26043

26043 (D5343) is a Class 26 diesel-electric locomotive owned by The Cotswold Mainline Diesel Group and a permanent resident on the GWR. One of 47 examples built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company at Smethwick, it entered service in October 1959 carrying BR green livery with a white waist stripe and white window surrounds.

Allocated to Haymarket from new, D5343 never strayed far from Scotland. After periods at Dundee and Eastfield, the locomotive spent the bulk of its career based at Inverness, where the Class 26s were the backbone of services over the Far North and Kyle lines. It was a life defined by long runs through some of Britain's most remote and spectacular scenery — hauling passenger trains to Wick, Thurso and Kyle of Lochalsh across the Highland landscape.

Renumbered to 26043 in January 1974, the locomotive carried on through the transition from green to blue livery and beyond. A Heavy General Overhaul in May 1985 stripped out the steam heating boiler in favour of air brake equipment, ending its passenger career and consigning it to freight-only duties. By 1990, it wore the Civil Engineers' 'Dutch' grey and yellow — a long way from the lined green of its Haymarket days.

Its final duty was a fitting one for an Inverness locomotive: snow clearance between Perth and Blair Atholl in January 1993. A power earth fault brought things to a halt, repairs were refused, and 26043 was withdrawn on the 19th. Asbestos removal at MC Metals in Glasgow left it substantially dismantled, with both cab interiors gutted.

Purchased by the Cotswold Mainline Diesel Group in late 1993, the locomotive arrived at Toddington in April 1994 in a state that would have discouraged most. Both cabs and bulkheads needed rebuilding, the bodywork was rotten in places, and countless components were missing or damaged. The power unit first ran again in 2005 — eleven years into the restoration — and the locomotive finally entered service in 2013, nearly twenty years after arriving on the railway. It has since proved a reliable performer at the GWR and a popular visitor to other heritage lines.