D5078, 5078, 24078
D5078, 5078, 24078

Photograph courtesy Alistair Holt / KDH Archive.
D5078 at Euston on April 24th 1963 on some sort of local duty. D5078 is just over three years old, its most obvious change is the addition of the small yellow cab front warning panel. Surprisingly the cantrail water filler is still present, though apparently not quite fitting properly. The locomotive retains the original location of the circular engine exhaust port, these would gradually migrate to above the engine room, it does not seem to have been a priority modification as 24086 retained its original location until June 1975. The curved roof panel (to the left of the removable engine room cover) seems to have undergone a variety of styles during production over the years, particularly with the Class 25s.

The sixteen year one month career of D5078/24078 was spent entirely on the London Midland Region apart from its very brief (paper only?) allocation to the Eastern Region.

Built Crewe Locomotive Works (from batch 5076 - 5093).
Shortened fuel tank & full size water tank (shortened water tank fitted later).
Four upper and four lower air filters on non-BIS side, three upper and four lower on BIS side.
Circular gauge added to fuel & water tanks (1968).
Time between last Classified repair and withdrawal: ?? months.
Time between withdrawal & scrapping: 25 months.

Allocations

The frames for D5078 were laid down at Crewe Works during November 1959, D5078 was new to March (31B) on February 18th 1960. Further transfers were:

March 1960 to Willesden (1A), on loan, made permanent April 1960.
April 1966 to London Division (D01).
December 1966 to Stoke Division (D05).
May 1973 to Crewe.
March 1976 to unserviceable store (collision damage).
April 24th 1976 - withdrawn.

Renumbered March 6th 1974.

After withdrawal 24078 was stored at Crewe from March 1976 until May 19th 1977 when it was moved to Oxford, remaining here until May 31st 1977 when it completed its journey to Swindon Works, and scrapped there by the first week of June 1978.

Movement: 24052/77/78/84 as the Crewe - Oxford - Swindon during May 19th-31st, hauled by 25130 for at least one leg.

Works Visits

Works visits (records incomplete).

Noted Derby Works September - November 1960.
Noted Derby Works July 1963.
Noted Derby Works December 1963 - February 1964.
Noted Derby Works February & April 1968 (repainted to blue).
Noted Derby Works February 1970.
Noted Derby Works February 1974.

Highlights

1960
D5078 was one of a batch of eighteen machines (D5076 - D5093) built at Crewe, with delivery at least on paper to March (31B), if it actually reached here in February, the stay was brief for it was quickly transferred to Willesden (1A) during March.

On April 16th D5078 in very ex-works condition was noted on a local Euston service.

D5078 was at Derby Locomotive Works from September to November, a lengthy stay for a machine less than a year old, had it been involved in a collision?

1961
On October 4th D5078 worked the 21.00 Euston - Tring.

1962
D5078 worked the 15.52 Rugby - Euston on January 13th.

1963
Condition June: green livery with small yellow warning panels with curved upper corners, bottom of warning panel partially covered the frame level stripe, full size water tank, shortened fuel tanks, three rung bogie mounted footsteps, ridge sided sandboxes, engine exhaust in original location, cantrail level water filler cover present.

On the morning of September 3rd D5078 was at Watford Junction with an up local.

Derby Works was host to D5078 during July and from December 1963 to February 1964.

1964
On the morning of June 13th D5078 was at Rugby with a down parcels.

On July 2nd D5078 & 45404 were at Rugby with the 4S63 14.18 Camden - Sighthill freight.

On July 29th D5078 worked the 17.27 Euston - Rugby.

On September 9th D5078 was at Bletchley with an up local.

1965
Condition June: green livery with small yellow warning panels with curved upper corners, bottom of warning panel only partially covered the frame level stripe, shortened fuel and water tanks, three rung bogie mounted footsteps, ridge sided sandboxes, engine exhaust located above engine room.

1966
With electrification virtually complete at the London end of the WCML and Willesden receiving the latest Class 25s from Derby Locomotive Works the mass exodus of the Class 24s began to the Stoke Division (D05), with D5078 heading north in December, as part of the first batch (D5073 - D5081) to move north.

1967
Condition August: green livery with small yellow warning panels with curved upper corners, bottom of warning panel only partially covered the frame level stripe.

On the afternoon of October 31st noted at Stoke on Trent were D5078 (light engine), D5033 (up freight) & D5086 (down freight) with the old order of 75047 lying condemned on Stoke shed.

1968
Visitors to Derby Works included D5078 from February to April, whilst at Derby D5078 acquired blue livery with BR arrows on each cab side and numbers on the bodysides. The gangway doors had been retained, as was the valencing, shortened fuel/water tanks, both with circular gauges were fitted, the hand/footholds were still present as were the boiler room grilles. The exhaust was located over the engineroom.

On the evening of July 8th D5078 was northbound at Crewe with a freight.

1969
On the early morning of January 18th 5078 was at Crewe.

On the morning of August 24th 5001 (stored) 5024 & 5078 were noted at Crewe depot.

On November 11th 5078 was noted shunting at Longton.

1970
On February 3rd 5078 & 7504 were noted at Crewe north holding sidings.

On June 1st 5078 was shunting at Port Sunlight.

Condition June: blue livery with full yellow ends, three electrification flashes on cab front, gangway doors present, hand & footholds present, no blanking plates, circular fuel & water tank gauges fitted, straight sided sandboxes, three rung bogie mounted footsteps, two numbers and emblems on each side, 'D' prefixes present.

On the early afternoon of June 25th 293, 5078 & 1566 were light engines at Crewe.

1973
On July 7th the Bescot breakdown crane with 5078 was sent to Lightmoor Junction to attend to some derailed wagons.

1974
5078 was at Derby Works during February.

On October 19th 24078 was noted at Shrewsbury.

1975
On March 16th 24078 and a steam crane were noted at Llanaber with a train of large boulders to reinforce the seaward side of the track.

24078 was the Manchester Victoria banker (T42) on June 13th.

1976
On January 24th 24078 was noted at Coton Hill, Shrewsbury.

24078 avoided the massive withdrawals of the LMR Class 24s during the summer of 1975, lasting until March 1976 when it was placed into unserviceable store after receiving collision damage and finally retired on April 24th 1976.

Final condition: blue/yellow livery, gangway doors sheeted over, shortened fuel/water tanks, both with circular gauges, blanking plates fitted, hand/footholds plated over.

Most of the retired machines were withdrawn surplus to requirements, but a number suffered collision damage in their final days which sealed their fate immediately. Here accident damnaged 24078 waits at Swindon on June 12th 1977 for the final call to the cutting line.

Seventeen years after 24077 & 24078 left Crewe Works, they are still together, this time at Swindon Works awaiting cutting. On a gloriously damp April 30th 1978 a group tour, led by a Swindon Works guide complete with hat (extreme right) passes by 24078.

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Page added May 25th 2016.
Last updated October 6th 2022.

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