Page still under construction

John Wade is an employee in the rail industry, and recently made contact seeking photos of the Yorkshire Engine Company's 0-4-0 diesel-hydraulic shunter No D2866. John is the owner of D2866 - a natural choice for him, he says, since he can see the old Yorkshire Engine Company's erecting shop from his front window! Dai Pickup's shot of D2866 at Salford is the only photo that John has seen of it in use by British Rail, and says that if anyone has any more shots of his loco he would dearly love to hear from them - the loco was shedded at Newton Heath at the time. John's email address is at the bottom of the page.

John plans to include the photo on an appeal board, which sits near the loco at Peak Rail with the inevitable collection box. Having sourced a replacement power unit - the original one was frost damaged while under the care of the Brechin Railway - D2866 is currently undergong a major makeover at Rowsley. Indeed, John has certainly done his bit for railway preservation - he is also the proud owner of: D2953, D2199, 03099, D9502, PWM654, and has half shares in two others. However, before John became involved with preservation, he was an avid spotter, and way back in 1972-1973 managed to see his second set of diesels, completed in 420 days! This is no idle claim, he says, since he has all his spotting notes to prove it. Over the years, John has taken more than 15,000 B&W negatives along with some 5,000 colour slides, and is a regular contributor to the magazine 'Coupling Rods' published by the Heritage Shunters Trust. The magazine features his photos and captions in 'Wadey's Wanderings.' John's particular interest in preservation is focussed on the ex-British Railway shunters that went into industry, and I am pleased he has agreed to submit a selection of photos for use on the site.

(Inset above) Introduced in 1960, a total of twenty Yorkshire Engine Co 170hp 0-4-0 diesel-hydraulic shunters were built for use primarily in goods depots and dockland areas which still featured tight curves and small wagon turntables. The rear entrance to the cab was reached by a railed verandah above the buffer beam, which can be seen on No D2866 as it emerges from Salford Yard in July 1963.The diesel shunter's very short wheelbase and similar weight to the L&Y Class 21 0-4-0STs enabled the versatile machines to take over light shunting duties on Mersyside and Manchester. Photo © D Pickup 

(Below) PWM 654 is one of five Ruston 0-6-0 shunters supplied to British Railways in the late 1950s. They usually worked in or out of PADs (pre-assembly depots) on the Western Region, and were usually to be found at very remote locations, so inevitably they were very hard to 'spot'. They were designed to have their gearboxes disengaged and be pulled along the main line in a PW train to be deployed at whatever point along the track that needed replacing by long welded rail. PWM 654 was the last built, and also the last one in service with British Rail, being finally withdrawn and placed into store at Cardiff Canton. However, salvation beckoned when a shunting loco was required to take works trains onto the Forth Bridge, and the loco was moved by road to Edinburgh ending up at a little PW yard at Slateford under the ownership of Jarvis. The loco was then taken to Millerhill Yard for crew training, and a full year was spent training the crews there. However, in order to start the loco (which is air started) a donkey engine had to be positioned near the left hand running board. This was started by hand to build air pressure to start the main engine, and entailed sending a fitter every training day from Aberdeen to start the donkey engine! After a year passed, Jarvis approached EWS to apply for the loco to be used on the Forth Bridge, only to be told that it couldn't used to propel trains, as it only had vacuum brakes. The loco was promptly returned to Slateford and a Class 66 main line loco was used instead! And who says the railways are more efficient these days?During its long sojourn at Slateford, Lady Luck stepped in for PWN 654, because the facts mentioned above were not widely known, and following a further year of negotiations I managed to secure the loco for preservation. It's the only loco I have acquired in working order and, barring replacing the hand cranked donkey engine with a modern electric one - plus a repaint - this is the only work it has needed up to now. There are four examples of these locos preserved and, as far as I know, this is the only one currently in regular running order. The livery it carries is from the Rail blue era; a livery that it wore for some five years before going into all over yellow…ugh! Originally these locos were finished in dark Green, but not the mid-Brunswick green that we are all familiar with. The shade used was Ruston and Hornsby's own colour, which is a little darker. On 25th October 2009, an official 'Works Photo' of PWM 654 at Rowsley was taken following a repaint in readiness for the Shunter Gala at Peak Rail.

To be continued....