Fleet of Warships

We now have, what might be described as, a fleet of Warship Class locomotives in that I recently acquired two more to add to the two that we already had.

So, beginning with the two older locos we have:

Class 22 - D6319

Okay, so this is, strictly speaking, not a Warship Class loco but they were nicknamed Baby Warships due to the fact that they looked very much like a smaller version of the original Warship class of locomotives, the Class 41, of which more later.

This Dapol Class 22 has been in our fleet for quite some time now and sees regular use on both freight and local passenger work. 

She has been lightly weathered and also fitted with Howes sound files.

The larger version of D6319 was, in fact, purchased for preservation but was, sadly, cut up at Swindon in September 1971 before she could be retrieved.

A great loss, indeed!

Class 42 - 812 'The Royal Naval Reserve'

We have also had this Bachmann Class 42 for a long time and, as you can see, she, too, has  been weathered, and quite heavily so, in her case. 

She has also been fitted with sound files by Howes and is a regular runner on the railway. As with the prototypes, she is used on express passenger services as well as the more mundane freight work.

The real 812 received the rail blue livery in March 1970 and was withdrawn from service in December 1972.

Fortunately, two of the 38, BR-built, Class 42's have been preserved, these being: D821 'Greyhound' and D832 'Onslaught'.

There could, and should, have been a third member of the class preserved in that D818 'Glory' had become somewhat of a favourite of the employees at Swindon Works and was repainted from rail blue back to its original BR green livery with the hope being that it might be preserved. 

However, this failed to materialize and the loco was scrapped in 1985, just before the Works itself closed in March 1986.

Class 43 - D838 'Rapid'

So to the first of the two new Warships, a Bachmann Class 43 in maroon livery and looking somewhat smarter and cleaner than her Class 42 sister.

She is a recent acquisition and has been DCC fitted, albeit not with sound. She will, doubtless, be fitted with sound and will be weathered, too, to tone her down a bit.

She, like 812, is a cracking loco and will be called upon to perform similar duties. 

She looks especially good pulling a rake of maroon coaches, as shown above, but will also be tasked with regular freight duties.

The real 'Rapid' received her maroon livery in September 1968 and kept it until her demise in March 1971, so was never painted in rail blue.

Sad to say that not one of the 33, North British Locomotive Class 43's survived into preservation and, in fact, all of them were withdrawn before the Swindon-built Class 42s.

Class 41 - D603 'Conquest'

The final loco in our Warship quartet is this Class 41, commissioned by Kernow Model Railways. 

It only arrived last week but is already fitted with a DCC decoder and been given a short test run - and she performs beautifully!

She has yet to be fitted with all of the accessories, including couplings, but she will not be called upon to haul any trains, just yet, not until she has had a proper running-in period.

Eventually she will be slightly weathered and fitted with sound and, given that space has been allowed for a large speaker inside the loco, I think she should sound very good!

As you probably know, only six of these North British D600s were constructed and they were introduced between January 1958 and January 1959. 

As their nickname suggests, they were all named after Warships and were used on many crack Western Region expresses, such as the Cornish Riviera, until they were deposed by the more powerful Class 42 and 43 locos.

During 1967, two of the five received the rail blue livery; namely: D600 'Active' and D602 'Bulldog'. The rest (D601 'Ark Royal', D603 'Conquest' and D604 'Cossack') retaining their BR green livery until the end.

Our model will definitely be a mixed traffic loco, working expresses, local passenger services and goods trains in equal measure.

All six of the Class 41's were withdrawn in December 1967 and all were subsequently cut-up although D601 did languish at Woodhams Yard in Barry until June 1980 - and I do recall seeing her there in the mid-1970s!