County of Kent - 47845:
County of Kent arrived at the SNBR in September 1992 from Mardyke miniature railways. She was purchased due to concerns
that the present fleet of the Hymek and Deltic were being used heavily and no spare engine was available. County like her Mardyke Diesel sibblings sports a 10hp two cylinder Kabota Diesel egnine
driving a Danfos hydraulic pump. The pump in turn feeds two hydraulic motors, one mounted on each bogie.
County originally arrived as 47 513 and ran
unamed (like all the other engines at the time except for Steptoe) in a mid grey version of the intercity livery. In 1995 she was repainted into the BR dutch livery of
grey and yellow and was re-numbered to 47 845. She was named County of Kent in a champayne ceremony on Platform 3 of Lakeside. She was the first engine to have a naming
ceremony. Like her older sister Tulyar, county is the only other engine to achieve 10,000 miles of passenger service in 10 years. Underlying her reliability in 2005 she over took the Hymek into second place of the most passenger miles despite being 3 years younger.
County has always remained the unsung hero of the fleet, never getting near the adoration of Tulyar or Kestrel get.
In recent years County was repainted back into Intercity livery as shown above. In 2006 County entered the locomotive shed for a well earned overhaul. In 2008/9 County will be sporting a new livery
based on the EWS livery, once her overhaul is completed.
Picture of County of Kent
County looking battered and warn on freight duty in the winter of 2003
County of Kent in 2004 pulling out of Lakeside station
County in "dutch" circa 1997 passing Montezuma at Lakeside
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