Dapol's NBL Class 29

Here we see the latest addition to our fleet of locomotives, namely Dapol's model of the North British Ltd's Type 2, later designated Class 29, although they never survived long enough to actually carry the TOPS numbering system.

They were also nicknamed Baby Warships since they looked very similar to the original Warship D600 class of locomotives.

This model comes with Dapol's own sound files and, I must say, she sounds very good too.

She is seen here, literally, straight out of the box, after a minimal test run, just to make sure that she was working as she should.

She will be fully 'run-in' later before being put to work, so both photos here have been specially posed for the camera.

The running number of this model is D6114 and Dapol's Catalogue Nº is: 4D-014-001.

I purchased this one from Hattons and it was the last one of this particular model that they had in stock.

Full credit must go to them, too, as well as to Royal Mail, because I ordered this on Friday morning and it arrived 08:30 on Saturday morning.

Amazing!

These Class 29's were borne out of the original North British Type 2's, which were to become Class 21.

Externally, both locos were the same, however, the 21s were fitted with a 12-cylinder Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nurnburg AG (MAN) type L12V18/21S engine that was built under license at North British and rated at 1,100 bhp.

Unfortunately these engines proved to be quite troublesome in both the diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic (Class 22) versions of the North British Type 2s.

Actually, the engine was only a small part of the problem with the Class 21s since a bigger offender was the electrical system supplied by GEC.

Anyway the decision was taken by BR to replace the MAN engine in one of the Class 21s (D6123) with the, more powerful, Paxman Ventura 12YJXL, which was rated at 1350 bhp.

This re-engined locomotive was, together with those subsequently converted, reclassified as Class 29 and it would appear that the trials suitably impressed the powers that be such that a further 19 locos were similarly converted.

A noticeable difference between the two classes was the fact that the re-engined locos were given a striking new livery of pale green to the upper body sides and standard BR green for the rest of the loco, with a thin white line along the sides to separate the two tones of green.

It is this livery that decorates our model and very attractive she looks too!

As we already have a model of the Class 22 in green, see below, my intention was to have a blue liveried Class 29 but, upon seeing this two-tone livery, well, I was smitten!

Our model of Dapol's Class 22 - D6319 - Catalogue Nº: D1000d.

There were 58 Class 21s built and they were introduced between 1958 and 1960.

Of these, 20 were converted to Class 29, namely: 

D6100-03, D6106-08, D6112-14, D6116, D6119, D6121, D6123-24, D6129-30, D6132-33 and D6137.

These new engines did prove to be more reliable although the main problem remained the electrical power train.

The Class 29s did, therefore, outlast their Class 21 sisters but all were removed from traffic by October 1971.

The big sister of our model was introduced in May 1959.

She was refurbished in June 1966 and was one of the last batch to be withdrawn in October 1971.

Sadly none of this class survived into preservation.