From 1957, the British Rail BR procured a total of 228 units of the diesel-electric Class 20 for light freight train service. The supercharged eight-cylinder EE 8-CSVT engine from English Electric generated the energy for the four DC traction motors. The top speed of 120 km/h, which is still sufficient today, and good reliability are among the reasons why some of the locomotives are still in service today. Since the driver's cab was at one end of the locomotive and visibility was poor ahead of the hood end, most of the locomotives ran in pairs, coupled to the hood ends. When machines were used individually, the problem was solved from the 2000s by adding cameras. Different starting processes can be selected with F1: 1x press button = warm start / press button 2x = false start / press button 3x = cold start
F2 slows down the locomotive slowly.
F5 enables the heavy load mode: The diesel notch is always one up compared with normal operation. If you want to jump two notches, simply set CV 104 to 150 (instead of 130).
F8 turns on the manual ntoching. Once F8 is on, you can use F7 to notch up and F6 to notch down. F8, F6, and F7 must be turned off to return to normal mode. If F8 is off and you press F7, the prime mover will run to full speed.
F14, F18 and CV 170 value 0 or 1, can switch between a "normal announcement" or an announcement "with gong".
F9 can increase the speed of the spirax valve by double-clicking it. The speed levels are slow, medium and fast.
17 will bring the locomotive to full stop.
F21 and CV 168 = value 0 or 1, can switch between a "normal" or a "squeaking" wiper.
F28 and CV 164 = Value 0, 1, 2 or 3, can switch between different rail joints (three coupler can be activated with CV 165 = value 1).
F29 and CV 169 = value 0 or 1, can switch between the "Automatic Warning System (AWS)" or the "Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS)".