Nothing duff about these Co-Cos

To celebrate 60 years of British Railways’ Brush Type 4 diesel electric locos (later designated Class 47), we present a small selection of images from the Mortons Archive.

The first Brush Type 4, No. 1500, forerunner of 512 Sulzer-engined Co-Co diesel electric locomotives built for British Railways at Brush’s Falcon Works at Loughborough (and painted/finished at Crewe works) was accepted into traffic on September 28, 1962. Since then, these versatile machines have been a familiar sight putting in sterling service across the UK rail network on goods and top link passenger turns alike. Despite the ‘Duff’ nickname (the result of a troubled start and early years) they are popular performers and still see main line use on charter workings and EMU drags.