Dirty Three

Along with the Class 24, featured below, we also had our Heljan Class 33 (33025 "Sultan") weathered recently and, again, had but the lightest of touches applied. This is because, apparently, this particular Crompton was something of a pet to the guys at Eastleigh Works and, as such, she was kept in a fairly clean condition.

We felt, therefore, that we should respect this fact and, hence, she is not quite as grubby as some of our other locomotives.  

She is fitted, like the majority of our fleet, with the Howes sound and I think that, once again, they have captured it very well indeed bringing, to our layout, sounds that were once heard across the railways of southern England for over forty years. 

So yes, you are right, this is another loco that, strictly speaking, would not have been seen in the region on which we have modelled our layout; it being a definite Southern Region class. However, we have many fond memories of travelling behind these Type 3's, mainly on the Exeter to Waterloo route, before the introduction of the Class 50s, as well as between Dorchester South and Bournemouth where they were in charge of four and eight car TC sets prior to electrification of this stretch of line.

Therefore, with so many happy hours spent riding behind these great little workhorses, it seems only right and proper that we honour them by borrowing a member of the class to run on our railway, just so long as we promise to give it back to the Southern Region ... eventually!