The past thirty or so years have seen numerous books published detailing the disposals of former British Rail diesel locomotives, none though by the RCTS. Although all are in agreement about the disposal of the majority of the locomotives they list there are several where entries differ. It is the intention to highlight the differences here and attempt to get to the truth whilst at the same time airing queries surrounding the accepted agreed disposal of a few other locomotives. Allied to this, the whereabouts of certain locomotives whilst still in BR ownership or subsequent ownerships is not always clear. Thus, it is also the intention, to highlight certain locomotives and appeal for sightings of these to be submitted in order to build up a clearer picture of their movements and activities.

The Railway Observer of the late 1960’s, 1970’s and early 1980’s was very prominent in recording diesel disposals and I believe it is fair to say that had tremendous efforts not been made by the then ‘Withdrawn Locomotives’ editorial representative, Peter Trushell, much of the information would not have then come to light. Not unsurprisingly, as mentioned above, the RCTS was not the first to publish a diesel disposal book and still has not. This was left to Mayfield who produced the book ‘Pronounced Life Extinct’ in 1976 authored by a Mr G. Smith of Burnley. What is best described as a revised version of this was published by Midland Railfans in 1978 titled ‘A Decade After’ authored by Kenneth Taylor.

In subsequent years a plethora of titles appeared from publishers such as Ashley Butlin / Coorlea Publishing, David Strickland / Diesel & Electric Group – Locomotive Directory, Platform 5 Publishing – Diesel & Electric Loco Register, Metro Enterprises – Locomotive Lexicon, Roger Harris – The Allocation History of BR Diesels & Electrics, Colin Marsden / OPC - Complete Diesel & Electric Locomotive Disposals and possibly others I have forgotten to mention. It is obvious much extra research went into later disposals in the later titles but often it appears what had already been published about earlier disposals was simply repeated.

Allied to these books are the Industrial Railway Society ‘Ex-BR Diesels In Industry’ series which detail the diesel locomotives up to 650 h.p. that did not go directly for scrap but saw industrial, preservation or similar use. These containing a wealth of information regarding particular locomotives post British Rail histories.

The links take you to dilemmas that have been solved and those were research is ongoing. Please take time to have a look at the Dilemmas for Solving and see if you can help. One observation or a single photograph often proves to be the key to solving a dilemma.

Peter Hall

Dilemmas Solved

13366 – D3366 – 08296 and D3955 – 08787

D3739 – 08572 and D3899 – 08731

Final Disposal of Class 33/2 D6588 - 33203

Scrapping of ‘Baby Deltic’ D5908

Scrapping of Class 21 D6146

Who scrapped D373-40173 at Inverkeithing?

Coopers Metals, Sheffield & the scrapping of D1675–47089 AMAZON

**NEW** Ayrshire Class 11’s (12052 and 12093)

Dilemmas for Solving

Ex BR Diesel Shunting Locomotives Exported to Italy

-   Ex-BR Class 03s and Class 04s exported in 1972 to Brescia, Italy

-   Ex-BR Class 03s, Class 06 and Class 07 exported to Trieste, Italy

-   The Attilio Rossi ex-BRs D2232? and 13xxx-D3xxx

Ex Main Line Locomotives used as ETS mobile generation units

Ex BR Class 08s of the Somerset Quarries

D3925 - 08757 - Where has it been since 2004?

The Scottish Hunslets D2574-D2585

Class 06 observations in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s

RTC Main Line Locomotives 1968 - 1978

Kent and East Sussex Shunting Locomotives in the 1970s, 80s and 90s

What actually happened to 13093-D3093?

Where was 56015 actually scrapped?

Derby Works Scrapings

Snowplough Class 08s

Where exactly were Class 03's D2185 and D2186 located in the 1970s and where were they actually scrapped?

Did D6121 and D6122 swap identities in 1965?

*** NEW *** Cotswold Rail Class 03s - D2070, 03128, 03141, 03145, D2150