British Rail Class 52 - Competition and Comfort

Competition and Comfort

Whilst the design was largely successful the working life of the class was relatively short. It was a non-standard design adding greatly to its maintenance costs while the national British Rail policy was also moving away from diesel-hydraulics. When the Westerns were introduced in 1962 the Western Region had 226 diesel-hydraulics and 10 diesel-electrics (excluding shunters); by 1966 the numbers were 345 and 269 respectively. As a result the early 1970s saw the decision taken to retire all the diesel-hydraulic types. Class 46 and Class 47 took over passenger and heavy freight while Class 25 covered the lighter duties. Following completion of the electrification of the West Coast Mainline throughout from London to Glasgow Class 50 was allocated to the Western Region, the introduction of High Speed Trains 3 years later was the final nail in the coffin for the Westerns.

In 1968–69 the Westerns received train air brake equipment in addition to their vacuum exhausters, thus significantly extending their working lives, unlike the similar but lower-powered, Warship class. The vacuum brake equipment was retained and to fit the additional equipment, it was necessary to remove one of the fuel tanks. However, as with the Warships, it proved impossible to equip them with electric train heating (ETH, or head-end power in US terminology). The Western Region faced particularly stiff competition for its prime inter-city services in the mid to late 1970s from the M4 motorway and it was generally felt within BR that a significant speed and comfort increase on the prime Paddington-Bristol route were necessary. The lack of ETH meant the Westerns could not power the newly-introduced air-conditioned BR Mark 2d/e/f coaches — a shortcoming that Class 50, equipped with ETH from new, did not share.