Heljan Metropolitan Bo-Bo

With the railway continuing to display a penchant for the unusual, here we see yet another motive power curiosity recently spotted standing in the Middle Road at Sueston station and, clearly, attracting the attention of those standing on the platform.

This rather attractive loco is a Heljan Metropolitan Railway Electric Bo-Bo Nº 9, named 'John Milton' (Catalogue Nº: 9001) and she joins the two Class 20s that we have, by Bachmann, which are also in this London Transport livery.

Twenty of these locos were manufactured and 19 of them were named after people, both real and fictitious, who had connections with the area that was served by the Metropolitan Railway. 

The one exception was Nº 15, which was exhibited on the Metropolitan Railway's stand at The British Empire Exhibition in 1925. Because of this it was named Wembley 1924.

Fortunately two of them have been preserved, namely Nº 5 'John Hampden', which is now a static display at the London Transport Museum, and Nº  12 'Sarah Siddons, which is, happily, in working order.

These locos were, of course, electric and operated from the fourth rail with the London Underground being one of only a few networks to use this.

With the Lakeland Railway not having a fourth or even a third rail, this loco should not, strictly speaking, be able to run on our railway. However, it is our railway so we should be able to run what we like and it would be rather nice to use it on the Niggly Bottom branch line which does, in fact, disappear into a tunnel from Sueston station.

One thing I have not decided on, as yet, is whether to fit a sound or non-sound DCC decoder. That decision is for another day.