THE Ivatt Diesel Re-creation Society – which is attempting to build a copy of Britain’s first main line diesel – has launched an appeal for £40,000 to buy and restore a pair of the correct bogies.
The group was formed in 2011 to fill a major gap in modern traction preservation, by building a new Class D16/1.
The first of the class, designed by HG Ivatt, was outshopped by the LMS only three weeks before Nationalisation.
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Built at Derby with an English Electric 1600hp diesel engine, generator and electrics, No. 10000 was unveiled to the press at the works in December 1947 and was also presented at Euston station on December 18, 1947, before making a demonstration return journey to Watford.
In March that year, the LMS has announced its intention to use diesel on main line passenger services.
The second and last member of the class, No. 10001, followed in 1948. They were both extensively used on the network, but did not last until the end of BR main line steam haulage, having together clocked up more than two million miles. No. 10000 was withdrawn in 1963 and its sister three years later, and both were scrapped in January 1968, before the railway preservation movement had turned its attention to diesels, and despite their immense historical significance and efforts by railwaymen to save them.
Read more in Issue 243 of HR – on sale now!
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