How very interesting this thread is.
I currently know nothing but did grow up in the 70's / 80's having a bedroom window that overlooked the Great Western mainline about 25 miles West of Paddington.
One day I bought a little book and started underling the numbers in that book that matched the numbers on the trains that went past my bedroom window.
The 'Hoovers' (Class 50's) were seen again and again and again. 47's were common as were 56's hauling freight. Saw the odd 37, 31 as well. Plenty of 43's also but I considered them as MU's but still underlined them. Sometimes a steam loco went past as well no doubt pulling some 'special'. I also seem to recall seeing the odd 20 as well. I also used to love it when they were doing overnight engineering work on the track where you would see all sorts of brightly painted yellow exotica under the floodlights. The engineering works were very noisy at night but were a highlight.
Predictably I did like to see the 37's which didn't run that often along that stretch but when they did they were often as double headers.
My favorites though and the most common were the 50's, all named after battleships. My favorite of the 50's was 50041 "Bulwark". It crashed, falling on its side but was repaired and continued running until most of the 50's were scrapped in the late 80's to early 90's. For those that don't know (you all no doubt will and do) there were only 50 50's !
I moved out of my parents in 1989 so lost the bedroom window view and interest and they moved in 2001 so even the nostalgic view of my old bedroom window when visiting (did anyone else do that, go up and see their old bedroom) was gone forever. Boo-hoo
Too bad you missed the Westerns and the other hydraulics. I wasn't old enough to remember them, but I just love all that hydraulic stuff, especially the Westerns and Warships. The looked good, had cool names (the '50s were the same, but somehow never quite the same), had an early death giving them cult status, and the preservation of the Westerns helped kick start the diesel preservation movement too.
What's not to like??
There are a number of 50's preserved on the Severn Valley Railway
Off the top of my head out of the 50, there are..... 18 survivors... I think.... More were preserved originally but have been scrapped for parts, etc.
Hold on... Fearless, Superb, Hercules (Sir Edward Elgar), Thunderer, Valiant, Royal Oak, Ramilies, Rodney, Indomitable, Lion, Renown, Repulse, Hood, Glorious, Ark Royal, Triumph, and Defiance....
Sorry, 17.
EDIT: 18, sorry, I forgot about 50044 Exeter.
Others like Dreadnought, Howe, Tiger, Leviathan, Eagle and Achillies were 'saved', but later scrapped.
Also the cab of 50037 Illustrious is kicking about somewhere along, no doubt with others.
Quite a remarkable number really, and I remember it caused a bit of a rumpus at the time as people started questioning how so many locos could be sustainable in the long run....
I saw all but three of the class 50s when they were allocated to the West Coast Mainline and were numbered D400 - D449. It was a bit of a trek to go to see them from my home town of Darlington and it always involved travelling to Carlisle as it was the nearest place with regular appearances of the 50s, most of them as 'double headers'.
And the million dollar question, what 3 did you miss, and are any preserved now??
When you say no other real diesel locos, what do you mean by that? As I've said, they were my favorites so am not knocking them, just interested.
There be a dangerous route being tread here, and wars have been fought for less!!
Only one built, now at the NRM.
Erm, except for the 22 production Deltics built in c.1961 (class 55).
