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July 2005 and it has been many years since Class 47/7 locomotives have worked passenger trains on the region for which they were modified to work with Mark 3 coaching stock with a Mark 2 Driving Brake Open Second (DBSO).

A few examples of this small sub class or "Shoves" to give one of their nicknames are still in operational use the majority with FM Rail.

Initially 12 examples from the 4749x and early 475xx batch were modified to work Edinburgh - Glasgow services ousting the Class 27 locos which had worked them in push pull fashion on through wired early Mark 2 coaches. Most of these 27s would find their way on to Edinburgh - Dundee workings until the late 1980s when diesel multiple units were introduced en masse in Scotland.

It is perhaps a little ironic that some 47/7s would become the first locos to ply the Edinburgh - Dundee route since the demise of the 27s and indeed locomotive hauled services between the cities (sleeper and charter services apart of course!)

This came to fruition over a three day period (14th - 16th July 2005) when First Scotrail hired four Class 47 locos and 12 coaches from FM Rail who provided their own train crew and engineering staff for what turned out to be a hugely successful operation. The original intention had been to use a pair of Class 31 locos operating push pull on through wired coaches until unwelcome external politics put paid to that idea.

The stock and loco move from England saw 47832 hauling all twelve coaches and the other three 47s (703, 709 and 712) to Manuel Yard which is the mainline connection for the SRPS Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway where 31452 had been taken previously as part of the push pull 31s plan.

Here the train was remarshalled into a pair of six coach rakes with a 47 at either end with the full formations being as follows.

47709-9497-6168-5906-5958-5866-5797-47712 (Inter-City coaches)

47703-9516-6046-5995-6059-5919-5960-47832 (Red coaches)

The workings for both sets over the three days was basically empty to Edinburgh then service to Leuchars, empty forward to Dundee, service back to Leuchars, empty forward to Thornton Junction then back to Dundee Holding Sidings where both sets sat for several hours allowing routine servicing to be carried out before running empty to Thornton Junction and back to Leuchars, service to Dundee, empty to Leuchars, service to Edinburgh then empty to Manuel Yard via Greenhill East Junction.

There were minor variations including an additional service from Edinburgh - Leuchars and a light engine run from Dundee to Perth for fuel.

The next few pages provide views of the locos at work