TECHNICAL DETAILS

History

The Class 08 and 09 shunters were built between 1955 and 1962 at BR Crewe, Darlington, Derby or Doncaster works, and the design was very successful as it is still in use today, nearly half a century on. Originally, there were 995 locomotives, but this number has declined rater rapidly with the end of locomotive hauled passenger trains, which eliminated the need to shunt release locos and stock. The reduction in the number of marshalling yards also contributed to the decline which saw many locomotives taken out of trafic as surplus to requirements, and then scrapped.

Current Status

Today, the fleet is split mainly between English Welsh and Scottich Railway (EWS), Freightliner and the Train Operating Companies. A small number of locomotives are operated by private owners.

English Welsh and Scottish Railway: The locomotives are currently split into 7 differnet pools for work across the country. The pools are based on paper at depots including Cardiff Canton, Immingham and Allerton. They carry out a wide range of work, including shunting marshalling yards, shunting depots and short trip workings.

08528 at Peterborough - based in Toton's WSMD pool

Freightliner: These locomotives are used at Freightliner's ports and are used for marshalling freightliner trains into the right order, or working the long container trains over lines which are owned by the ports or where heavier locomotives are banned.

Other Operators: These other operators include the TOC's and the train maintenance companies such as Adtranz and Railcare. These locomotives are more often than not found to be standing idle at the companies depots, as most of the trains are made up of multiple units of HSTs. One exception is Virgin Trains at Manchester Piccadlly where the Longsight depot shunter has found its way into the station a few times!