Western Diesels

I was a little surprised to find that there was only one Western diesel photo in John Dyer’s collection. D1005 Western Venturer was heading north through Denham with a train from Paddington on 26/1/63. These were, without doubt, my favourite diesels, though I wasn’t altogether overcome with happiness when they took over the Birkenhead to Paddington expresses at Chester from the Castle Class. The last one I needed to complete the set was D1028 Western Hussar, which obligingly turned up at Newton Abbott, bound for the capital. I remember sometimes getting an encouraging premonition as a train glided into the platform, that this might be the one I needed, and on this occasion, I was right.

There were 74 Class 52s built at Swindon and Crewe between 1961 and 1964. I remember seeing D1000 Western Enterprise in experimental desert sand livery at Crewe and D1015 Western Champion in golden ochre at Birmingham Snow Hill. There were green ones and eventually blue ones but I thought maroon suited them best. They had all gone from the main line by 1977, although 7 were preserved.