Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Britain was set on dieselisation as a stop gap measure before they could invest in full electrification. In doing so, their smallest mainline diesels took design queues from American Road Switchers. Problem is, you can't just apply American locomotive practice to smaller European railways. To demonstrate why, we take a look at perhaps the worst offender: The Class 15, or British Thompson-Houston Type 1.


SOURCES AND CREDIT

Photograph of NBL Type 1 no.10800 by ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Unbekannt / Ans_05373-2995 / Public Domain Mark - doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-000903439, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133272434

Line drawings of the Class 17, Class 28 and Class 15 are official drawings by British Rail.

Other photographic material or film, unless stated otherwise, were captured by me.


Website sources:

barrowmoremrg.co.uk/Prototype.html

d8233.org.uk/history.htm


Literary sources:

'Locospotters' Annual 1964' by Ian Allan


LINKS



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Outro music: Kevin MacLeod - Fiddles McGinty
(Fiddles McGinty by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400051

Artist: incompetech.com )



Channel icon by Dean Walker - twitter.com/lookitstrainart


Thumbnail art by:
- twitter.com/RoseAffogato

#BritishRailways