45132 was built as D22 in 1961 by BR Derby works, as one of the first of the BR/ Sulzer type 4 locomotives - nicknamed 'peaks' because the first 10 outwardly similar locos carried the names of English and Welsh mountains. These first 10 (which were originally numbered D1- D10) featured a Sulzer 12LDA28A engine developing 2300hp and Crompton Parkinson electrical equipment. For the production series (class 45) the engine was the up rated 12LDA28B series engine, which develops 2500hp at 750rpm. As one of the early series, D22 was built with split headcode boxes, either side of what was supposed to be a corridor linking 2 locos running in multiple. After experimenting with the first few (D1- D15), this feature was found to be unnecessary for various reasons (including, no doubt, the fact that at upwards of 130 tons each, double heading peaks would cause the civil engineers to have a funny turn), and was not included on later locos.

As a new engine, D22 was allocated to 55A Leeds Holbeck shed, from where it operate Midland region trains on the line to St Pancras. It is also known to have worked the Thames-Clyde express from St Pancras to Glasgow St Enoch, and The Waverley, which ran from St Pancras to Edinburgh Waverley.

Hauling 1V86, D22 was painted in BR blue comparitively early in it's career, being blue well before 1970.
Picture courtesy of Derby Sulzers

In the 1970s, steam heating of trains was being phased out, and it was decided to convert 50 of the class 45s to electrical train supply, creating two subclasses of class 45 - the unmodified class 45/0, and the ETS fitted class 45/1. The selection of locomotives for conversion to class 45/1 does not seem to have followed any pattern (to the author's eyes, at least!), however D22 was one of those selected, and was fitted with the Brush alternator and had the original auxiliary generation gear removed. Upon emergence as an ETS fitted machine, D22 was numbered 45132 - unlike some of the 45/1 locos, it never carried a 45/0 TOPS number.

45132 at St Pancras, 1981
Picture Courtesy of Mark Shipman

As an ETS fitted locomotive, 45132 spent the majority of it's time hauling passenger trains of some description, right up to withdrawal. It spent most of it's life allocated to Toton shed (Allocation History), from where destinations as far flung as St Pancras, Holyhead, Carlisle, Newcastle and Plymouth were reached, generally on Passenger workings. Towards the end of it's life, the headcode boxes were removed, in common with similarly fitted locos, of both class 45/0 and 45/1. Of all four types of peak, the class 45/1 lasted the longest, no doubt due to the ETH. 45132 was withdrawn in 1987, having failed at Kettering on a St Pancras to Derby working with a siezed triple pump (which pumps fuel, oil and water around the engine). Within a matter of days, it had been dispatched to March in Cambridgeshire - a depot more synonymous with class 31s - for storage along with a number of it's classmates.