D1015 "Western Champion" BATTLES the scorching GWR heat with the Golden Hind at Paddington! 23/5/26

D1015 is one of seven preserved Westerns from the original 74 built by BR at Swindon and Crewe. The loco has a DTG nickname. 'The Mule'. Western Champion gained mainline certification in 2002 and has since travelled all over the UK network, hauling railtours as far as Penzance in the South and Kyle of Lochalsh in the North.

50 years ago D1015 Western Champion operated the final trains in its British Railways career, following 13 years of working across the Western Region from depots such as Old Oak Common and Laira.

To celebrate this anniversary, Vintage Trains created The Golden Hind, a train that will go across former Western Region routes in the Midlands, the Great Western Mainline and climbing the Dainton and Rattery banks in the South West and running along the famous Teignmouth estuary and Dawlish sea wall, recreating the heyday of the Westerns from the 60s and 70s when you could see these iconic diesel hydraulics locomotives at the head of expresses across the Western Region.

Departing Birmingham in the morning, the train follows the former Western Region route down to Paddington, turning at Greenford Triangle. From Paddington to Plymouth and return, Western Champion hauls the train unassisted via Westbury. Featuring fast running from London Paddington over a route described as “Brunel’s Billiard Table”, over the challenging gradients in South Devon, this journey has everything you could want, to see the diesel hydraulic at its best over the routes it once ruled.

Vintage Trains TransRail livery 37240 growls into London Paddington with D1015 trailing on the rear after reversing at Greenford Triangle to allow D1015 to lead out of London Paddington. After a crew pickup and boarding at London Paddington from 09:40, we capture some action shots of D1015 idling away before her voyage to Plymouth.

Soon at around 09:55, D1015 makes some proper noise and leds out of London Paddington in true Western style setting off unassisted with The Golden Hind charter bound for Plymouth, with 37240 following up behind light loco heading towards Bristol Temple Meads!