page_title: British Rail Class 33
section_title: Class 33/1 – push-pull fitted locomotives
hierarchical_section_title: British Rail Class 33 / Sub-classes / Class 33/1 – push-pull fitted locomotives
caption_attribution_description: English: Weymouth station, before electrification The line from Bournemouth to Weymouth was only electrified in 1988. For twenty years before that, the electric sets that worked from London had to be hauled by a diesel for the last part of their journey. The loco would then propel the set back to Bournemouth. Here, 33102 propels its train out of Weymouth.
context_page_description: The British Rail Class 33, also known as the BRCW Type 3 or Crompton, is a class of Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotives, ordered in 1957 and built for the Southern Region of British Railways between 1960 and 1962.
  They were produced as a more powerful Type 3 development of the 1,160 bhp Type 2 Class 26. This was achieved, quite simply, by removing the steam heating boiler and fitting a larger 8 cylinder 8LDA28 version of the previous 6 cylinder engine. This was possible because of the traffic requirements of the Southern Region: locomotive-hauled passenger traffic depended on seasonal tourist traffic and was heavier in the summer, when carriage heating was not needed. In the winter, their expected use was to be for freight. Thus, they became the most powerful BR Bo-Bo diesel locomotive. The perennially unreliable steam heating boiler could also be avoided.
  A total of 98 were built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company and they were known as "Cromptons" after the Crompton Parkinson electrical equipment installed in them.
  Like their lower-powered BRCW sisters, the 26 and 27 classes, their bodywork and cab ends were of all steel construction.
context_section_description: While third rail electrification was expanding on the Southern region, it was not then considered to be justified to extend beyond Bournemouth and so, in 1965, D6580 was fitted with experimental push-pull apparatus, high-level brake pipes and jumper cables to make it compatible with Multiple Unit stock. Commencing 21 July 1965 tests were carried out between Wimbledon Park and Basingstoke and then, from 17 January 1966, on the Oxted Line, using a 6-coach rake of unpowered multiple unit coaches (designated TC, standing for Trailer Control). The use of this equipment removed the necessity for the locomotive to run around to the front of its train at each terminus, as it could be controlled from the driving position of a TC unit and hence could propel its train from the rear.
  Following successful completion of trials, D6580 and a further eighteen other members of the class (D6511, D6513, D6514, D6516, D6517, D6519, D6520, D6521, D6525, D6527, D6528, D6529, D6531, D6532, D6533, D6535, D6536 and D6538) entered Eastleigh Works, to be fitted with a modified version of the push-pull apparatus – fully compatible with Class 73 and Class 74 electro-diesels and indeed any electro-pneumatically controlled (EP) multiple unit stock. They emerged, painted in the new BR corporate blue with full yellow ends. D6521 had re-entered service by November 1966, so equipped, and by November 1967 the remainder had returned to traffic fitted for push-pull working. 
  With the advent of TOPS, Class 34 was originally reserved for these modified locomotives - but it was not used and they were grouped, instead, into class 33/1 and the nineteen locomotives were renumbered, sequentially, in the range 33101–33119.
  They settled into sterling service, proving themselves highly useful and reliable. The prototype locomotive (D6580, later 33119) was the only member of Class 33 to run in green livery with the multiple unit control equipment – not to be confused with preserved members of Class 33/1 that have been repainted into green.
caption: 33102 propelling a Class 438 unit from Weymouth, 1987.
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