Trivia
Interesting facts and history behind the Kestrel name.
Why Kestrel?
Several locomotives have carried the name Kestrel, most notably the pioneering HS4000 and the 60130 Kestrel featured below.
HS4000
A 4,000-horsepower diesel-electric prototype built by Brush Electrical Engineering in 1961, HS4000 Kestrel was one of the most powerful locomotives in Britain at the time. Its twin-engine design was ambitious but complex, and the concept was ultimately not adopted in favour of simpler single-engine diesel locomotives.
The sole prototype was sold to the Soviet Union in 1971, where it disappeared from records after testing and was likely scrapped, leaving its final fate something of a mystery.
Original 1968 brochure from Brush Electrical Engineering.
Download Brochure (PDF)60130
An A1 class locomotive of the London & North Eastern Railway tradition, built at Darlington in 1948. Designed by Sir Arthur Peppercorn, the A1 class was the last new express steam locomotive design developed for the LNER, though constructed under British Railways after nationalisation.
A total of 49 A1s were built, and No. 60130 Kestrel was one of them.