Loco Crazy

After attending, for the first time, the Rotarail 2019 Model Railway Exhibition in Fareham on Saturday, I found myself coming away with a trio of locos, none of which, I must confess, I had planned to acquire!

The first loco is the Heljan Class 07, seen basking in the sunshine at Gunnmere, above. This is a superb model and I did think that, one day, the BR blue version might be added to the shunting fleet - I had just not expected that it would be quite so soon.

Anyway, the model seen here is, indeed, 07010 in BR blue with wasp stripes, Catalogue Nº: 29031, and I think she looks quite magnificent.

Currently she has no decoder fitted although we will definitely be fitting one in the near future.

The second loco is this Bachmann Class 47/7 - 47745 'Royal London Society for the Blind' in Rail Express Parcels Systems livery, Catalogue Nº: 32-817.

As evidenced by the photo above, she will be used, predominantly, for hauling Royal Mail and Parcel Express services and, again, I think she looks superb.

She does have a non-sound decoder fitted which will, eventually, be converted to sound.

However, at least, for now, she can still quietly go about her business!

And, so, to the final of the three locomotives - and I definitely had not intended to get this one!

However, she is such a magnificent looking beast that I just could not resist.

This is Hornby R2311 Duchess Class 4-6-2 6242 "City of Glasgow" in LMS black.

Unfortunately, as she dates from 2003 / 2004, she is not DCC Ready so will not be too easy to convert to DCC. So, for the time being at least, I have had to content myself depicting her, in full steam, heading an express across the viaduct in the photograph above.

As for the Rotarail event, itself, it was held at Fareham College, a ten minute walk from Fareham Station, and it is most definitely worth a visit especially if, like me, you have never been. 

This year there were more than 20 excellent layouts on show as well as many trade stands plus the college has a terrific restaurant, serving tea and coffee as well as hot and cold food.

Vintage Tractors

Over the years, and long before we went digital, I have owned a few old Tri-ang Hornby and Lima Class 37s in various guises and I thought it would nice to share a few of them with you today.

The first and, probably, the most famous of the Rovex Class 37s is the one shown above. 

Originally this locomotive was produced in BRc green livery and was available for just two years - from 1966 to 1967.

Then, from 1968 until its withdrawal in 1976, the loco was produced in the BRe blue livery, seen in the photograph.

Both locos carried the same Running Number, D6830, and had the same Catalogue Number, R751.

The next variant of Class 37 that I have here is 37073, again in BRe blue.

This model was produced between 1980 and 1983 and has the Catalogue Nº R369.

This next version is in BReLL bright blue livery and has the Running Number 37071. 

This version was in production from 1982 until 1985 and has the Catalogue Nº R359.

A change of livery for our fourth loco here. This one is in BReLL bright green livery.

She was available in 1984, only, and has the Catalogue Nº R365.

BReLL Railfreight grey is the livery for our next 37. This model also has a split headcode and has the Running Nº 37063.

The Catalogue Nº is R348 and she was available from 1986 until 1989.

The sixth loco that we have here brings us much more up to date with her striking Regional Railways livery. 

This is an ex-Lima Hornby RailRoad model, with the Running Nº 37414. 

The Catalogue Nº is R2775 and she was produced from 2008 until 2010.

And, finally, as we have just mentioned Lima, here is an actual Lima model of 37180 'Sir Dyfed / County of Dyfed' in Railfreight all over grey livery.

This model has the Catalogue Nº L205124 and was available for one year only, in 1987.

Heljan Class 16

Here we see the latest locomotive to be added to our ever-growing fleet. 

This is a Heljan Class 16, in BR Green Livery, with Full Yellow Ends. The Running Nº is D8407 and the Catalogue Nº is 1603.

Currently she is fitted with a non-sound, DCC decoder, so at least she can be put to use. However, a sound decoder will be fitted in due course.

The Class 16s (together with the Class 15s) were constructed under the initial order for diesel traction, following the British Railways Modernisation Plan of 1955.

They were built by the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow and the locomotives were powered by the same Paxman 16-cylinder YHXL engine that was used in the Class 15s.

They were also built to the same basic design as the British Thompson Houston / Clayton; Class 15s and, when introduced in 1958, were initially shedded alongside ten of the BTH units at Devons Road Shed in Bow.

Unfortunately these locos proved to be even less reliable than their stable-mates, with major failures of the diesel engine.

This was due to the fact that, although it was of the same type as the engine used in the Class 15, inadequate ventilation of the engine room, coupled with a poor cooling system, led to the pistons having a tendency to seize.

Another problem with these locos was the fact that they were fitted with an electro-magnet control system rather than the, more usual, electro-pneumatic type that was fitted to the majority of other diesel-electric classes.

This restricted their multiple unit operation such that they could only work with other locos of the same class or with Class 28, Class 29 and early Class 31 locomotives.

For much of their short working lives they were to be found on various lightweight cross-London freight trains, together with local trip freight workings in the East London area. 

Although they were not designed for passenger work they did find themselves, very occasionally, on Eastern Region relief trains and some inter-regional excursion traffic.

However, the major problems from which the fleet suffered meant that the BTC cancelled the order for more, leaving them with just the ten pilot scheme locos.

Their continuing technical problems, plus the fact that there was a dramatic decline in the type of traffic for which this fleet was designed, meant that they were quickly earmarked for withdrawal, with all locos taken out of service between July and September 1968.

Sadly all of them were then sold for scrap and cut up meaning that none of them was to survive into preservation.

Hopefully our model will have a more productive and happier life and, having tested her at the weekend, she does run very smoothly.

As far as work on our railway is concerned she will, of course, be used on much the same type of trains as our Class 15 and Class 20s. This will be, predominantly, goods trains plus some shunting duties and the occasional light passenger work.