A Brief History of Class 31/4 in East Anglia

Since their introduction in 1957, Class 31 locomotives (then designated Brush Type 2s) have always been associated with East Anglia. Allocations to March, Ipswich and Norwich depots were largely responsible for eliminating steam from the Great Eastern section in the period up to 1964.

Many of the class subsequently converted to ETH (electric train heating) had an East Anglian pedigree, though the first batch so treated were initially more likely to be found pottering about on ecs workings around the London termini at King's Cross, Paddington and St. Pancras. In 1980, March depot received a small allocation of 31/4s for use on the Yarmouth to Norwich portions of London services, but it was with the October 1982 timetable change that the class became synonymous with the cross-country Norwich to Birmingham services. A dozen examples were transferred from the Western Region to March at this time and it is fair to say that they were in the main, in well run down condition.

The staff at March managed to keep their new charges in service for long periods and it wasn't until1984 that availability began to suffer. Fortunately this downturn in reliability coincided with the rapid introduction of a further 44 locomotives which whilst undergoing Heavy General Overhauls (HGO) at Doncaster BREL, were converted to ETH only operation. The vast majority of these new conversions were allocated to Immingham depot in North Lincolnshire and soon became an everyday sight helping out the existing March allocation. It was at this time that the original 24 locomotives became unofficially christened 'THE CLASSIC SERIES'. The new conversions were easily identifiable by virtue of having the ETH box neatly tucked in a niche above the right bufferbeam, whereas the 'Classic Series' had a larger ETH box situated boldly on the front end. It was with some surprise that in the Spring of 1984, Classic 31416 was given the HGO treatment, emerging from Doncaster looking the same as the new conversions. During the year 31412/14/23 followed and the remaining 'Classic Series' locos soon attracted a cult status amongst enthusiasts.

It quickly became apparent that the 'Classics' were going to be 'run into the ground' and even though some of them were very poor performers in terms of speed, the call to works usually came after fire damage which they were particularly prone to. More often than not, the casualties were as a result of sustained high speed running on the Summer Saturday turns to Paignton, which had by now gone over to operation by pairs of 31/4s. 1984/5 saw a major expansion of Class 31/4 duties, with Immingham conversions being diagrammed to cover the Pennine axis from Hull and Cleethorpes to Manchester and other provincial duties in the north such as Hull to York and Lancaster as well as the fondly remembered Hull to Carlisle train. It must also be mentioned that members of the class did much useful work on the main lines out of Liverpool Street on the lines to Norwich and King's Lynn frequently standing in for more powerful locomotives. This heyday of the 31/4s was sadly shortlived, the costed railway coming to the fore and in May 1988 the Norwich to Birmingham and Pennine duties became Sprinter operated. Many of the redundant locomotives were reclassified Class 31/5 and had their heating ability isolated. The parcels sector took on a fair number of 31/4s and there was also the golden Summer of 1990 when they once again plied the Settle & Carlisle line as well as powering many Provincial Sector services radiating from Manchester. For East Anglia though, the days of scorching hot Summer Saturdays with pairs of Classic Series labouring up to Hethersett on a 12 coach 'Cobbler' set were sadly no more.

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