Britain's Most Powerful Diesel - HS4000 Kestrel

I worked at the Brush factory in Loughborough during the build of the Kestrel. There’s not many of us left (I’m 84) What I’d like to say is that initiatives like funding and building by a private enterprise on speculation a new locomotive is a thing of the past. It relied on a few farsighted individuals to champion the project. They are long gone but need to be remembered. Freddy Beasant the head of Brush Traction at the time, a great character parties at his house were legendary , Mac Durber the Production Director, Pat Fordham Commercial Director, and most importantly Geoff Smith the head of Rotating Machines design. He always built in what was known as the GS factor knowing that the commercial and sales people would always be pushing him to reduce weight and so the GS factor would gradually be used bit by bit. He was one of Europe’s greatest rotating machines designers. He Anyone else out there who can fill in more names from that most enterprising era? I went on to look after Brush Traction’s interests in Australia in 1966 leaving them in 1979 to pursue a new career.

She's a beaut, shame we lost her.

When you first went over the performance figures, I thought to myself "Man that's a lot of power. I wonder how they managed to fit that onto 20 ton max axle loading"

When DB bought EWS in 2007 a group of engineers from Cottbus works in Eastern Germany visited Toton. The engineers commented in DDR days they studied in the USSR and were very familiar with Kestrel ! There were a few withdrawn class 47s in the yard which amused them.

Such an elegant machine 👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 Great video - as always!

This diesel was a prototype and shame it was not preserved

My Grandad who was a Blacksmith and engineer at Derby works sat me in tbe cab of HS4000 when it was on display at Derby's locomotive works open day , I was only 5 years old at the time , and my grandad said I wasn't keen on the large crowds that surrounded the loco at the time ....happy memories

As you were reading through the technical description, I thought, "I really want to hear Ruairidh read the 'Turbo-encabulator' script!"

The cab area always reminds me of the sidewinder from thunderbirds episode 2 pit of fire it’s a truly late 60s design and still looks cool

The days of monster engines . . . .Fantastic!

Was lucky enough to see it at full speed on a passenger service at Danby Whiske, so either 1969 or 1970 (memory fading)

Requirements: weight, efficiency, price, reliability and versatility please. Kestrel: nah, let's ignore all that and just go for max power, that is what is needed right?

It is absolutely wild to me that this loco developed 4,000 HP well before anything else on just one engine. In BRITAIN no less. Apart from steam or electric locomotives, the only way to get that sort of power in the States was with a gas turbine! It took over a decade for us to have diesels that powerful. Hell even when the power race was spurred by western railroads, Kestrel beat any American offerings with one powerplant by 3 years. EMD had a small number of SD45X's that developed 4,200 HP from a 20-cylinder 645E3A. Shortly after that MLW made a single M640 with an 18-251F engine. Curiously, not only did the M640 use the only example I know of an 18 cylinder V-line engine, but it also became an AC traction locomotive in the 80's. Whereas Kestrel lost some tractive effort, the M640 lost a pair of traction motors, going from a C-C/Co-Co to an A1A-A1A. It very nearly lasted to the 2000's, and thankfully is preserved. Had Hawker-Siddeley expanded their locomotive arm to Canada like they did with aircraft, perhaps the LRC trains could've appeared earlier on Canadian rails. Something akin to how the HST was adapted into the XPT for Australia.

Very interesting video. Now that was a magnificent machine, perfect balance of form and function. Although the 4000hp was a headline grabber, the electric traction equipment was also state of the art. Today it hasn't been equaled in terms of diesel locomotive power output, and, as for designers of modern traction, I think they attended the crashed skip school of design for the class 68 and 70s.

A beautiful locomotive! The design has striking similarity with the DB class 103 electrics. Keeping in mind how long it would take to electrify the ECML and SWML this locomotive would have had a place in the traction envelope even despite the introduction of the HST. The engine type Sulzer LVA24 but as a 12 cylinder was tested in a batch of 47s which were then reclassified as class 48. These tests weren't that successful but that seemed to be caused by a locating pin to avoid the lower and upper big end bearing shells being fitted the wrong way round, that was discovered by the French National Railways who used the same engine in the class A1A-A1A 68000, only after a BR senior engineer visited a SNCF workshop where he was told that the French had done away with this pin and the hole in the lower shell reliable operation could be achieved, Also Kestrel was struck by a big end failure because of this. The locating pin caused a pressure point and uneven wear of the bearing. The 16LVA24 and the AC/DC traction equipment from Kestrel led eventually to the locomotive class TEP70 in the Soviet Union, however the engine 5D49 used in this class was not a straight copy like some of the earlier Soviet Diesel engines copied from US designs. Further noteworthy is that the Belgian railways had their own experimental 4000hp single engine diesel locomotive built 3 years after Kestrel, it was a class 51 diesel converted from its 8 in line Cockerill / Baldwin 608A to the the newly developed Cockerill 16TR240, a V16 with an AC alternator. it was tested four years and although the tests were a success also NMBS decided that there was no need for a diesel of such power, the engine was removed and placed in a canal ship and the locomotive built back to its original configuration.

10800's rubbish Paxman 16YHXL engine and generator were binned by Brush and replaced with the Maybach MD655 that was used in Class 52, (and Brush's Falcon prototype,) to trial the alternator and associated technology. DC generators were effectively limited to 2700hp at the time, as above that electrical flashover would cause damage and destroy the machine. This is why figuring out the AC alternator was critical to enabling a 4000hp single diesel engine to be used in a unit.

That was fascinating for a Saturday. Thank you.

Simply WOW!!! Imagine pulling a load in multiple.

I have this locomotive in OO Gauge. Its a beautiful model and a very attractive locomotive.

It really did deserve better than what it got.