BR Class 35

In the rush to modernise British Railways in the 1960s, no single standardised policy of locomotive development was sought, unlike in the 1950s with steam. Most of the larger works focused on Diesel electric locomotives (a diesel engine, powering an electric generator, supplying traction motors) however, the Western Region always did have a knack for bucking the trends of normal railway practice. It looked abroad, as Churchward did generations before, and settled upon the German state railway's successful practice of diesel locomotives with hydraulic transmission. Beyer Peacock of Manchester were appointed to manufacture a batch of type 3 locomotives and opted to use the Mekydro system, giving the class the nickname “Hymeks”. They would have only a relatively short working life, due to the further economical cuts on the 1970s dictating that all Hydaulic transmission locomotives were too high in maintenance compared to their diesel-electric classmates. We know very little about this model, who built it, how old it is, only that it spent many years running happily at the Echills Wood Railway, both at their old Stoneleigh layout and the new track at Kingsbury before coming to LMR.