Hunslet Barclay 20902 & 20903 at Peterborough 1996.

Hunslet Barclay 20902 Lorna

Hunslet Barclay 20902 (Lorna) and 20903 (Alison) pictured on the ‘Weed Killer’ at Peterborough on April 3 1996.  

These are British Rail (BR) Class 20, otherwise known as an English Electric Type 1.

In total, 228 the class were built by English Electric between 1957 and 1968, the large number being in part because of the failure of other early designs in the same power range to provide reliable locomotives.

Hunslet Barclay 20903 Alison

This class of locomotives were originally numbered D8000–D8199 and D8300–D8327.

Known as "Choppers" because of the distinctive beat that the engine produces under load which resembles the sound of a helicopter it’s quite common to have the locomotives coupled head-to-head so that the first locomotive is always the one working in reverse. The reason for this is so that whichever direction the locomotives are used to haul a train, there will always be one cab in front of the train, giving the driver a much better view. Even though controls are duplicated in opposite corners of the cab, the view forwards is considerably worse than the view backwards.

In 1989 20902 was named Lorna and 20903 Alison.