With 165HP available, this type of Ruston shunter has twice the power of its diesel mechanical stablemates in the SRPS collection. For smooth effective transmission of the increased power, the diesel engine drives a generator which supplies electricity to an electric motor which drives the wheels.
Ruston & Hornsby built diesel locomotives from 1931 to 1967, for home and export markets.
The locomotive spent its working life at Babcock's Renfrew Works. This is a large plant, and was even larger in the 1950s and 60s when there as a ready market in Britain and abroad for the industrial boilers and associated plant which Babcocks design and manufacture. Internal user traffic at the works was extensive, and material was moved from shop to shop by rail. This could involve crossing over the BR Renfrew branch. The branch divided the works in two, and traffic included raw materials such as steel from the Scottish steel industry and manufactured products, which left for construction sites or for docks for shipping overseas. The single largest items shipped were boiler drums, designed to the limit of the railway loading gauge and carried on special wagons.
During the busy decades after WW2, there were nine Ruston diesel locomotives at Renfrew Works, divided into two groups by the BR branch, and kept busy meeting the work's needs.
This locomotive was donated by Babcock & Wilcox Operations Ltd., and is now the oldest working example of this design in the world.
