preserved British Railways class 26 diesel from the late 1950s of the Great Central Railway

The Class 26 has been mostly associated with Scottish operations, in particular Highland operations, although the original units were delivered to operate commuter services from Kings Cross in London. Following comparative tests with Class 30 in the Highlands, it was decided to transfer all of the class to Scotland and in particular to Inverness and Haymarket.

As a mixed traffic locomotive they could be seen in both passenger and freight traffic, but after the removal of steam boilers in the 1980s, to allow train air-braking to be fitted, most activity was on freight.

Initial deliveries in Scotland were deployed in pairs on Edinburgh-Aberdeen and Glasgow-Aberdeen trains, this being short term -- the Edinburgh trains transferring to Class 40 and the Glasgow trains ultimately returning to Class A4 steam traction. There were brief allocations to Aberdeen and Dundee.

In Scotland, members were delivered initially to Haymarket, with the exception of D5343 and D5344 delivered directly to Inverness. They were then mainly based at Inverness, following the delivery of Class 40s to Haymarket, for use on Highland Line and Far North services, often working in Class 24/26 pairs until Class 24s were withdrawn or reallocated in 1975.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Haymarket based locomotives ran the Edinburgh - Dundee service, until two successive fires saw these transferred to Class 27. However, 1992 saw further activity on Glasgow -- Stranraer passenger trains deputising regularly for Class 27s.

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