Roaming Centurion

Newly weathered Class 50, 50 011 'Centurion', stands at Petersfield Station at the head of a rake of Bachmann Mk2 coaches.

Yes, this was the third of our locomotives (together with the Warship and Class 20 locos) to go on its travels down to Taunton for weathering by Alex of Mikron Models.

Unlike her sister, 50 020 'Revenge', which was quite heavily weathered, Centurion was given only the lightest of touches, as can be seen from the photograph, above.

The bogies and buffer beams have obviously been 'dirtied' as has the lower part of her bodywork. She has also had her roof weathered slightly, which has helped bring the panels and grills into better relief.

This loco has the South West Digital sound files fitted whilst both Revenge and the third member of our Class 50 fleet, 50 007 'Sir Edward Elgar', both have the Howes Sound.

Actually, it is surprising just how different the SWD and Howes sounds are and both have their merits although I think we prefer Howes.

Ideally we would like each of the three locos to have a different sound file fitted but the only other one that is available, so far as I know, is from Olivias Trains and this sound, compared to both SWD and Howes, is very poor in our honest opinion.

However, according to their website, Olivias do say that they are going to produce a new Class 50 sound in the near future, courtesy of the Fifty Fund. So, let us hope this is a marked improvement on their current effort and, if it is, we would definitely consider changing one of our Howes-fitted Fifties to Olivia's.