Weekend Cinema - on the Rails.....
By: had lots of requests for some tasty rail related stuff [well, I had one p/m but that's just a minor detail ;-]
anyway, here's the building of a Class 31` by BRUSH Engineering who were part of the Hawker Siddeley Aircraft mob who built the nuke planes during the 50's and 60's - they were the Big Boys of the era... BR (British Rail) had made the decision to ditch the steam engines and coal fired traction and work towards an 'Electric Era'....however, they needed an interim period so they invited many suppliers to build and offer Diesels as a stop gap measure - lovely smelly diesel! They originally had a Mirrlees 12 cylinder lump pushing out about 1250HP which was enough to propel the 106 ton beast to about 85 MPH pulling a full rake of carriages or wagons when used on freight work.
Class 31's went by the name 'Goyles' (as in gargoyles) or 'Peds' (as in pedicabs). Some are still in use on preserved rail tours were critters pay good money every weekend to travel behind 'em taking in the gorgeous aroma of burnt diesel and hot oil...