The Warship Class

I saw all the Warship Class except one – D600 Active, which was not quite active enough for me to catch up with her as one of the relatively few locomotives to be broken up at Barry, even though I’d been there 3 times before she arrived. I liked the Warships, introduced in 1958 and later assigned as Class 42. They were an unusual design - German influenced diesel hydraulics - and the names were strong and attractive. I once saw half the D800 Class in one summer Saturday on Taunton station, after I’d fallen off the back platform of the bus taking me into town, when I mistook traffic lights for the next bus stop.

John Dyer photographed D602 Bulldog at Swindon on 22/8/61, D802 Formidable at Temple Meads in July 1964, D815 Druid at Swindon also on 22/8/61, D845 Sprightly at Hereford in September 1963 and D859 Vanquisher at Crewe in July 1963.