Following WW2 the GWR ordered a number of shunting locomotive types for comparison in service. The 15xx design featured outside cylinders, Walschaerts valve gear and a short wheelbase, features of the wartime USATC tank engines which had worked at several locations on the GWR. The other new designs ordered were the more conventional 94xx pannier tanks and a batch of the latest designs of Brush and English Electric equipped 350bhp diesel shunters.
The 94xx panniers were delivered in 1947, followed by the diesel shunters in 1948. The 15xx design which no doubt needed considerably more design office time entered service from mid-1949.
Completed in June 1949 number 1500 was sent to London Old Oak Common shed where is was allocated for it's entire career with British railways, being withdrawn at the end of 1963.
Specification
- Designed from original works drawings and a wealth of photographic material
- Die-cast construction
- Quality mechanism
- Next18 decoder socket
- NEM coupler pockets
- Sprung buffers
- Key detail changes between individual locomotives