The Daily Diary

   1965 would see the first major changes to the fleet. With continued problems of availability, BR decided on a refurbishment programme for the loco's with Brush Electrical Equipment. The four year contract for this was handed to Brush Electrical Machines at Loughborough. D154 entered Works in February and emerged on 1st October. Externally the loco lost its split centre headcode panel in favour of the integral centre style. The loco also had a small four-sided grille added to the lower bodyside. All loco's in the D138 - D173 batch were fitted with the centre headcode panel, which D174 - D193 had at construction, and all 56 locos had the bottom grille added.

The above official Brush Electrical Machines photo shows eight of the class at various stages of the refurb. Left to right on the near row are D168, D182, D176 and an unidentified member which can only be D146, given the larger warning panel and lack of taillight grabrails, and the fact that this photo is taken very late in 1965. In the second row is another one of those with the larger yellow panels, probably D165, the remaining three are likely to be from D138, D141, D155, D169, D188 and D189, possibly D156 or D193.

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   Late Spring and Early Summer saw the twilight of workings on the through route from Derby to Manchester via Bakewell, a sad loss was this line that featured in the very first workings of the fleet. The chance to have a big diesel through the stunning scenery of the White Peak, as seen in David Hills' photo of an unidentified loco heading south over Monsal Head viaduct in 1967, would be gone forever.

The fleet itself continued to work to Manchester, via the Hope Valley Line, and overall the same duties as the previous two years were still in place, with further incursions being made as far as Paignton in the Summer.

Class 45 refurbishing continued apace, albeit without the changes to headcode panels and bottom grille addition. The first class 46s started their next Light Overhauls and were not repainted, leaving the remaining green members as such until their next overhaul in the early 1970's.

The end of steam on the network in August laid the way for a change in numbering policy with depots ordered to remove D prefixes from diesels. Only Holbeck seems to have adhered to this with their locomotives having the D painted out during the autumn. However, Derby Works would send all repainted locos out with no D, 111 and 134 being the first to appear as such on 6th September.

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   In 1969 the 45s continued to go through the refurbishment programme, as with D125 seen on 30/08, above, with only a handful not completed by the end of the year, thus all class 45s were running in BR Blue . The first BR blue 46s would arrive in Works for their Light Overhauls and would be sent out unpainted, thus keeping their D prefixes. 

In traffic there would be little change to the daily destinations with the exception of The Waverley Route, sadly, closed early in the year. At the very end of the year D151 appeared at Laira for crew training into Cornwall, an indicator of things to come.

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At the start of 1971 eight 44s and ten 46s(plus one in Works for painting into BR Blue) were still running in green on 1st January.

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