LMS diesel shunters

The LMS pioneered the use of diesel shunting locomotives in Great Britain, and its diesel shunters range from one-off experiments to production classes. The first was a 20 hp 0-4-0 diesel mechanical built by Hudswell Clarke in 1930 for the Crewe Works narrow-gauge railway, the first diesel locomotive supplied to a major UK railway. Number 1831 of 1932 was the first experimental standard-gauge shunter, nominally rebuilt from a Midland Railway steam locomotive, and although it was not successful it provided useful data for later designs. Nine prototypes followed between 1932 and 1935, then ten 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunters from Armstrong Whitworth in 1936, and the production series that became British Railways Classes D3/6, D3/7 and D3/8.