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English Electric Type 1 diesels No D 8000 and No D 8002 pass through Rugby on the down through line on 30th October 1959. They are working a Class C fitted freight service, probably on the 14:55 Camden to Crewe fast freight. In 1959 dieselisation was in its early stages, but these English-Electric/Vulcan Type 1 1,000hp Bo-Bo later classified under TOPs as Class 20 locomotives, are from production series that proved very successful, especially when used in pairs as seen here. The Class 20 was by far the most successful of the Type 1s. It did it not suffer from the reliability issues suffered by the other small diesels. Despite most of their duties no longer being applicable to a modern railway, in 2011 they still do valuable work on the network. Between 1957 and 1968 228 of the locomotives were built at the Vulcan Foundry and at Robert Stephenson's works in Newcastle. The design was from English Electric, so these were known, until TOPS, as the English Electric Type 1, or more commonly as Choppers because of the sound of their engines. These were a single cab design, but the cab was actually at one end, rather than somewhere in the middle. This meant that there was actually an unobstructed view out of the locomotive in one direction. In the other direction, looking past the long, blunt nose, the visibility was similar to that of a steam locomotive. The 73 ton Bo-Bo locomotive was powered by an English Electric eight cylinder engine which gave it 1000 hp and a top speed of 75mph. It wasn't all smooth sailing, because of its limited visibility, the powers that be decided to halt production in favour of the Class 17. When the Clayton turned out to be a failure, production was eventually moved back to the Class 20. Because they were designed for freight transport, they were not built with any form of train heating equipment. A few were fitted with through pipes to allow steam from other locomotives to heat steam-heated carriages. Class 20 locomotives did take some passenger trips, generally in the summer when heated carriages were not a requirement, but also in conjunction with Class 37s in the Highlands. One of the useful features of the Class 20 was that it could easily work in multiple. They were often connected nose to nose, giving a 2000hp locomotive that was relatively light on its wheels and had good visibility at either end. Modern uses for the locomotive include moving nuclear flasks, transporting new London Underground stock and being used in the construction of High Speed 1. Many have found new homes on preserved lines, others are seen running passenger excursions during the summer.
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