British Rail Class 46

The British Rail Class 46 is a class of 56 diesel locomotives that British Railways built at its Derby Works between 1961 and 1963, first numbered D138 to D193 and renumbered under the TOPS system. It is one of the three Peak classes alongside Class 44 and Class 45, sharing the Class 45 structure and Sulzer engine but using Brush generator and traction motors in place of Crompton Parkinson equipment. The last twenty on order were cancelled and replaced by the Brush-built Class 47. The locomotives worked passenger turns on North East to South West and Trans-Pennine routes as well as long freight workings such as china clay trains, were prone to cracked bogie castings, and were all withdrawn by the end of 1984. Locomotive 46 009 was crashed at about 100 mph into a nuclear flask in a 1984 test, and three of the class survive in preservation.