Class 17 Claytons

These 900bhp diesel-electric locomotives designed by the Clayton Equipment Company was intended to be British Rails standard design of type 1 diesel locomotive. Compared to the initial type 1 designs the centre cab and low engine bonnets provided good visibility in both directions while the use of two Paxman 450bhp railcar engines allowed for one to be switched off when shunting or running with a very light train.
The initial batch built by the Clayton company were allocated to the Scottish region, taking over much of the local freight traffic in the lowlands region and reaching Carlisle by both the coastal and WCML routes. A second batch built by Beyer Peacock went to the Eastern region, with examples allocated to Thornaby, Gateshead, Tinsley and Barrow Hill, again taking over mostly the local freight services.

Ordered from the drawing board the aesthetically pleasing locomotives were to prove less than successful mechanically, the first entering service in 1962 and all 117 locomotives built being withdrawn at the end 1971. In addition to the decline of traditional local goods train operations the type 1 locomotives had been designed for the Paxman engines proved unreliable and using two locomotives with four engines in place of a single larger locomotive to haul the heavier block freight trains negated any economies which might have been realised by the design. Indeed so urgent was the desire to remove the Claytons from traffic that an additional 100 of the English Electric type 1 class 20s were ordered to replace them.

Luckily one example of the class was sold to Castle Cement, serving for many years at their Clitheroe plant and is now preserved, so we can still enjoy seeing the stylish twin bonnet Clayton locomotive in operation.