Valiant History

50015 is one of 50 Class 50 diesel-electric locomotives built by The English Electric Co Ltd at Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows during 1967 and 1968. Our loco was accepted by British Railways on the 2nd of April 1968 carrying the works number 3785/D1156 and with original 'D' number, D415.

The whole class were named in 1978/9 after Royal Navy Warships, continuing the tradition from the recently withdrawn 'Warship Class' diesel-hydraulic locos. 50015 was named 'Valiant' on the 21st of April 1978.

Valiant was finally withdrawn at Plymouth Laira on the 5th of June 1992 having been stored since December 1991. Initially bought from BR by Pete Waterman, 50015 was later transferred to the Manchester Class 50 Group. The loco arrived at Bury at the beginning of October 1992 and worked her first train on the 3rd!

From November 2002 Valiant was stored awaiting attention to various problems and remained out of action until 2007 when the Bury Valiant Group took over ownership. The loco was reassessed and, with some remedial work, started and re-instated to run on 2007 Santa Specials.

Much has been done to improve the condition of the loco since and Valiant has been a reliable perfomer. The loco is currently running with 2 of the 6 traction motors isolated but she is strong and sounding better than ever!

A total of 18 class 50's have been preserved, some related web addresses can be found on the links panel.

Class 50 Factfile

Built	1967/68 English Electric
	Newton-Le-Willows, England
Power Unit	English Electric 16CSVT
	16 cylinders (246 litres)
Traction Motors	6 x English Electric 538/5A
Power Output	2,700 HP
Max Speed	100 MPH
Weight	115 Tons (117 Tonnes)
Length	68 feet 6 inches
Height	12 feet 9 inches
Width	8 feet 10 inches