British Rail Class 27

British Rail's Class 27 comprised 69 diesel locomotives built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (BRCW) during 1961 and 1962. They were a development of the earlier Class 26; both were originally classified as the BRCW Type 2. Original allocations were to the Scottish Region, the Eastern Region, and the London Midland Region, but all soon ended up in Scotland. For many years they were extensively used on the West Highland Line. The last locomotives were withdrawn from service in 1987, being outlived by the older Class 26s, whose less powerful engines were more reliable.

Edinburgh-Glasgow

By the late 1960s, the Class 126 DMUs operating the Edinburgh Waverley - Glasgow Queen Street express service were becoming unreliable. They were replaced in 1971 by specially adapted Class 27s fitted with push-pull equipment to "top and tail" rakes of six Mark 2a carriages. At one end would be a Class 27/1, at the other a Class 27/2 (which provided train heating). The 90 m.p.h. "push-pull" service was demanding on the locomotives and reliability started to suffer. The push-pull sets were replaced in 1980 by single Class 47/7s at one end of a rake of Mark 3 carriages and a DBSO. The spare Class 27s were then transferred for use on Edinburgh-Dundee semi-fast passenger services, until their replacement by Class 150 Sprinter DMUs in the late 1980s.

Preservation

A number of examples have been preserved, including 27056 (D5401) at Northampton & Lamport Railway, and 27024 (D5370) at the Caledonian Railway (Brechin).

External links

• 27056 Restoration in progress gallery

British Rail non-steam locomotives
Diesel locomotives - Electric locomotives - DMU - DEMU - AC EMU - DC EMU - Departmental units
	Diesel shunting locomotives
Classes:	01 - 01/5 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 - 07 - 08 - 09 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14
Pre-TOPS type:	D1/1 - D1/2 - D1/3 - D1/4 - D2/1 - D2/2 - D2/3 - D2/4 - D2/5 - D2/6 - D2/7 - D2/8 - D2/9 - D2/10 - D2/11 - D2/12 - D3/1 - D3/2 - D3/3 - D3/4 - D3/5 - D3/6 - D3/7 - D3/8 - D3/9 - D3/10 - D3/11 - D3/12 - D3/13 - D3/14
Pre-1955 type:	11001 - 11104 - 15107 - 13000
	Main-line diesel locomotives
Classes:	15 - 16 - 17 - 20 - 21 - 21 (Vossloh) - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 33 - 35 - 37 - 40 - 41 (Warship Class) - 41 (HST) - 42 - 43 (Warship Class) - 43 (HST) - 44 - 45 - 46 47 - 48 - 50 - 52 - 53 - 55 - 56 - 57 - 58 - 59 - 60 - 66 - 67
Pre-TOPS type:	D8/1 - D8/2 - D10/1 - D10/2 - D10/3 - D11/1 - D11/2 - D11/3 - D11/4 - D11/5 - D12/1 - D12/2 - D12/3 - D13/1 - D14/1 - D14/2 - D15/1 - D15/2 - D16/1 - D16/2 - D17/1 - D17/2 - D20/1 - D20/2 - D22/1 - D22/2 - D23/1 - D25/1 - D27/1 - D33/1 - KA - KB
Pre-1955 type:	10000-10001 - 10100 - 10201-10203 - 10800
	Electric locomotives
Classes:	70 - 71 - 73 - 74 - 76 - 77 - 80 - 81 - 82 - 83 - 84 - 85 - 86 - 87 - 89 - 90 - 91 - 92
Pre-TOPS type:	AL1 - AL2 - AL3 - AL4 - AL5 - AL6 - EB1 - EE1 - EM1 - EM2 - ES1 - HA - HB - JA - JB
	Other locomotives
Departmental:	97 - 97/6 - Eastern - Southern - Other Series
Other:	98 - 99 - 15097-15099 - 18000 - 18100
Demonstrators:	D0226/D0227 - D0260 - D0280 - D9998 - DHP1 - DP1 - DP2 - GT3 - HS4000 - Janus/Taurus