November 1983, consisting of a short rake of Mk1 coaches. The location is the embankment at Waitby, just north of Kirkby Stephen West. The former D66 was in service for almost exactly 25 years, from 17th April 1962 to 7th April 1987.

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The Twilight of the Peaks It was unusual to see a train of sleeping cars during December’s limited daylight hours, but 5F55, hauled by Class 45/1 45111 Grenadier Guardsman consists of condemned vehicles on their way from Perth to be scrapped. It was photographed passing Heaton Junction on 3rd December 1983. The carriage sidings are to the right, with the coal yard and Blue Circle cement premises behind the train. The locomotive was previously numbered D65, and was built at Crewe in 1962, receiving its name in 1965. It is thought to have been the last Class 45 to retain its original nameplates, which it did until at least January 1987. It was withdrawn in May of that year, and following a spell at the BR Research Department at Mickleover, it was broken up in Glasgow in 1992.

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Celebrity 46026 Leicestershire And Derbyshire Yeomanry was turned out by Gateshead shed for 1G11, the last passenger train to Consett, County Durham, organised by the Derwentside Rail Action Group on a snowy 17th March 1984. The line had become redundant following the closure of Consett steelworks. The train is seen passing Stanley with the distinctive tower and spire of St Andrew’s church on the horizon.

As well as a headboard and wreath, the Class 46 is carrying the smokebox numberplate from Class 9F 2-10-0 92066, one of the former Tyne Dock locomotives that hauled the heavy iron ore trains through here to Consett. 46026 was built at Derby, entering service in April 1962 and withdrawn in November 1984.

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The Twilight of the Peaks

Class 45/1 45132 is seen here passing through the closed station at Kirkby Stephen West on 1Z34, a ‘special’ returning from Carlisle to Leicester on 21st April 1984. The station was built by the Midland Railway about two miles from the market town of that name. At the time of the photograph, there was only one operational station between Carlisle and Settle, which was Appleby. Now there are nine, thanks to the efforts of the Friends of the Settle & Carlisle Line. The train had departed Leicester behind 47150 for Leeds, where 45132 took over for the round trip to Carlisle and all the way back to Leicester. Coincidentally, I happened to photograph the same train at Birkett Tunnel just moments later, as I was out to see preserved Class 9F 2-10-0 92220 Evening Star on the Cumbrian Mountain Express.

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Compared to the monumental structures at Ribblehead, Dent Head, Arten Gill and Smardale, Aisgill Viaduct is one of the less significant bridges on the Settle & Carlisle line, but its setting in Mallerstang Common below the dramatic outline of Wild Boar Fell makes it one of the most popular photographic locations. On 21st April 1984, it was being traversed by Class 45/1 45142 on 1E33, the 16.35 Carlisle to Leeds service. I photographed this same train further north about ten minutes earlier on Smardale Viaduct. By this time, long-distance services over the line such as The Thames Clyde Express, formerly Peak-hauled, were a thing of the past, and an inconvenient, twice-daily Leeds to Carlisle service with short rakes of stock was carrying only 90,000 passengers per annum. As D83, 45142 came out of Crewe works in December 1960, and was taken out of service in June 1987.

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The same train was photographed three days later on 24th April 1984, hauled by Class 45/0 45026. This was taken slightly further south at Aisgill Summit, 1,169 feet above sea level. Closure of the line had been announced following the 1982 Serpell Report, and at the time of this photograph, there were less than three weeks to go until services were meant to end. A stay of execution was won thanks to huge public and political opposition, led by the Friends of the Settle & Carlisle Line. Eventually, in 1989, the line was formally reprieved, and since then, several stations have reopened and annual passenger numbers on the line have risen to over 1.2 million. 45026 was built at Derby in 1961 as D21, and was withdrawn in April 1986.

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On 11th May 1984, we see 46026 Leicestershire And Derbyshire Yeomanry once again, this time curving around King Edward Bridge Junction, Gateshead, in charge of 1V50, the 20.00 Newcastle to Bristol mail. It has just crossed the River Tyne on the King Edward VII Bridge, which opened in 1906. Gateshead shed is in the background, with another Peak and a Class 56 visible. The line curving to the right leads to the High Level Bridge and the former Brandling Junction Railway route to Sunderland. The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which carries the Metro over the river, is to the left. Tunnels at each end of the bridge take Metro trains into the underground sections beneath Newcastle city centre and Gateshead.

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On 26th May 1984, Class 45/0 45049 The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales’s) was photographed passing the Tyneside Central Freight Depot, just east of Gateshead, which like so much of our railway infrastructure has since been demolished. The train is 1N35, the 10.33 Scarborough to Newcastle via Hartlepool and Sunderland. Above the rear of the train is Gateshead Stadium Metro station. 1N35 was one of many additional trains that were timetabled on summer Saturdays to cope with extra demand, serving seaside towns such as Scarborough, Great Yarmouth, Blackpool and Skegness. This flexibility and capacity is another feature of our railway that has disappeared forever. 45049 was previously D71, and was in service from 1960 to 1987.

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The Twilight of the Peaks

Class 46 46011, formerly D148, was photographed approaching Ouston Junction, Birtley, south of Tyne Yard with 4V73, the Follingsby to Pengam Freightliner train on 3rd July 1984. The locomotive was withdrawn in November of that year, and was one of the last six of the class in service. Two weeks after this photograph was taken, on 17th July 1984, sister engine 46009 infamously met with the most spectacular demise when it was deliberately crashed at high speed into a rail-borne nuclear flask in front of the media at the Old Dalby Test Track in Leicestershire, as a high-profile public demonstration of the strength and integrity of such containers.

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Class 45/0 45060 Sherwood Forester heads 6E87, a southbound Speedlink freight train around the curves at Penmanshiel, between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed, on 13th July 1984. The locomotive, formerly D100, was in service from May 1961 until December 1985, and is now preserved at Barrow Hill Roundhouse. Penmanshiel had been in the news in 1979 after two rail workers died when the tunnel here collapsed during engineering work. Their memorial is visible above the locomotive in a gap in the trees. The immediate result of the blockage was the diversion of King’s Cross to Edinburgh trains via Hexham, Carlisle and Carstairs, with shuttles between Edinburgh and Dunbar, and Newcastle and Berwick. The main line was eventually rerouted around the site of the tunnel.

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In a photograph taken on 30th August 1984, Class 45/0 45056 approaches Chinley station in Derbyshire, at the head of a block train of the long-lived ICI 43.5-ton bogie hoppers. They were introduced by the LM&SR in 1936 to carry limestone from Tunstead Quarry near Buxton to Northwich in Cheshire for soda ash production. Remarkably, they remained in use until 1997. The train is heading east towards Dove Holes Tunnel and Tunstead, the location of the largest limestone quarry in Europe. Crewe-built 45056 was originally D91 and was in service from 1961 until November 1985. It was scrapped at Vic Berry’s, Leicester, a year later.

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This is 46026 Leicestershire And Derbyshire Yeomanry again, on 6S41, the Haverton Hill (Teesside) to Leith ICI ammonia train passing the site of Heaton station’s twin island platforms, east of Newcastle, on 20th September 1984. This train had been a near-guaranteed Class 40 turn for a long time, but like the 46s, their days were numbered. Note the former ferry van acting as a barrier vehicle between the locomotive and the leading bogie ammonia tanker. Although 46026’s celebrity status did not save the locomotive from being scrapped, its name lives on, and is now carried by preserved Class 45/1 D123 (45125) at the Great Central Railway, Loughborough.

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[10497 IMG_0090] Class 45/1 45147 crosses the River Browney, a tributary of the Wear, over the arches of Relly Mill Viaduct on 20th November 1984. It is at the head of 1E52, the 06.12 Liverpool Lime Street to Newcastle train, which includes two air-conditioned Mk2s and a Mk1 coach in its consist. 45147, formerly D41, was the only 45/1 never to be fitted with the central high-intensity headlight at each end, as it was written off in tragic circumstances just two weeks after this photograph was taken. It was hauling the 10.05 Liverpool to Scarborough train on 4th December 1984 when it collided with the rear of an oil train at Eccles, starting a serious fire. 45147’s driver and two passengers lost their lives. It was the first Class 45/1 to be withdrawn.

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The end of the 46s. The first production Peak to be withdrawn was Class 45/0 45067, following collision damage in July 1977. All ten of the 44s were withdrawn between 1976 and 1980. The Class 46s were next to bear the brunt of withdrawals, 46005 being the first, at the end of 1977. The last two to survive in service were 46035 and 46027, both of which were withdrawn in November 1984. Here, a convoy of four awaits its final journey from Tyne Yard to Doncaster works for disposal on 29th November 1984. They are, from left to right, 46035, 46026 minus nameplates, 46052 and 46010. Their previous numbers were D172, D163, D189 and D147, respectively. 46035 and 46010 are two of the three to survive in preservation. 46026 and 46052 were broken up at Doncaster.

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A wintry scene at Milton, near Brampton, Cumbria on 26th January 1985, as a frosty 45040, originally D50 The King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, passes with a westbound permanent way train conveying rails towards Carlisle. 45040 was withdrawn in June 1987 but was one of the five Class 45/0s subsequently taken into departmental stock at Thornaby, for which purpose it was renumbered 97412. In this guise, the locomotive would spend its last months engaged on engineering trains similar to this, as electrification work was carried out on the Newcastle to Berwick section of the East Coast Main Line.

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On 23rd February 1985, 45135 3rd Carabinier crosses the River Ouse at York as it heads towards Scarborough with 1E06, the 09.05 from Liverpool Lime Street. It would later depart Scarborough at 13.00 for Bangor. Lendal Bridge and the Guildhall can be seen below the railway bridge. Previously numbered D99, it was built at Crewe in 1961 and was withdrawn from service in March 1987. It was one of many Class 45s that languished in overgrown sidings at March in Cambridgeshire following withdrawal, some of which remained there for seven years before being taken to Glasgow for scrap. Fortunately, 45135 escaped and is now preserved at the East Lancashire Railway.

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This graceful, curved, eleven-arched red brick viaduct, built in 1868, carries the main line over Chester Burn and the marketplace at Chesterle-Street, between Durham and Newcastle. On 12th May 1985, 4M19, the twelve vehicles of the Heaton to Red Bank empty newspaper train head south across the bridge behind Class 45/0 45019. This well-travelled locomotive’s depot allocations included Derby, Bristol Bath Road, Holbeck, York, Tinsley and Toton. It was withdrawn on 4th September 1985, so its days were very much numbered when this photograph was taken.

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Class 45/0 45014, previously D137, was named The Cheshire Regiment in 1966, but by the time this photograph was taken on 29th June 1985, it appears to have lost its nameplates. It is passing beneath the impressive signal gantry beside Falsgrave signal box as it leaves Scarborough with 1M26, the 12.55 service to Bangor. The clock tower of Scarborough station is visible above the Belgrave Terrace girder bridge. On the far left is the entrance to Falsgrave Tunnel, the beginning of the former coastal route to Whitby via Robin Hoods Bay, which closed in 1965. The locomotive was new from Crewe works in December 1961 and was in service until March 1986.

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The Twilight of the Peaks

Following its withdrawal, Class 46 46035 joined the Railway Technical Centre fleet at Derby, where it was renumbered 97403 and given the name Ixion. It is seen here on 20th July 1985 alongside RTC stablemates, former Class 24 97201 Experiment (previously 24061/D5061) and Park Royal Class 103 2-car DMU 975089 & 975090, previously M50396 & M56162. All are wearing the RTC’s striking red and blue livery. 97403 was used to research rail adhesion and wheelslip. Note the additional cable conduits along the lower bodyside. Subsequently bought by Pete Waterman, it had a brief spell on main line railtours in the mid-1990s. Appropriately, it now resides at Peak Rail, Derbyshire. 24061, meanwhile, is preserved at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and awaits restoration.

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Benton, north of Newcastle, is where the North Tyneside loop crossed the East Coast Main Line, with connecting curves on three sides.

By the time of this photograph, taken 27th August 1985, the loop was part of the Tyne & Wear Metro. The curve in the foreground allowed BR freight trains to access sidings at Rowntree, Fawdon and ICI Callerton, via Metro track, and has since been lifted. The train is 1G10, the Blyth Spirit, organised by Hertfordshire Railtours, which departed King’s Cross behind a pair of Class 37s. They were replaced by 45049 The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales’s), now minus nameplates, at Doncaster for a trip around many of the northeast’s freightonly routes. Here it is joining the main line off the former Blyth & Tyne line from Bedlington, which reopened to passengers to Ashington in December 2024.

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On 30th August 1985, 45066 was photographed departing Follingsby Freightliner Terminal, just off the Leamside line southeast of Pelaw. It is departing with 4V73 for Pengam, near Cardiff. Like 45146 seen earlier, the high positioning of its number is the result of an overhaul at Crewe works. 45066 was built there in 1961 as D114, then following withdrawal in 1987 it was reinstated as departmental 97413. It was eventually taken out of service in July 1988. Follingsby closed in 1987, to be followed in 1992 by the entire Leamside line between Pelaw and Tursdale Junction, north of Ferryhill. Its northernmost section may see trains again in the future, however, if plans to use the trackbed to connect the Metro between Pelaw and South Hylton via Washington ever come to fruition.

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The Twilight of the Peaks

With some of the factory buildings of the Cooperative Wholesale Society in the background, Class 45/1 45117 passes Pelaw with 5N04, a train of empty parcels stock heading towards Sunderland on 24th September 1985. The locomotive was previously numbered D35 and was withdrawn in May 1986. The Leamside line curves away to the left. The railway here is now electrified, but unlike the main line, the wires are energised at 1,500vDC for the Tyne & Wear Metro, whose trains share Network Rail metals between Pelaw and Sunderland with freight traffic and Northern Rail DMU services to Teesside.

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The broad, western approach to Manchester Victoria passed the remains of the former LNWR Manchester Exchange station. One of its platform edges can be seen on the left. The distinctive outline of Threlfall's Cook Street brewery building is in the background, along with the spire of Salford Cathedral. On 16th December 1985, Class 45/1 45101 is bringing 1E79, the 10.05 train from Liverpool Lime Street to Scarborough across the River Irwell from Salford into Manchester, and will soon stop at Victoria station. The locomotive had recently been fitted with new high-intensity headlights at each end. This followed a recommendation after a fatal accident involving permanent way workers at Severn Tunnel Junction.

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Another excellent nocturnal shot, taken under Thomas Prosser’s grand train shed at York station, which was completed in 1877. Judging by the netting suspended over the track, it appears to be receiving a repaint at the time of the photograph, on 16th December 1985. Class 45/1 45139, formerly D109, waits to head for the carriage sidings with the stock of the 13.00 train from Bangor which has terminated here. Those of us of a certain age can imagine the steady beat of the Sulzer engine being amplified by the cavernous roof. The locomotive was in BR service from 1961 to 1987.

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At the time the high-intensity headlights were fitted, it was thought that the 45/1s may remain in service until 1990. The headlight beam on Class 45/1 45123 The Lancashire Fusilier pierces the gloom of a winter’s evening as it waits for departure from a deserted York station. The train is 1M32, the 16.20 Newcastle Central to Liverpool Lime Street on 16th December 1985. The locomotive was built at Crewe works and entered service in 1962 as D52. It received its name the following year in a formal ceremony at Manchester Piccadilly. Its career was brought to an abrupt end when collision damage caused its early withdrawal in July 1986, by which time its nameplates had been removed.

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During the chaotic mid-1970s TOPS renumbering of the Class 45s, D106 coincidentally happened to become 45106, one of only two 45s whose old and new numbers aligned. It would also be the last Peak in BR service. It was photographed on 18th January 1986 heading north past the site of Ferryhill station, County Durham with 1E94, the 08.05 Liverpool Lime Street to Newcastle Central. The signal box and yard are on the left. Ferryhill was for many years an important junction, being fairly central in the County Durham coalfield with freight lines converging from several directions. The industrial site on the right is the former premises of North of England Engineering & Electrical Co Ltd. The other coincidentally-aligned Class 45 renumbering was when D16 became 45016.

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Sheffield Midland station was synonymous with the Peaks, being the crossroads where the Midland Main Line from St Pancras to Leeds and Carlisle intersected with the main northeast to southwest corridor. The latter route carried services such as the Edinburgh to Plymouth, Newcastle to Poole, Scarborough to Paignton, Hull to Cardiff, etc. On 27th January 1986, Class 45/1 45101 waits at Sheffield with a short rake of Mk2 coaches augmented by a Mk1 buffet car and full brake. This is the 18.01 Sheffield to Leeds, a portion that has been detached from 1E79, the 13.55 Cardiff to Hull train. The locomotive was withdrawn in November 1986, having entered service in 1961 as D96.

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[10480 IMG_0165] Class 45/1 45130 is seen on 19th March 1986 leaving Darlington Bank Top for Newcastle with 1E99, the 11.12 from Bangor, with a Class 08 in attendance beyond. On the skyline is the distinctive tower of St John’s Church of 1849, built to cope with the town’s burgeoning population, which increased dramatically following the arrival of the railway and later, the building of Darlington works. 45130 was numbered D117 until 1974, and served BR from 1961 to 1987. The station can be seen in the right background. To the left of its arched roof, new platforms are being built now on the avoiding lines, to increase capacity.

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Church Fenton, between York and Leeds, is where Trans-Pennine services for Leeds and Manchester diverge from the northeast to southwest route to Sheffield and the Midlands. The junction can be seen below the overbridge, with the Leeds line curving to the right. Coming off that line on 26th April 1986 is 45124 at the head of 1E52, the 06.12 Liverpool to Newcastle service. The station once boasted five platforms but has since been rationalised and modernised, the original buildings and canopies being replaced by simple shelters. 45124 was originally D28, built at Derby in 1961 and withdrawn early in 1988.

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On 29th April 1986, 3N04, the daily van train from Sunderland to Newcastle approaches Pelaw behind 45106. This conveyed parcels from the Sunderland depot of the Brian Mills mail-order catalogue. Pelaw was a three-way junction where the South Shields and Leamside lines diverged from the former Brandling Junction Railway from Gateshead to Sunderland. Monkton coke works is on the horizon, and the overhead catenary for the Tyne & Wear Metro line to South Shields can be seen on the right. It crosses the Sunderland line, which was eventually converted for Metro use in 2002, on a flyover.

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This is Class 45/1 45118, formerly named The Royal Artilleryman, heading for the Yorkshire coast beside the River Derwent at Huttons Ambo near Kirkham Priory, between York and Scarborough on 10th May 1986. The train is 1E79, the 10.05 Liverpool Lime Street to Scarborough.

This broadside shot gives a good impression of the 67’11” overall length of these locomotives. Trans-Pennine services such as this are now in the hands of fixed-formation multiple units. Gone are the days of spare locomotives and coaching stock, which permitted the strengthening of trains or even the provision of additional trains at short notice.

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On 10th May 1986, with less than four months left in operation and with paint flaking from its nose, 45131 accelerates past Seamer West’s handsome weatherboarded signal box and semaphore signals with the 17.55 train from Scarborough to Liverpool Lime Street. The locomotive, signals and box have all since been consigned to the dustbin of history. Seamer remains a junction though, being the place where the York to Scarborough line meets the coastal route through Filey and Bridlington to Beverley and Hull. 45131, the former D124, was built at Crewe in 1961 and was taken out of service on 3rd September 1986.

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On 26th June 1986, 45133 is on 5E94, the empty coaching stock from the 08.05 Liverpool Lime Street to Newcastle Central service, bound for Heaton. The train is passing through the remains of Manors station, once a junction with nine platforms. In the background can be seen some of Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s more regrettable postwar developments such as Swan House, which straddles the Central-East motorway linking the Tyne Bridge with the Great North Road; and Manors multi-storey car park. 45133 was built at Derby in 1961 as D40, and following withdrawal in 1987 it is now preserved at the Midland Railway Centre, Swanwick.

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The eleven sandstone arches of Durham’s magnificent viaduct carry the East Coast Main Line one hundred feet above the streets, and have provided rail passengers with superb views of the city’s cathedral and castle since 1857. Northbound Class 45/1 45132 is about to arrive at Durham station, viewed from Wharton Park on 26th June 1986. The train is 1E88, the 16.03 Liverpool Lime Street to Newcastle Central. 45132 was Derby-built in 1961 as D22, and following withdrawal in 1987, entered preservation. It now resides at the Epping Ongar Railway in Essex, formerly an outpost of the London Underground’s Central Line.

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Accelerating past Burton Lane on the outskirts of York on 28th June 1986 is 45044 on 1E27, the Saturdays-only 06.06 Bedford to Scarborough train. The floodlights of York City Football Club’s old Bootham Crescent ground stand tall on the horizon. Opposite the signal box can be seen the points leading to the former Foss Islands branch, which served the Rowntree chocolate factory. 45044 emerged from Crewe works in March 1962 as D63. In 1966 it was named Royal Inniskilling Fusilier, but it would lose its nameplates in 1983. Someone has unofficially applied its pre-TOPS number at the near end. It was withdrawn a year after this photograph was taken.

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The Twilight of the Peaks Class 45/1 45144 Royal Signals brings 1E98, the 12.03 Liverpool Lime Street to Scarborough train through Marsh Lane cutting, about two miles east of Leeds City station, on 28th June 1986. On the right is the tail end of the empty stock of a Carlisle to Leeds train, which is on its way to Neville Hill for servicing. The cutting was part of the 1834 Leeds & Selby Railway. It was originally a tunnel, the excavation and construction of which cost the lives of many navvies.

The tunnel was eventually opened out to become a cutting, accommodating a quadruple track formation.

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Class 45/1 45118 The Royal Artilleryman, then recently outshopped from Derby works, was photographed passing the site of Peckfield Colliery, near Micklefield, West Yorkshire, with 1M75, the 13.33 Scarborough to Liverpool train on 28th June 1986. It was the last Peak to receive a classified overhaul, during which it received the newly-mandatory orange cantrail warning stripe. The locomotive was originally numbered D67, and is now preserved and currently main-line registered, under the ownership of Locomotive Services Ltd at its Crewe birthplace. It is one of nine Class 45/1s in preservation.

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Three days later, on 1st July 1986, 45118 The Royal Artilleryman now makes an appearance at Heaton Junction, two miles east of Newcastle.

It was captured leaving the carriage sidings for Newcastle Central station with 5M59, the empty stock of 1M59, the 20.22 for St Pancras, which includes Travelling Post Office (TPO) vehicles. The turbine works of NEI Parsons is prominent on the skyline. Above the locomotive and leading vehicle is the ramp leading down to Chillingham Road Metro station, on the line between St James and Tynemouth, most of which follows the route of the 1839 Newcastle & North Shields Railway.

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On 13th July 1986, Class 45/0 45051 passes Newton Hall, north of Durham with a short train of BR Mk1 General Utility Vans (GUVs) forming 4M19, the Heaton Junction to Red Bank (Manchester) empty newspaper vans. This is yet another example of a traffic flow taken off the railway and which now clogs our motorways. The location is close to the site of the junction with the former Sunderland to Durham line.

45051 was originally D74, built at Crewe in 1960 and remaining in service until 1987. It is just about possible to see the bolts at the far end of the long bodyside grille, which in 1967 were intended for nameplates that were never fitted.

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A fine view over Gateshead’s triangular King Edward Bridge Junction on 3rd August 1986, as 45131 negotiates the curve off the bridge to head west then south with 1M69, the 12.00 train from Newcastle Central to Liverpool Lime Street. The similar triangle at the south end of the High Level Bridge provides a circular layout. This means that trains can depart from Central station in either direction and access the southbound main line as well as the routes towards Sunderland and Carlisle. The massive, quadruple-track King Edward VII Bridge, was designed by Charles Harrison, and its longest span measures 324 feet. The east to west line, which forms the southern side of the triangle, is hidden by the stone wall across the foreground. Gateshead shed was off to the right.

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Malton station, North Yorkshire, is the location for this shot of Class 45/1 45122 as it arrives with 1M75, the 13.53 Scarborough to Liverpool Lime Street train on 9th August 1986. Behind the locomotive is the site of the east-end bay platform. The westbound through platform has been demolished and trains in both directions use the remaining single platform. 45122 had the distinction of being the first of the production Peaks to enter service, leaving Derby works as D11 in September 1960, just eight months after the last of the Pilot Scheme batch, D10 Tryfan.

The first production locomotives were built with end gangway doors, necessitating the provision of split headcode boxes.

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A column of black diesel exhaust erupts from the 2,500hp Sulzer engine of 45114 as its driver applies the power upon departure from Malton towards York with 1M26, the 12.53 Scarborough to Bangor train, also on 9th August 1986. Malton used to be an important junction station, with the line to Pickering and Whitby, most of which is now the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, among its radiating routes. The station has since lost its attractive overall roof, its remaining single platform instead receiving a redundant original North Eastern Railway cast iron glazed canopy relocated from Whitby station.

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Robert Stephenson’s double-decked High Level Bridge linked Gateshead with Newcastle in 1849, and until 1906, when the King Edward VII Bridge opened, it carried all East Coast Main Line traffic. Two track workers pause as Class 45/1 45140 takes the line to the west with 1M69, the 12.00 Newcastle to Liverpool service on 1st September 1986. It will curve through the former Gateshead West station then pass Gateshead shed before heading towards Durham and the south. The curve to the right leads to Pelaw and Sunderland. The lantern tower of St Nicholas’ Cathedral rises above the Norman Castle Keep at the far end of the bridge, and the Guildhall is on the Quayside to the right of the locomotive.

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Taken from a lofty vantage point, Class 45/1 45115 was captured travelling westbound between Batley and Dewsbury, Yorkshire, on 20th September 1986, with 1M67, the 09.53 Scarborough to Bangor service. One of the longer-lived members of the class, the locomotive emerged from Crewe works as D81 in 1960, and was withdrawn in June 1988, being one of the last twelve Peaks in service. By that time it had received the unofficial name Apollo. It eventually made the long journey from Tinsley to MC Metals of Springburn, Glasgow in 1990, where it was scrapped.

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Also on 20th September 1986, but looking in the opposite direction, 45138 has just left Dewsbury with 1E79, the 10.03 Liverpool Lime Street to Scarborough train. The locomotive left Crewe works in March 1961 as D92, and was withdrawn in December 1986. The surroundings are typical of the railway landscape between Huddersfield and Manchester, as the train threads its way between rocky outcrops, tall mill chimneys and blackened church spires. Note that one of the Mk2 coaches and the trailing Mk1 full brake are both carrying the then-new Trans-Pennine colour scheme.

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A fine study of Class 45/1 45105 approaching Manors from the east on the short journey from Heaton to Newcastle Central with 5M76, the empty stock for the 14.19 Newcastle to Liverpool Lime Street on 1st October 1986. The trackbed of the former Quayside branch is on the right. 45105 was built as D86, and its 26-year career on BR came to an end in May 1987, when it was another victim of fire. Like 45051, it has unused nameplate bolts dating from 1967. I wonder what names were intended for the pair? 45105 is now preserved at Barrow Hill Roundhouse, in Derbyshire, and in 2024 it worked its first passenger train in 37 years.

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With the imposing Station Hotel, the NER footbridge and signal box in the background, this is the site of the original Billingham station, north of Stockton-on-Tees. It closed in 1966 when a new station was built half a mile east, to better serve the new town. On 8th October 1986, Class 45/1 45126 was employed to replace the usual DMU on the 13.17 Newcastle to Middlesbrough service. Availability of DMUs was critically low at the time and locomotive-hauled substitutions were common. 45126 was previously numbered D32, emerging from Derby works in 1961, and lasting in service until April 1987. The footbridge and signal box are now gone.

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Taken later that same day, 45126 crosses the bridge over Denmark Street, Middlesbrough, as it heads for Thornaby on its return to Newcastle with the 14.55 from Middlesbrough, again substituting for a DMU. Middlesbrough owes its very existence to the railway, developing as it did around the eastern terminus of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. In 1829 it was a farm. Ten years later it was a town of 6,000 inhabitants, and it is now home to 150,000. The iconic Tees Transporter Bridge of 1911, the largest of its type in the world, dominates the Teesside skyline.

A gondola was suspended from its high girders, which could carry nine cars across the river at a time. It closed in 2019.

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Thrislington dolomite works towers above 1M69, the midday Newcastle to Liverpool train as it speeds south on the East Coast Main Line on 26th October 1986. It is heading past Ferryhill behind Class 45/1 45114, with one vehicle in Trans-Pennine livery. 45114 was formerly D94, and was one of the Crewe-built examples, entering service in 1961 and being withdrawn in February 1987 just four months after this photograph was taken. In November 1986, like all of the remaining Class 45s, it was reallocated to Tinsley depot, Sheffield, where it would see out its final three months.

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Class 45/1 45104 The Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers arrives at Bristol Temple Meads from Cardiff with a train for Portsmouth, on 21st February 1987. A locomotive change would take place here. Having lost a nameplate to theft in 1984, the other was removed for safekeeping in 1985, then in 1986, Toton depot fitted replacement wooden nameplates that were not exactly faithful replicas! The locomotive has also been adorned at Tinsley with white lining and orange cantrail stripes. 45104 was selected to appear on various railtours, charters and at open days.

The former D59 was in service from February 1962 until April 1988, being withdrawn following a collision. It was scrapped in 1992.

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Captured emerging from the western portal of Standedge Tunnel on 24th April 1987 was 45143 on its way to Manchester and Liverpool. This was the site of Diggle station, which closed in 1968. The tunnel is just over three miles long and was opened by the London & North Western Railway in 1894 to replace two separate single track tunnels, which were to the right of the photograph. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal also passes through the hills here in the longest, highest canal tunnel in Britain, which opened in 1811, engineered by Thomas Telford. Entering service in March 1962 as D62, 45143 was named 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards in 1964, and was withdrawn in May 1987, having lost its nameplates in early 1986.

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On 24th April 1987, 45103 threads through the Pennine mist towards Liverpool past the impressive Diggle Junction signal box, which was located a few hundred yards west of Standedge Tunnel, between Huddersfield and Manchester. This was such a busy section that it was formerly a quadruple track formation, and the signal box was surrounded by sidings. Parked opposite the box is a classic yellow BR Signalling & Telecommunications department Bedford HA van. 45103 was formerly numbered D116, built at Crewe works in 1961, and withdrawn in August 1988. It was one of the last four Peaks in service.

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Also on 24th April 1987 and at the same location but looking west, 45140 heads east past the former Dobcross Loom Works of Hutchinson, Hollingworth and Company Ltd, supplier to the textile mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and which had closed in 1967. Above it is the television transmitter mast on Wharmton Hill. The train is 1E94, the 08.03 Liverpool to Newcastle train. The mouth of Butterhouse Tunnel, on the former Micklehurst loop can be seen above the second coach. This line, which ran along the east side of the River Tame and rejoined the main route at Stalybridge had been built in 1886 to relieve congestion on this busy corridor.

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On 1st May 1987, 45118, having recently lost its The Royal Artilleryman nameplates, was captured southbound at Plawsworth, between Chester-le-Street and Durham with 1M19, the 17.50 Newcastle Central to Liverpool Lime Street. The consist includes an air-conditioned Mk2 open first behind the leading Mk1 full brake. The locomotive gave almost exactly a quarter of a century in service, from May 1962 until 8th May 1987, a week after this photograph was taken, when it was withdrawn following fire damage. It was at about this time that diagrammed passenger workings for Class 45s on Trans-Pennine services and the Midland Main Line ceased, although they would continue to appear when necessary.

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On 5th July 1987, an exhibition was held in the bay platforms at the south end of Darlington’s Bank Top station, which was celebrating its centenary. 45070, which had been withdrawn six months earlier, was an unusual exhibit, in that it was displayed without its side grilles, to permit members of the public to see inside the engine compartment. It is also carrying the very temporary unofficial name Bank Top. The Deltic Preservation Society’s Class 55 55019 Royal Highland Fusilier is tucked in by the buffer stops and diesel shunter 08867 is in the background with a Metro-Cammell DMU. Class 37 37069 Thornaby TMD was also in attendance. 45070’s operational BR career lasted from October 1961, as D122, until January 1987.

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The Twilight of the Peaks On 15th July 1987, 45113, carrying the unofficial name Athene, and sporting a Network South East logo below her marker lights, is crossing the Ouseburn Viaduct between Manors and Heaton with 5E63, the empty stock from the 10.38 Poole to Newcastle train. This includes some vehicles in InterCity livery. Byker Viaduct, carrying the Metro over the Ouseburn valley, can be glimpsed on the left. Above it is the arch of the Tyne Bridge and the tower of the former Tyne Tees Television Studios, which had stopped broadcasting The Tube, its iconic music programme fronted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates, three months earlier. 45113 was formerly numbered D80, and left Crewe works in December 1960 for Derby depot, its first home.

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The Twilight of the Peaks When southbound trains depart Newcastle Central and have crossed the Tyne on the King Edward VII Bridge, they enter a straighter section of track in Bensham cutting. This is where they can begin to get into their stride for a fast run to Durham. Travelling slightly more sedately on 19th July 1987 is 45124, seen here about to enter the cutting at Bensham on an engineers’ ballast train, a bit of a comedown for a former top-link passenger locomotive. The double track on the right descends an incline before diving beneath the main line, and is the route taken

by Carlisle trains via Dunston. King Edward Bridge Junction is just beyond the overbridge.

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On 4th August 1987, passengers on the 16.33 Newcastle to Middlesbrough service were treated to haulage from Class 45/1 45121 in place of the usual DMU. 45121 had been given the name Pegasus by staff at Tinsley. Here it is leaving a rather forlorn-looking Stockton station, which had lost its lofty overall roof in 1979. Today it is a shadow of its former self, which is sad for a town of such significance in railway history.

Stockton saw its first passenger train in 1825, and the present station was the sixth in the town, opening in 1893. Its architect was the North Eastern Railway’s William Bell, who was responsible for several impressive stations in the northeast, including Darlington Bank Top, Alnwick and Tynemouth.

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The Twilight of the Peaks On 21st August 1987, 45140, with its unofficial Tinsley-applied name Mercury, passes beneath Hexham’s Grade II listed North Eastern Railway gantry signal box of 1896. The signaller’s Vauxhall Astra is conveniently parked alongside, in the remains of the goods yard. These gantry boxes were once a common sight in NER territory, but Hexham’s is one of only two still in existence, the other being to the east at Wylam, also on the Tyne Valley line. The Class 45/1 is standing in for the rostered DMU on the 12.28 Newcastle to Carlisle service, the leading vehicle of which is a ScotRail branded Mk1 full brake.

Eryholme is situated on the East Coast Main Line just south of its crossing of the River Tees from County Durham into North Yorkshire. Electrification masts are in place on 2nd September 1987 as Class 45/0 45012, unofficially named Wyvern II, passes with an additional Newcastle to Bristol parcels train.

The locomotive was formerly D108, and was withdrawn on 27th July 1988. Note the boardedup former LNER signal box.

This is the start of the famous racing stretch to York, one of the straightest and most level sections of main line in Britain, and the track is quadrupled south of Northallerton.

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Class 45/0 45046 Royal Fusilier was photographed on 4th September 1987 hauling a lengthy ballast train on the straight quadruple-track formation at Colton South Junction, to the south of York. With the expansion of the Selby coalfield in the early 1980s, the drastic decision was made to close the East Coast Main Line between Chaloners Whin Junction and Selby. From 1983, this stretch through Colton Junction became the new route between York and Doncaster. This huge project was paid for by the NCB, and it had the advantage of removing from the main line the bottleneck that was Selby Swing Bridge. 45046 was previously D68, being built at Crewe in 1960.

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An unusual view of the west end of Newcastle Central station on 14th September 1987 as 45121 Pegasus prepares for departure with the short consist of 1V97, the 15.53 parcels train for Bristol Temple Meads. As D18, the locomotive left Derby works on the last day of 1960, and was taken out of service two months after this photograph was taken, in November 1987. Five years after its withdrawal, 45121 was still at Derby, and was given one last unusual task, when it was used at Litchurch Lane carriage works to test the crashworthiness of a Class 158 DMU vehicle, which was propelled at 30mph into the static locomotive. The DMU suffered much more damage than the Peak, which was eventually scrapped on-site in September 1993. Newcastle Central opened in 1850 and is one of the few Grade I listed railway stations in the country.

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On 27th September 1987, 45046 Royal Fusilier has just passed the site of Heaton station, east of Newcastle, with a rake of bogie ballast hoppers. Above the rear of the train the cutting’s retaining walls and the outer pair of tracks curved out to accommodate the two island platforms on what was previously a quadruple track formation. The station was replaced by the new Byker Metro station on a parallel alignment to the south. 45046 was one of the last four Class 45s in revenue-earning service and the very last 45/0, the others being 45/1s 45103, 45128 and 45141. All four were withdrawn in early August 1988, although 45106, having been withdrawn a month earlier, was then reinstated.

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With the Globe pub on Railway Street in the background, on 30th September 1987, Class 45/0 45041 is in charge of 6M69, empty cement tanks for Clitheroe, at Elswick, west of Newcastle Central. This is the truncated former Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, which ceased to be a through route in 1982 when Tyne Valley trains were rerouted via the King Edward VII Bridge and Dunston. Appropriately, given its proximity to the Vickers Armstrong armament works the locomotive was named Royal Tank Regiment, although its nameplates had been removed in 1986. 45041, formerly D53, survives in preservation in working order. Originally purchased from BR by Pete Waterman, it was sold to the Peak Locomotive Company in February 1996, which also owns 44004 Great Gable, 45108 and 46045.

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The Twilight of the Peaks From the Yorkshire coast to the English Riviera. On 3rd October 1987, 45140 Mercury was seen at a near-deserted Scarborough station with 1V67, the Saturdays-only 10.10 for Paignton, which the Peak would take as far as Bristol. To the left is the famous bench, the longest station seat in the world at 456 feet. Before TOPS renumbering, the locomotive was D102. It was outshopped from Crewe works in May 1961, withdrawn from service in March 1988 and scrapped in 1991. 3rd October 1987 was a momentous day for Peaks at Scarborough, as we are about to see.

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It was relatively rare to see double-headed Peaks, but on 3rd October 1987, 45007 was paired with 45107, providing 5,000hp on the front of 1Z46, Pathfinder’s Class 45 Finale railtour. Both carry unofficial Tinsley names, Taliesin and Phoenix, respectively, and the edges of the grilles on 45107 have been picked out in white. The train left Bristol behind 45106, unofficially named Vulcan, and 45007 was added at Birmingham. 45106 however failed at Hinckley and was replaced by 45107 at Leicester. The tour ran to Scarborough, returning via Hull, and consisted partly of Network SouthEast coaching stock. This photograph was taken at Weaverthorpe between Malton and Scarborough.

45007’s original number was D119, entering service in 1961, the same year as 45107, which was previously numbered D43. Both were withdrawn on 27th July 1988.

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The Twilight of the Peaks Fortunately, several Peaks are still with us in preservation. They include two of the original Class 44s and three 46s. 45060 Sherwood Forester is one of the two Class 45/0s that survive. It was photographed outside Tinsley shed, north of Sheffield, on 12th October 1987, in the process of being restored to original condition in green livery with its pre-TOPS number D100. The work included the restoration of its original split headcode boxes, being one of sixty Class 45s which were once fitted thus. The remaining 45s and all of the 46s were built with central route indicator boxes. By the time of withdrawal, most were plated over with the two small headlamps. A third Class 45/0, 45015, made it into preservation but it was allowed to rust away forlornly on a siding at the Battlefield Line in Leicestershire until it was eventually scrapped in 2021.

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Another recipient of an unofficial Tinsley naming was 45145 Scylla, which was seen passing a scrapyard at Mirfield, West Yorkshire, on 14th November 1987 with 1M63, the 10.25 Newcastle Central to Liverpool Lime Street train. An eastbound DMU can just be discerned in the distance, above the rear of the train, nearing Mirfield station, and George Lyles’ Ledgard Bridge Mill, now apartments, is in the background.

45145 was formerly D128, and was in service from November 1961 until February 1988. Four years of limbo followed, dumped at Tinsley before it was finally taken to MC Metals in Glasgow for scrapping in 1992.

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This is 97412, one of the Class 45s that was reinstated into departmental stock in September 1987 in association with electrification of the East Coast Main Line. It is viewed from an old favourite vantage point, Smithy Lane bridge, which spans the northern end of Tyne Yard. The locomotive was previously 45040 The King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, and is seen with an ex-LM&SR 20-ton brake van on 21st March 1988.

Rakes of cement tankers stand in the extensive sidings, and the main line is furthest from the camera, with the sawmill beyond. Tyne Yard, which has since been severely rationalised, was built in the 1960s on the site of Lamesley station.

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The only named Class 45 that did not commemorate a regiment was 45022 Lytham St Annes. The only reason for this choice seems to be that like many of the regiments, its name was previously carried by an ex-LM&SR 4-6-0. 45022 entered service in 1962 as D60, and was withdrawn after 25 years in July 1987. It had the dubious honour of hauling the last scheduled passenger train on the famous Waverley route before its closure in 1969. 45022 was another of the Class 45s that was temporarily reprieved after withdrawal, and was given the departmental number 97409. It was photographed at the east end of Gateshead shed on 3rd April 1988, complete with painted versions of its nameplates. It was eventually scrapped at MC Metals of Glasgow in October 1991.

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With electrification work in progress, departmental 97410, previously 45029 crosses from the slow lines to the fast with a northbound engineering train past the site of Low Fell station, on the East Coast Main Line between Tyne Yard and Gateshead on 24th April 1988. An excavator, some spoil wagons, and a mess coach of ex-Southern Railway Maunsell design are included in the rake as well as several bogie flat wagons carrying mixers to provide concrete for the mast bases to support the overhead wires. The locomotive gave 27 years of service including departmental use. It left Derby works in May 1961 as D30, and was in service until May 1988. It was scrapped in Springburn, Glasgow in 1991.

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Passing beneath Stonebridge at Relly Mill, just south of Durham on 14th June 1988 is 45113 Athene. It is heading 1M32, the 16.20 Newcastle Central to Liverpool Lime Street formed of a smart rake of Mk2 coaches in Trans-Pennine livery. The locomotive was withdrawn two months later, in August 1988, and was among the last to go. It was scrapped in Glasgow in 1990. This section of the East Coast Main Line between Durham and Ferryhill opened in 1872, and replaced the Leamside route, which had since the 1840s been the main line from London to Tyneside. Through the arches of the bridge was the site of Relly Mill Junction where the new main line diverged from the 1857 line to Bishop Auckland.

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The Twilight of the Peaks On 3rd July 1988, departmental 97412, previously 45040 The King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, was photographed passing Green Lane, close to the site of the former Tyne Dock engine shed. Photographers here 25 years earlier would have witnessed BR Class 9F 2-10-0s shifting hundreds of tons of iron ore to Consett steelworks. 97412 heads a northbound engineers’ permanent way train, which includes a Cowans Sheldon crane and some ballast hoppers. The bolts that once secured the nameplate can be seen above right of the number. The locomotive was finally, permanently withdrawn the following month, and broken up at Springburn, Glasgow, in 1991.

On 9th July 1988, just sixteen days before its withdrawal, 45037, unofficially named Eclipse and with a heavily dented nose end, passes the handsome signal box at Havenhouse, three miles or so from its final destination, Skegness, with the 07.18 from Derby. These summer Saturday trains to the Lincolnshire coast were a favourite of enthusiasts, and would previously feature pairs of Class 20s or 25s.

Havenhouse is one of the least used stations on the rail network. Its exGreat Northern Railway signal box of 1899 closed in 1989, and has since been demolished. Note also the GNR somersault semaphore signal. Originally numbered D46, 45037 was new in October 1961, and was one of the last four Class 45/0s in service.

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The Twilight of the Peaks In the summer of 1988, 45106 achieved short-lived celebrity status when it was repainted in a striking interpretation of its original green livery, with cast diamond-shaped Tinsley depot plaques on the cabside. In this condition, on 3rd September 1988, it worked 1E47, the 06.36 Sheffield Midland to Skegness train, consisting of Intercity-liveried air-conditioned Mk2 coaches. It was photographed passing a fine ex-Great Northern Railway somersault semaphore signal at Bellwater, between Boston and Skegness. The locomotive had initially been withdrawn in July 1988 but reinstated the following month, just after the last of its sisters was retired. It survived until 20th February 1989 when fire damage sustained on the 07.12 Derby to St Pancras train ended its career. It was intended to reinstate 45128 to take its place, but this came to nothing. It was an unfortunate and ignominious end to the fine career of the Peaks on BR.

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ne of the most successful designs to emerge from British Railways’ Modernisation Plan was the Sulzer-engined Type 4 1Co-Co1 diesel-electric. 193 of them were built by BR at its own engineering works at Derby and Crewe, and they were collectively known as the ‘Peaks’. The first ten, later Class 44, were the most powerful of the Pilot Scheme diesel locomotives, and their derivatives, Classes 45 & 46 were fitted with the most powerful railway diesel engines in Western Europe at the time, rated at 2,500hp. For more than twenty years, these versatile locomotives were synonymous with the Midland main line and the northeast to southwest route. They could be seen from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London, Cardiff and Penzance. By 1983, the Class 44s were long-gone, the 46s were on their way out and the remaining Class 45s had no more than five years left in service. During this time, the remaining locomotives attracted a large following among enthusiasts, the self-styled ‘Peak Army’, many of whom will be seen inside these pages, hanging out of train windows. Happily, there are examples of all four subclasses, 44, 45/0, 45/1 and 46 in preservation, many of which are in working order, and some have even returned to the main line.

The photographs in the book run from 1983 until the final demise of the Peaks in 1988, and were mainly taken in northeast England.

Price:- £17.50