The first of what must be, in anyone's book, one of the most successful of the Pilot Scheme classes, if not the most successful Type 2 of all, entered service at Hornsey shed on 30th July 1958. An unbelievable 52 years on, it's hard to contextualise how this gritty progeny of the even grittier district of Smethwick marked the beginning of the revolution of suburban services out of Kings Cross. Curious too how this turned out to be something of a false dawn, because hard on the heels of the unbreakable D5300 and nineteen like her, came the NBLs and Baby D's, not to mention a re-engining programme for the delightful A1A-A1A dinosaurs...

Barely nine months passed before new D5320 and 21 briefly roosted at Leith Central (if ever there was a shed deserving a blog entry in its own right...) on their way to 64B from where classmates would later usher-in the Waverley Route's diesel era proper, a twilight transition that would last less than a decade, but remarkably only be completed a year before the end.

And this is where the complex allocation history for the BRCW Baby-Sulzers begins. Between May and October '59, the last 27 of the class arrived at Haymarket; four months later seven moved on to Inverness (5338-43/6), leaving 64B with a 20-strong fleet that would typify the next decade. Dieselisation of the Highland Main Line was afoot, and the fantastic Derby Sulzers site ( http://www.derbysulzers.com/60.html ) is as magnanimous as it is comprehensive by chronicling the transfer north of the early class members, en route 64B to release the entire batch 5318 - 46 to 60A.

"For the BRCWs' transfer Doncaster men worked up to Hornsey with brand new Brush Type 2s, bringing back a pair of BRCWs, with crew changes at Doncaster & Newcastle. So noted on April 12th were D5602/03 going up and D5300/01 going down and April 21st D5604/05 up and D5302/03 down."

The migration north was as follows:

5338-43/46 Haymarket - Inverness, February 1960

5300-15 Hornsey - Haymarket, April - June 1960

5320-25/8/33/5/7/45 Haymarket - Inverness, June 1960 and (Jamie to note) 5344 to 65B until Feb 61 (60A)

5330/1/4 Haymarket - Inverness, July 1960

5316-19 Hornsey - Haymarket, August - September 1960

5329/36 Haymarket - Inverness, November 1960

The last stragglers, 5327 and 5332 left for 60A in June '61, joined by 5318/9 in April '62 (back to 64B October '65)

So, 64B had kicked off its diesel epoch during 1959, and put the BRCWs to work on the Edinburgh - Aberdeen expresses. But the wayward locos would have their second chance to work the Waverley route.

In July 1961 64B put its BRCWs to work on the Carlisle services, and (usual spotter disclaimer) it's probably fair to assume that the first 18 all had a go by the time the second wave of Type 2 traction appeared five years later, leading to a significant reduction in 64B BRCWs on the line. There is a wealth of photos in the standard texts and on the net showing GSYP 64B locos from the 5300-17 batch, as they put in five years' graft on the climbs to Falahill and Whitrope. This painfully wonderful B&W silent movie clip of a mum and two young children at Riccarton shows them boarding one such service:.

But there's more to it than that. 5318 and 5319 yo-yo'd back and forth between Haymarket and Inverness, returning to 64B permanently just before the line closed, in November 1968. All of the core 64B batch 5300-5319 were recorded on the route.

5316 and 5317 had also played away, as Highland locos from July '67 to January '68. By now though, the typical Waverley route Baby Sulzer was from a subtly different cast.

In May '68, the Moray Coast network closed to all traffic. At the summer T/T change, the Inverness engines' diagrams were altered and 60A 24s and 26s could be seen interchangeably on the 2M/S52 circuit, along with 64B's remaining Class 24s. 60A locos recorded on the Waverley Route during its final summer and twilight included 5320/1/24-6/29-33/35-8/40/2/4/6. The occasional Haymarket 26 was still to be seen, and during the freight-only period, it was these that dominated, along with the 7 Class 25s, and the feral Claytons.

Ironically, just after closure of the line to Hawick to freight, a further ten 26s were formally reallocated back to Haymarket, 5320-29.

Now, what was I saying about Claytons? Their tale of woe is the next and last core chapter in this Best of British Haymarket series.