47/0 Largely as originally constructed. Steam heating (isolated) or no boilers
47/3 No train heating. Prime work freight duties. Some fitted with slow speed control for MGR
47/4 Electric or dual train heating
47/6 one off experimental conversion using a 3,250hp English Electric engine - test plant for class 56 prime mover, later converted to 47/9
47/7 modification of 47/4 for push-pull working originally for Edinburgh-Glasgow shuttle services
47/8 officially 47/4s but widely referred to as 47/8 Modification of 47/4s with long range (twin) fuel tanks
47/9 one off experimental conversion using a 3,250hp Ruston-Paxman engine - test plant for class 58 prime mover, converted from class 47/6

Mention should also be made of short lived class 48, five locomotives fitted with a French-built Sulzer 12 cylinder V type engine. These were converted to class 47s in 1969. Finally and much later the class 57 is a rebuilt 47 using a refurbished General Motors type 645 prime mover. Introduced in 1997, the class 57 promises to prolong the 47 design whose numbers have otherwise been dwindling in the last decade and the remaining members (about 50% of the original) can only have a few years left.

photograph by Colin Duff

photograph by Michael Taylor.

photograph by Dave Harris.

photograph by Mark Westcott