27066 arrived at Toddington. Jack Boskett.

Class 27, 27066 arrived at Toddington at lunchtime on Saturday 22 March. The loco has been delivered to take part in the first big diesel event of the year, the Spring Diesel Gala which runs from the 4th to the 6th of April.

Over the long weekend, the loco will make numerous trips to the Racecourse both on its own and paired up with our own "baby Sulzer" locomotive, the Class 24, 24081.

Built during 1961 and 1962 by the Birmingham Railways Carriage and Wagon Company (BRCW), the 69 Class 27s were a development of the earlier Class 26s and were classed by BR as Type 2 locomotives with their 1,250hp engine capacity.

Early Class 27s were allocated Eastfield depot in the Scottish region being utilised mainly on West Highland line duties whilst later batches of the locos were allocated to the Eastern and London Midland regions. However, it didn't take long for nearly all the 27s to end up in Scotland where they joined their counterparts at Eastfield on services all over the country.

In the early 1970s, some of the Class 27s were converted to push-pull operation to replace the Class 126 DMUs operating the Edinburgh-Glasgow express services. At one end of the train of six Mk.IIa carriages would be a 27/1 and at the rear would be a 27/2 (ETH fitted) loco.

Being an "express" service, the 90mph running soon took its toll on the 27s and reliability started to dip. However, they struggled on until 1980 when they themselves were replaced by the Class 47/7 and Mk.III push-pull operation which only involved one loco and a DBSO on the other (non -loco) end. Even the 47s didn't last long - seven years later they were replaced by the Class 158 'Express' units and more recently the Class 170 Turbostars.

The last of the Class 27s were withdrawn from service in 1987, being outlived by their older Class 26 cousins whose engines, albeit less powerful than those fitted to the Class 27s, were more reliable.

27066 itself started life in 1962 as D5386. Under TOPS renumbering the loco became 27066 before being re-numbered to 27103 and 27212 as the ETH equipment was fitted and was in use on the Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pull services as mentioned above. The original boiler has since been removed and replaced by a large concrete block to simulate the weight-loss and the loco reverting to it's original TOPS number of 27066.

Withdrawal came in July 1987 and was bought for preservation in 1988 when it was moved to the North Norfolk Railway. In 2003, 27066 was purchased by the Dean Forest Diesel Association and was repainted from green livery into its current BR Blue livery. A move to the East Lancs. Railway followed later that year for their gala and was moved to it's new permanent home at Lydney Junction. After a stint at the Nene Valley Railway earlier this year, the 27 has stopped over at Toddington for a few weeks prior to heading back to the Forest.

Class 27 Technical Details

* Introduced: 1961-1962
* Weight: c.75 tonnes (dependant on boiler and/or ETH cubicle fitted)
* Engine: Sulzer 6LDA28-B producing 1,250bhp.
* Transmission: Electric: 4 x GEC WT459 traction motors
* Coupling code: Blue Star
* Route Availability: 5
* Preservation: eight locos: 27001, 27005, 27007, 27050, 27056, 27059 and 27066.