... and Sevens

D2994 on the Avon Valley Railway.
Kevin Cotterell

D2991 at Eastleigh Works in 1986.
emdjt42

D2991 now preserved by the 71A Loco Group at Eastleigh.
CJM

Preserved 07 013 in 1960s BR blue livery.

CJM

The 14 strong fleet of Class 07 diesel electric shunters had an off-centre cab, similar to the Class 14, and were primarily used in Southampton Docks. Later, some of the class received the TOPS numbering and were also fitted with high-level air brake pipes to enable them to move Southern Region EMUs nd three of them were also used at Bournemouth EMU depot for a short while.

There was a tendency for their axle boxes to run hot when travelling at high speed and this meant that the locos made most long distance journeys by road rather than by rail.

For a shunter they were quite fast and it had been envisaged that they might be used for local journeys, to and from Southampton Dock.
However, the axle box problem precluded this and, effectively, prevented the class from working too far from their Southampton or Eastleigh homes.

Numbers 2988, 2992 and 2998 were all withdrawn before receiving a TOPS number and 2991, although allocated 07 007, was also withdrawn before receiving its TOPS number. The first three locos were all cut up in the early to mid 1970s, however, 2991 remained in use at Eastleigh Works.

This loco subsequently passed into preservation at Knights Rail Services Ltd at Eastleigh Works. The other members of the class that have been preserved are as follows:

07 001 : Owned by HNRC at Barrow Hill
07 005 : Great Central Railway
07 010 : Avon Valley Railway
07 011 : Privately owned at St Leonards-on-Sea
07 012 : Preserved at Barrow Hill.
07 013 : Preserved by Heritage SHunters Trust at Peak Rail.

The rest of the class (bar one) were all withdrawn and cut up during the late 1970s and 1980s. The one exception being 07 009 which was exported to Italy.

As far as I am aware no models of a Class 07 have ever been produced. However, with the current spate of prototype and lesser known classes appearing in model form, the possibility that one might appear in the future can never be ruled out.

The full Class 07 specification is shown below: