It is now 60 years since the first Class 47, No D1500, entered service with British Railways. For many years, this type was the cornerstone of the locomotive fleet, capable of working a wide variety of both passenger and freight services. It was at the forefront of modernisation, being the favoured motive power for the new Freightliner containerised freight trains and the Merry-Go-Round coal trains taking coal from pit to power station with continuous loading and unloading. This book reviews the first 20 years of service. All the key technical changes are depicted along with the different liveries created in BR's evolution from original two-green to the new corporate blue and yellow and on to the futuristic Large Logo first seen in the early 1980s. AUTHOR: Alongside working as a Quality Control Manager in the rail industry, Simon Lilley is the author of several railway books. His previous works include Class 47: 50 Years of Locomotive History, Class 33s: A Sixty Year History, and now Brush Type 4 to Class 7: The First 25 Years.
