D8568 - the sole surviving Clayton Type 1 seen at the Old Oak Common open day in 1991
<b>A rare survivor!</b> Sole surviving Clayton Type 1 D8568 basks in the sunshine at Old Oak Common open day in Aug 1991. 

<b>Clayton Type 1s</b> The entire fleet of 117 locomotives was withdrawn and scrapped. Although just a few years old, withdrawals began in July 1968 and the final locomotives were withdrawn in December 1971. The Class 17s had by far the shortest lives of any significant BR diesel-electric locomotive design, with many examples having a working life of less than five years. Most had been scrapped by the end of 1975. Whilst the possibility of converting nine of the remaining locos to battery operation was considered, this came to nothing, and although D8512, D8521 and D8598 enjoyed a brief reprieve by being sent to Derby Research Centre all were later withdrawn and subsequently scrapped. After withdrawal in 1971, D8568 went on to see industrial use at Hemelite, Hemel Hempstead and at Ribblesdale Cement, Clitheroe, and so was lucky enough to be secured for preservation.

The Clayton Type 1's were to have been the 'new' standard BR Type 1 diesel locomotives. There were 117 built, construction split between The Clayton Equipment Company at Hatton (D8500-D8587) and Beyer-Peacock of Manchester (D8588-D8616). The first loco (D8500) was completed in September 1962 and the last (D8616) in April 1965. 115 of them had Paxman engines, with the last two having Rolls-Royce engines, the class gained a reputation for unreliability and no further examples were ordered. The production of English Electric Type 1 (Class 20) locomotives was restarted in 1966 to 'fill the gap', with an additional 100 locomotives being ordered. 

They were initially delivered to the Scottish Region depots at Polmadie and Haymarket, although some later migrated to Kingmoor on the London Midland Region. The Beyer Peacock locomotives were new to the North Eastern Region at Thornaby (4) and Gateshead (12) and to the Eastern Region at Tinsley (12) and Barrow Hill (1). In September 1963 numbers D8501 and D8536 moved to the Tyne Dock area where they were tested in multiple on Consett iron ore trains. They proved far too underpowered for this work, and so were moved to Ardsley shed a few months later where they undertook a variety of freight work both individually and in multiple. Subsequently all of the locomotives allocated to the Eastern Region were transferred to Haymarket where they were employed on freight traffic in southern Scotland and northern England. The first of the Clayton's were withdrawn in July 1968, and the last in December 1971. [Wiki]

Taken with a Nikon F-501 SLR camera. <b>Scanned from the original slide transparency with no digital restoration</b>

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d8568 8568 clayton class17 dieselelectric oldoakcommon shed depot london