History of D200 / 40122
D200 was built by the now famous English Electric Company at their Vulcan Foundry Works, Newton-Le-Willows, Lancs and entered service in the Great Eastern Region in March 1958, allocated to Stratford Shed. On the 18th March she worked a special demonstration train from London Liverpool Street Station to Norwich and back, carrying a large headboard proclaiming the " First 2,000hp Diesel London Norwich. Progress by Great Eastern".
In June 1959, the loco was reallocated to Norwich for a short period of time, before moving back to Stratford in November of that year. The locos next move came in April 1966, when she found herself allocated to Ipswich Shed where she remained until January 1967 when she was transferred to March Shed. Four months later she was transferred back to Ipswich, a move which was only to last three months as in August of that year the loco was transferred to the London Midland Region and allocated to Western Lines. December 1967 saw D200 allocated to Longsight, where she remained until June 1968 when she was allocated to D09 Manchester Division. On 11th April 1970, the loco arrived at Crewe Locomotive Works for a major overhaul and dual braking and was out shopped in the new BR standard blue livery with full yellow ends on 10th May now carrying the number 200. May 1973 saw the loco back at Longsight depot and in April 1974 the loco was renumbered 40122 filling the gap created by the withdrawal of D322 in 1967. From then onwards the pioneer Class 40 just became another blue example of the fleet. The locos final Intermediate overhaul took place at Derby Locomotive Works in December 1977.
On 6th August 1981, the loco was laid up a Carlisle Kingmoor depot after suffering a main generator failure and was officially condemned on the 23rd of the month and dumped in Kingmoor scrap line, awaiting removal to Swindon Works for scrapping. Over the next twelve months various organisations tried to persuade BR to reinstate the loco on a commercial basis but, the costs were considered far to high and the idea was dropped. On September 11th & 12th Carlisle Upperby held an open day and the Area Mechanical and Electrical Engineer was approached with the view to displaying the loco at this event. Agreement was reached and the locomotive was cosmetically cleaned up and renumbered 200 for the event. To everyone's amazement, the loco stole the show and after the open day 200 (40122) was taken back to Kingmoor Yard while the saga to reinstate her continued. By now ' Rail Magazine' had officially agreed to finance the locos re-paint back into its original green livery and to help raise the money, the Editor Mr. Peter Kelly embarked on a 900 mile bike ride. By now the whole subject of 40122's restatement to traffic was gaining strength, as more and more people became actively involved in the project. On man who probably done more to help 40122's case was Mr. David Ward, Passenger Marketing Manger at London Euston, who recognised the potential in reinstating the locomotive. Next came Mr. David Russell, BRB Freight Engineer who also became involved in the debate to reinstate 40122. With two powerful men now on the case the project was given the green light and 40122 was officially reinstated back to traffic on 24th April 1983 and allocated to Carlisle Kingmoor depot. Meanwhile back at Derby. Mr. Russell authorised the repairs to be carried out and the D200 restoration program was well on its way. Stratford depot in London was chosen to carry out the work and plans were made to move the loco.
She was towed from Carlisle Kingmoor to Tyne Yard by 37083 on April 20th, however due to a build up of work at Stratford the loco was re-routed to Crewe Works instead, travelling via York and Healey Mills on 21st April and arriving at its destination on 27th April. Immediately the whole issue of D200's reinstatement was at risk, because the only way the restoration project had any chance of succeeding, was if the work was carried out by a depot on the grounds of cost. On 6th May, 40122 left Crewe Works and was towed onto Crewe Diesel depot to wait transfer to Toton depot at a later date along with donor loco 40076. The convoy finally arrived at Toton on the 10th May. Although Toton depot had very little experience on class 40's , this was not going to stop them restoring 40122 back to her former glory. After the initial shock of seeing what state the loco was really in, the depot soon got down to work on 40122 lifting her to enable a bogie swap to take place, the power unit and main generator was swapped with 40076 and the boiler was replaced with an ex-works Stone Vapor 4625 boiler from Derby Works. Electrically all the wiring was found to be in very good condition, especially after the loco had been out of traffic for several years. While the loco was on the jacks it was decided to plate parts of the under body which were found to be in a poor condition. With the power unit and main generator out of the way it was decided to clean out and re-paint the complete engine room, radiator compartment and both nose ends. Externally, the body panels required re-plating and body filling before undercoat was applied, the loco was also refitted with both body side frost grills. The two cabs were completely renovated including replacement of both cab floors.
The loco was painted into its original Brunswick Green Livery with grey roof and a light grey shoulder band at the top of each body side, red buffer beams and black bogies and water tanks. The old style British Railways totem symbol was applied on each side above number two bogie and the locomotive identification numbers applied to all four cab sides. D200 beneath the drivers window and 40122 under the second mans window repeated on both sides of the locomotive, finally the loco was fitted with four replica works plates .
After the loco was completed , she was moved outside the shed for some official photographs of her in all over green livery before the small yellow warning panels were applied. Toton depot really pulled out all the stops and achieved the impossible, the locomotive looked and sounded like brand new amongst the mist of blue locomotives. This was surely a credit to all those who became involved in the reinstatement of 40122, with out their hard work and dedication the loco would have just been a memory today.
The locomotives first working was ' The Hadrain Pullman ' from London Kings Cross to Carlisle, via Leeds and the Settle and Carlisle route on Sunday 31st July 1983. From then onwards the loco became a instant success on Railtours, special charters and event appearances at BR open days.
The first signs of trouble occurred on 20th November 1983, when the power unit threw two con rods through the crankcase. The locomotive was later sent back to Toton depot, arriving on 2nd December to under go a power unit swap with donor loco 40170 and was back in traffic a week later.
Although D200 was roistered to work on the S & C route, the loco could be found on all types of workings in various parts of the country, from heavy Freightliner traffic to Newspaper trains and even engineering diagrams, besides special duties and rail tours. In fact ever since the loco was reinstated back to traffic she seems to have covered every corner of the country and travelled thousands of miles.
In January 1988, the loco visited Allerton depot for tyre turning, the work completed the loco moved to Crewe Diesel depot and upon arrival at the depot an inspection was carried out which revealed that the tyres had unfortunately been turned to an incorrect profile and were now all below scrap size. To overcome the problem Crewe carried out a wheel set swap with 40013 being the donor loco. After the work was carried out, the loco moved to Stratford depot in London for a complete repaint prior to working its last farewell Railtours. Regrettably the loco was not completed in time to work the ' Pennine Farewell ' tour on 12th March and was released from Stratford depot in light grey undercoat, with small yellow warning panels. After the Railtour the loco returned to Stratford to complete its repaint.
16th April 1988 was the official last day of D200 in traffic on BR, ending thirty years of loyal service with the loco. An immaculate D200 left Stratford depot for the last time and travelled light engine towards Liverpool Street Station, to work the final Class 40 hauled train in BR service. The headboard carried was identical to that carried by the locomotive some thirty years earlier, only now it read ' Last 2,000hp Diesel London - Norwich Progress by Inter-City '. The final tour departed from Liverpool Street Station and headed for Norwich, from here it was onto York via Peterborough and Doncaster. D200 arrived at York Station on time at 16:30 hours. The loco then posed for a few minutes allowing people the last chance to photograph her before she disappeared light engine towards the National Railway Museum. On arrival at the Museum she was officially handed over to the National Collection by Mr. David Ward from Inter-City Charter Unit. D200 was officially withdrawn from service at 15:10 on April 18th 1988, this date was specially chosen as it was exactly thirty years to the day since the loco made its inaugural run, from Liverpool Street to Norwich.
During the early part of 1993, arrangements were made between the NRM and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to allow D200 to operate over the line on two separate occasions. The first appearance was on Saturday 25th April when the loco hauled a small demonstration freight train over the line. Two weeks later on Saturday 8th May, she worked her first passenger train over the line since the locomotive became preserved The next public appearance at a preserved railway was in July 1997, when the loco visited the East Lancs Railway. The loco was on loan to the railway for a year and was looked after during her stay by the Class 40 Preservation Society. Apart from running the loco during her twelve months stay, the CFPS carried out a number of jobs on the loco, one being the removal of the power unit and main generator for repairs. Since then the loco has returned to the railway again and as also appeared at various open days including Toton, Old Oak Common and Crewe Works.
Although part of the National Collection, D200 is currently based at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
Depot Allocation.
03:58 Stratford.
06:59 Norwich.
11:59 Stratford.
04:66 Ipswich.
01:67 March.
05:67 Ipswich.
08:67 London Midland Western Lines.
12:67 Longsight.
06:68 D09 Manchester Division.
05:73 Longsight.
04:83 Carlisle Kingmoor.
Withdrawn.
On 18th April 1988 at 15:10 hours and Now apart of the National Collection and based at the National Railway Museum, York.
Current Identification.
All over Dark Brunswick Green and numbered D200.
D200 at Rawenstall during the ELR diesel gala on 14th July 2001.
Photo by Martin Ramsdale.
