British Rail Class 41 (Warship Class)

The British Rail Class 41, originally the D600 Class, was a group of five diesel-hydraulic locomotives built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow in 1957 and 1958 and named after Royal Navy vessels, so that their nameplates carried the subtitle Warship Class. The British Transport Commission ordered them as a direct comparison with the Class 40, the product of power politics between the commission and the Western Region, which preferred its own production Warships. At almost 120 long tons they were far heavier than the production locomotives, and each carried two MAN L12V18/21A engines rated at 1,000 horsepower with Voith transmissions and an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement. They worked the London to Plymouth and Penzance route, and on 16 June 1958 D601 hauled the Cornish Riviera Express non-stop from Paddington to Plymouth, the first diesel locomotive to do so. All five were withdrawn on 30 December 1967 and none was preserved.