British Rail Class 14

The British Rail Class 14 is a type of small diesel-hydraulic locomotive built in the mid-1960s. Twenty-six of these 0-6-0 locomotives were ordered in January 1963, to be built at British Railways Swindon Works. The anticipated work for this class was trip working movements between local yards and short distance freight trains. The good all-around visibility from the cab and dual controls also made them capable of being used for shunting duties. The order was expanded from 26 to 56 in mid-1963, before work had started on the first order.

Technical details

In July 1964, the first of a class of 56 locomotives appeared from Swindon Works. These were later designated as TOPS Class 14 by British Railways. They are known as 'Teddy Bears' by enthusiasts, following a comment by Swindon Works' foreman George Cole who quipped "We've built the Great Bear, now we're going to build a Teddy Bear!"^[1]

In outline they have a cab which was nearly central with bonnets at each end, with a fixed 0-6-0 wheel configuration rather than bogies as seen on all the other Type 1 classes. The locomotives were powered by a Paxman 6-cylinder Ventura 6YJXL engine producing 650 bhp (485 kW), connected to a Voith L217U hydraulic transmission and Hunslet gearbox. The axles were connected by coupling rods and driven by a jackshaft located under the cab, between the second and third axles.

Operations and preservation

The Class 14s, like many other early types of diesel, had an extremely short life with British Railways, in this case not because of poor reliability but because many of its envisaged duties disappeared on the BR network a few years after they came into use. BR started to dispose of members of the class from mid 1968, the entire class had been sold to industry or scrapped by the end of 1970. In their new careers in industry many had a working life of two to three times than with British Railways. The industries in which they were employed, such as coal mining, declined during the 1970s and the class again became surplus to requirements. Several have found a third lease of life on preserved lines where they are ideal for both light passenger work and the maintenance of permanent way.

D9520, as preserved

Unusually, D9504 was leased in 2005 from its preservation group and found itself in revenue-earning service on the newest mainline in the UK – High Speed 1 (known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link during construction) – mainly in marshalling and stabling the 450 metre, 22-wagon concrete-pumping train on the final stretch to St.Pancras Station.^[2]

D9524 was re-engined under the ownership of BP Grangemouth – it was later re-engined again under the ownership of the Scottish RPS who, following BR practice, gave it a number of 14901. It now operates with a Rolls-Royce DV8TCE (640 bhp).^[3]

The last locomotive built, D9555, was the final locomotive to be built for British Rail at Swindon Works, in 1965; today the locomotive is privately owned and operates on the Dean Forest Railway, Gloucestershire, its original route.

In July 2014, The East Lancashire Railway, hosted 10 preserved members of the class as a celebration of the 50 years since their entry into service.^[4]

Fleet

Models

Hattons commissioned Danish company Heljan to produce a limited run in OO gauge in three liveries. Since then they have announced plans for further examples, still in limited numbers, but in a wider variety of liveries.

Graham Farish also produce the Class 14 in several liveries in British N scale.

In 2011 a 7 1/4" gauge model of D9522 won best locomotive and best model in show at the national model engineering exhibition in Harrogate.

References

Further reading

• McManus, Michael. Ultimate Allocations, British Railways Locomotives 1948 - 1968. Wirral. Michael McManus. 
• Kelly, Peter (September 1982). "Teddy bears' picnic...". Rail Enthusiast. EMAP National Publications. pp. 28–31. ISSN 0262-561X. OCLC 49957965. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to British Rail Class 14.

• D9531.com website
• Website covering D9500 and 14901 (D9524)