Inside & Out - BR Class 47 - 47579 'James Nightall GC'

Mr Bentley once again showing not only that he knows stuff but that he can put it across to us mere mortals.

As a Shunter, I worked with many of these 47s, the early ones with Steam heat, then ETH, Vacuum pipes plus main air and auxiliary. Enjoyed my time on BR.

Just out of interest up until late 70s the fire extinguishers used to be BCF but was then changed to Co2. As a driver I remember a fair few times having to go into the electric cubicles on 47s to manually throw the reverses to get out of sticky situations. The fire alarm test button was also used to signal the guard in the back cab that it was time to make a brew 🤣 Very difficult to overload a 47 as it has a self decompounding winding on the main generator.

Great video, hugely interesting for an retired engineer, love the detail and anecdotal comments. Love to see more of these.

I loco I well remember from Immingham and worked a number of trains with it, never let us down.

What an excellent insight to the workings of a 47 loco, thank you Richard 👍👍

Bloody marvellous video Will. Richard is a fountain of knowledge and a pleasure to listen to. I really need to visit again soon and look forward to enjoying the company of team Watercress.

The knowledge of this man is amazing. He’s living the dream

This is an absolutely fantastic video - your knowledge sir is second to none. If i didn't live 10000 miles away in Adelaide I would come down and shake your hand. How i miss British trains LOL more of this gold please and thank you all for producing this quality work

Send her back to Mangapps so I can have a drive again!! One big memory I have of the 47's was when I started my footplate career and was a second man at Kings Cross in the the early seventies and working a freight liner one winter night to Doncaster. As was the way in those days the driver would put the second man in the chair (drivers seat) to take over the driving. (thats the way you learnt then) Less than 5 mins after I took over we were approaching Offord on the down main line at a point the track runs alongside the river Nene an area where it was often foggy and this night it was thick. All of a sudden there was a loud bang from the engine room and a huge air leak all the brakes came on and we came to a grinding stop. The driver went back in the engine room but nothing he could do would stop the leak. As no radio comms in those days it was my job to walk to the signal box which was still quite some way ahead to arrange assistance. As I said we were on the down main line and on the left was the down slow on the right was the up main and up slow lines. So as to stay safe I (as I mentioned it was thick fog) did not want to cross an active line so walked in the "four foot" of our line. I can tell you was a very scary experience with trains running at 100 miles an hour on the track right next me when it's pitch dark and thick fog when you can hear a train coming but cant see it till the last moment. Think I was on duty for about 17 hours that night!

What a great video. Superbly presented by Richard everything very clearly explained. Very interesting to get into the heart of the engine and also to understand the interlocking on the cab controls. Well done!! Good luck from Spain!!

Good video, well explained. I drove 47s with BR and Freightliner right up to the end. We had a pool of locos which had sanders fitted which used the button on the power handle to deliver a shot of sand. Worked very well and enabled them to haul type 5 loads.

Cracking video! Thanks for taking the time and effort to create it

Did my apprenticeship on these locos in the 80s, and personally I rate them as one of the greatest locos ever designed and built.

Absolutely fantastic, thanks Will & Richard great work 👍

Really interesting. Weird to think of needing a fireman sitting managing the steam boiler.

Very very interesting. First time I've seen inside a main line diesel. Thank you...Mid Hants.

I had the pleasure of being shown around one of these as a kid with my dad and he remarked the cylinders were "like buckets and there's 12 of them!" For context the cylinders in the average car are about the size of 500 ml Coca Cola bottles and there only 4 of them. 😄 Fascinating the awesome power these things have,

Excellent, fascinating and comprehensive explaination from Mr B. Thank you!

I was taken through the engine room of a 47 in Manchester Piccadilly when I was a lad. The loco was running (idling) at the head of the Harwich boat train. The driver was trying to explain what everything was but I couldn't hear a word he was saying - I remember it being an extremely loud, hot, and dark environment :)