It wasn't something I knew about. I was looking through a book about LNER named locomotives and came across this list of the D11/2s. The names made me chuckle, and after doing the Rab C. Nesbitt Class 320 out of Glagow and finding that the D11/2s were based at Edinburgh, it just felt right to attach the name to a Haymarket based loco or unit, so I opted for the 150/2.
Renumber it to 911 in honour of the 11th download that you're not going to get. It worked for Porsche
Just over a year ago, I uploaded 47494 to the CC, a Class 47/4 in 2-tone Green livery with full yellow ends. It was the only 47/4 ever to carry these original colours (FYE notwithstanding) What I didn't know was that there was another unusual 47/4 livery back in 1974. This was 47493, in BR Blue this time, but in one of the early non-standard variants of the livery. Here is 47493 with its unusual look:
I'm returning briefly to a series I started a number of years ago with D1500 / 47401. I'm calling it the 'Loco Lives' series. It involves a look at the different liveries and numbers carried by an individual loco over its lifespan, in chronological order if possible. This time it is the turn of D1717, a seemingly unassuming Brush Type 4. And at first it was. But the Nemesis it was to become had only just started...
Apologies for this, but I've just re-uploaded 47493 as I had forgotten to colour the cabside handrails!
D1717 moves along to after 1967 and the addition of the full Yellow ends. This did nothing for the aesethics of the locos, but possibly saved a few lineside gangers from a trip to A&E. The loco would remain in this livery combo until TOPS renumbering in 1974.
In early 1974, D1717 received its TOPS number. Classified as a 47/0 i.e. with no ETH, the loco became 47126. By now its 2-tone Green livery was looking very tired, but a tidy up was not far off...
Just 8 months later and 47126 was called to Crewe Works for ETH fitting. The loco emerged (around September 1974) as 47555, resplendent in BR Blue, but still fairly ordinary (testified to the almost total lack of pics of 47555 prior to naming)
I thought I might just explain about the Loco Lives series. This idea started with 47401, a loco I got to see many times during my spotting days. I was fascinated by the variations in liveries it carried, some subtle, others a lot more obvious. Fortunately I was able to get a good number of pictures of the loco over the years as it moved on from premier Top Link duties on the ECML to far more mundane freight work out of Immingham, before finally being preserved. Quite unusually for a celebrity, it was only ever renumbered once, from D1500 to 47401. The progression of livery changes made for an interesting project. There are challenges to be faced with this kind of project though, and I have found this especially with D1717, 47555. There are a few pics of D1717 in original livery and many of the loco after naming, but the years from about 1970 to 1979 were seldom photographed. Indeed, I have only found one pic of 47555 pre-naming! And none of 47126 at all! What does this mean for the modeller? The transition from 2-tone Green livery to BR Blue livery was very messy and haphazard and covered some 10 years for some classes, including the 47s. And during the same time, there was the renumbering into TOPS, which occured about 1974. On top of that, especially for the 47s, was conversion to ETH for many machines, which covered the early 1970s. So, the potential combinations of livery, renumbering and ETH mods are huge. And it doesn't help that BR Blue livery itself went through a number of variants. And some 47s were renumbered twice! (e.g. D1717 to 47126 to 47555) If that were not enough, there are other subtle changes like the change of the OHLE warnings in the mid - late 1970s, the use and then disuse of the alpha-numeric headcodes, the application of the domino headcodes and the later application of the yellow headcode panels. With D1717/47126/47555 I had no photographic evidence of a number of these changes, like, when did 47555 get dominos? When did it get the MK2 OHLE warnings. I wasn't even sure when the loco went Blue. (I got the answer to that from a model railway website which had a list of Class 47 liveries). As mentioned above, the only pic of 47555 in Blue pre-named was from a Flickr account which showed the loco in 1976 with the early OHLEs and the 0000 headcodes! This is what makes it interesting - the search and discovery of elusive facts and pics that make the hobby worthwhile. Dave
Sometime before or in 1976, 47555 had its alphanumeric headcodes turned to '0000' along with hundreds of other locos. BR's operating methods were changing and much of the fleet would undergo a number of visual changes over the next few years.
As above, I have no clear date for the acquisition of Domino headcodes for 47555, but it was either before or in 1979, most likely before. I have chosen 1977 as the year, but it could prove otherwise.
4th April 1979 was a big day for 47555 - the day it was named 'The Commonwealth Spirit'. The loco still retained its Black Domino headcodes. Based in the Midlands, the loco could end up on a variety of Passenger trains, which ensured its presence in nearly all parts of the country. Because of this, its memorable number and distinctive name, its no wonder it began to earn a reputation...
