D8568

Clayton Bo-Bo Class 17 Type 1 D8568

Sold from Polmadie depot during the late Summer of 1972 D8568 went to Hemelite of Harpenden, a cement company on the former branch line between Harpenden and Hemel Hempstead. It was purchased because the companies shunting locomotives were limited in haulage capacity. A visit to Polmadie secured the locomotive and with a small fitted van loaded with spare brake equipment, electrical equipment and a 450 hp Paxman power unit, arrangements were made to work D8568 south. It arrived under its own power on the 11^th September 1972 and in doing so became the first ‘privately owned’ ex-main line diesel loco to break the ‘no private diesels BR ban’. This 'claim to fame' is often quoted as going to Warship D821 Greyhound but the difference between the two was D8568 was going for industrial use where as D821 was going for preservation.  

On the 12^th D8568 was trialed using six mineral wagons as a train and worked up and down the branch to the Hemel Hempstead factory. The loco was affectionately known as ‘Gavin’ after the owners son, and the locomotive enabled more wagons to be carried – resulting in less rail journeys and more savings for the company. D8568 remained in use at Hemel Hempstead until the higher costs of using rail traction forced the company to turn to the roads. So D8568 and its two smaller shunters were put up for sale with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway taking the two shunters. Ironically, D8568 would end up here in preservation later too!  

The Clayton was sold to Ribble Cement (now Castle Cement) and proved ideal for shunting its heavy trains at Clitheroe. On 16^th June 1977 it left Harpenden for Cricklewood where minor attention was given to enable it to make the long journey north. On the 20^th it departed Cricklewood making its way to Clitheroe in various freights until on the 24^th June she arrived. Here D8568 was repainted into the new owning company colours of light grey upper body with the running plate, bogies and underframe in dark green. The company logo of a castle was applied to the cab sides and nose ends and to warn staff of its presence, small lights, displaying red and white were fixed along the sides to the frame. Another decline in traffic again, this time for Ribble Cement, saw the loco put up for sale again.  

The DTG made an offer of £1000 and it was accepted provided they took all of the spares with the. It left Clitheroe on the 9^th February 1983 and was taken by road to Pickering and a new life on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Its first run in preservation was on the 1^st April 1983 to Goathland and back followed by its first passenger run on the 16^th April hauling the 11.55 Goathland to Pickering.  

On the 26^th June 1985 D8568 was taken out of traffic for a long overdue overhaul. Engine work was started and we found one engine to be low on compression and it was discovered that two sets of gaskets had at some time been fitted under the cylinder heads by mistake. One set was removed and the engine compression was returned to normal.  We also fitted two new stronger fuel pumps, salvaged from Hymeks as spares for D7029, to alleviate the age old Clayton problem of fuel starvation. In order to prove that fuel starvation was caused by inadequate original pumps we fitted one end of the loco with a temporary fuel tank from a 45 gallon drum mounted on the locos long bonnet!  

Work on painting the loco in green livery began in December 1988 and was completed by April 1989 and return to traffic again on the 22^nd of that month.  The locos last day in traffic on the N Y M R was on the 27^th April 1991, having accumulated 657 miles. 

An offer was received to have the loco based in the south – closer to its owners which saw D8568 depart from Grosmont in the company of D821 on the 2^nd August behind 47401 to Gloucester and the Horton Road depot open day. From here it went to Old Oak Common, via Westbury and was an exhibit at the Old Oak Common Open Day on the 17^th/18^th August. D8568 had to travel to London in vacuum braked trains from Gloucester and she was tripped in engineers trains which travelled around the Country. A break at Old Oak Common enabled us to catch up on outstanding work and a trip over to Willesden for tyre turning was undertaken before finally, on the 25^th April 1992, D8568 was hauled to its present home on the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway.

At Chinnor the locomotive has undergone mechanical repairs to the No. 1 engine with reconditioned liners fitted. The original ones had suffered from erosion cause by the water as it circulates around the engine, its force on the outside of the liner literally bombards it and eventually wears the liner away. The No. 2 engine and main generator have been removed to allow repair work to the generator to take place. Preventative maintenance has ensured constant reliability from the loco, a policy which, had B.R. adopted, would have seen the class far less troublesome. 

A brief visit to the S.V.R. for a diesel gala event in October 1998 is the only time D8568 has left Chinnor. Although currently operating on one engine the operational 450 hp engine is more than enough to haul the railways passenger and engineers trains.