Photo British Rail Diesel Shunter Loco Class 08909 Bay Platform Rugby 1988

Class 08909 BR Shunter, Rugby Station

Photo:  Charles Moorhen

 

Once a common sight pottering around Rugby station, British Rail  Class 08909, built between 1952 and 1962 and allocated to Bletchley TMD, in BR blue livery, similar in design to its sister Class 09 is seen parked up in one of the station's bay platforms at the eastern end in November 1988.

The condition of Rugby station roof is a sad testament to how derelict the station canopy had become before its refurbishment that was to come years later.

Class 08909 diesel shunter loco survived until 2011 when it was sent to C.F. Booth's for scrapping on the 10th August of that year.

A total of 996 examples of the Class 08 diesel, or 'Gronks' as they were nicknamed by the railway enthusiast fraternity, were produced for British Railways. 

 

 

Class 08 Shunter Historical Note:
At Tinsley Marshalling Yard near Sheffield, UK, six '08' shunters were coupled in three pairs for shunting operations.  In each pair one locomotive cab was removed; its power controlled from the 'cabbed' 08.  This combination of power units were classified as Class 13.

The three pairs worked together in Tinsley Yard for twenty years until early 1985 when hump-shunting came to an end.

 

They were numbered thus:

D4500 (D3698  D4188), D4501 (D4189  D4190), D4502 (D3696  D4187).

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