Heritage Diesel Journeys
Steam gets all the attention, but the diesel locomotives in the Vintage Trains fleet have a story that is equally worth telling. The Class 52 Westerns, the Class 47s, the English Electric Type 3s: these were the machines that took over from steam on the national network in the 1960s and became, in their own right, objects of considerable engineering ambition and character.Â
Western Champion alone covered over 1.2 million miles in service before withdrawal. Keeping locomotives like these running on the mainline today takes the same level of skill, commitment, and resource as it does for steam, and the journeys they haul are no less compelling for it.
For passengers who have never travelled behind a heritage diesel, the experience is different from steam but no less absorbing. The sound of an English Electric or a Maybach engine working hard through a tunnel or over a summit is something that stays with you. For enthusiasts, these are some of the rarest mainline workings available anywhere in the country.