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Class 40

Two hundred diesels that English Electric built in 1958-62, among the first big main-line diesels of BR's Modernisation Plan. They took over top expresses on the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines and from Liverpool Street, at up to 90 mph (145 km/h), on long eight-axle bogies with an unpowered pony axle at each end. Faster locomotives and electrification moved them to secondary passenger and freight work in the north of England and Scotland. The first 125 had headcode discs on the nose, as drawn here; later ones had split or central headcode boxes.

Class 40, schematic side elevation, 1 car
69 ft 6 in (21.184 m) over couplers

Class 40 · schematic drawing GB Trains · gbtrains.uk/stock/class-40/ · CC BY 4.0

Schematic side elevation of a full train, drawn from the dimensions below. In British Rail's blue, as 40145, 40104 and 40164: the body and roof blue, the nose fronts yellow (side on, a strip along the front edge), black window rubbers, the underframe and bogies black; coloured from photographs, approximate. Branding left out: the BR double arrow and the numbers. Drawn at 10 px per metre. Download SVG · Use this drawing

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Liveries 1

The same measured train in each livery, each drawn from a cited source. The drawing above shows the largest fleet’s.

Former liveries 1

Compare with other trains →

Type
Diesel-electric locomotive (1Co-Co1)
Builder
English Electric, at the Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows (180) and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, Darlington (20)
Built
1958-1962
In service
1958–1985
Formation
1 locomotive (1Co-Co1)
Trains in fleet
200
Top speed
90 mph (145 km/h)
Power
2,000 hp: an English Electric 16SVT Mk II 16-cylinder engine, an EE822 main generator and six EE526/5D traction motors · how it works
Bogies
English Electric 1Co bogies (Class 40)
Train length
70 ft (21.184 m)
Car height
12 ft 10 in (3.905 m)
Car width
9 ft 0 in (2.74 m)
Profile
main-line
Status
Withdrawn between 1967 (one after an accident) and January 1985. Seven are preserved: 40012, 40013, 40106, 40118, 40122 (D200, at the National Railway Museum), 40135 and 40145.

unverified Some of these figures haven’t yet been checked against an official source or a published history. What’s in doubt ↓

Car types

CodeCarLengthDoors per side
40Class 40 diesel-electric locomotive69 ft 6 in21.184 m

Sources

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Show the 9 sources from Wikimedia Commons, British Railways Board, Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Department, Wikipedia
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