The D200 story
THE British Railways Modernisation Plan of 1955 included orders from four manufacturers for ‘big’ Type 4 locos. English Electric’s offering used a Mk.2 version of its 16-cylinder SVT power unit rated at 2,000hp, a development of the Mk.1 type that had been used in the previous LMS (Nos. 10000 and 10001) and SR (Nos. 10201-10203) prototypes that emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The initial order was for 10 locos, the first of which, No. D200, emerged from EE’s Vulcan Foundry at Newton-le-Willows in March 1958 with the other nine (Nos. D201-209) following over the next six months. Follow on orders saw a further 190 examples built at Vulcan Foundry – with the exception of 20 (Nos. D305-324) at the RSH plant in Darlington – and delivered between 1959 and 1962. The 10 pilot scheme EE Type 4s were allocated to the Eastern Region’s London depots, being based at Stratford (Nos. D200/202-205) and Hornsey (Nos. D201/206-209).
Following its release in March 1958, No. D200 ran to Doncaster Works from where it undertook a number of test runs. Movement south to Stratford took place on April 11, and over the next few days it undertook several outings to Cambridge.
INTO SERVICE
The loco’s first passenger working was on April 18, 1958 when, carrying a headboard proclaiming ‘First 2000hp diesel London-Norwich’, it departed Liverpool Street at 10.27 and, with a stop at Ipswich, had a schedule of under two hours – unheard of in steam
