The Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 purchased two diesel shunters, and ordered a further seven immediately prior to Nationalisation, which were delivered to British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

 in 1948-49. The two shunters used by the GWR were numbered 1 and 2, while a series commencing at 501 was planned for the new locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s ordered in the 1940s. British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

 numbered 2 and the new locomotives in a series commencing at 15100.

1

This locomotive was built by Fowler in 1933 and was used at Swindon works. It was an 0-4-0

Whyte notation

The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal...

 diesel mechanical shunter with a 70 hp engine, 3 ft diameter wheels and a wheelbase of 5 ft 6 in. It was very similar to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway

London, Midland and Scottish Railway

The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...

's departmental locomotive number 2, which was built a couple of years later. It was withdrawn in 1940 and sold to the Ministry of Supply

Ministry of Supply

The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...

.

2 / 15100

This locomotive was built by Hawthorn Leslie in 1936 and allocated to Swindon

Swindon

Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...

. It was a 0-6-0

Whyte notation

The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal...

 diesel electric shunter, with a close family resemblance to the Southern Railway

Southern Railway (Great Britain)

The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...

 Maunsell 350 hp DMS. It was renumbered 15100 by British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

 in 1948, withdrawn by them in 1965 and scrapped in early 1966.

• see British Rail Class D3/10
  British Rail Class D3/10
  British Rail Class D3/10 was a locomotive commissioned by the Great Western Railway in England, and later taken over by British Railways. It was a diesel powered locomotive in the pre-TOPS period.-Sources:...
  
  

See also

• LMS diesel shunters
  LMS diesel shunters
  The London, Midland and Scottish Railway pioneered the use of diesel shunting locomotives in Great Britain. The variety of experimental and production diesel shunters produced by the LMS is summarised below...
  
  
• LNER internal combustion locomotives
  LNER internal combustion locomotives
  The London and North Eastern Railway used a small number of petrol and diesel locomotives . These included the LNER Class Y11 petrol locomotives, the diesel shunters which later became British Rail Class D3/9 and British Rail Class D3/14 and the Kitson-Still steam diesel hybrid locomotive...
  
  
• Southern Railway diesels
  Southern Railway Diesels
  The Southern Railway built three diesel shunters in 1937, numbered 1–3. These became British Rail 15201–15203, and were later classified as British Rail Class D3/12. Twenty-six similar locomotives were built in 1949–1951 after nationalisation...