Heljan Class 28

A recent addition to Lakeland Railway's locomotive fleet is this Heljan Metro-Vick Co-Bo Type 2 diesel locomotive, aka Class 28, Nº: D5711.

These locos were built as part of BR's 1955 Modernisation Plan and were, for BR, uniquely fitted with a Crossley eight cylinder, two-stroke, HST V8 diesel engine.

They were also the only BR diesel locomotives to have a Co-Bo wheel arrangement, meaning they had three axles at one end and two at the other end.. 

With all axles being driven it meant that, at 50,000 lbf, the maximum tractive effort for these Type 2 locomotives was very good. 

As their name suggests they were built by Metropolitan-Vickers at their Bowesfield Works between 1958 and 1959.

Only 20 of these quirky locomotives were built and they were all initially allocated to the London Midland Region where they regularly operated the overnight Condor Express freight services between London and Glasgow where they would often operate in pairs.

Following refurbishment in 1961 they were sent to the Barrow-in-Furness depot before, in 1967, being transferred to Carlisle.

Unfortunately, the Crossley engine proved to be problematic and replacement engines were considered, however, given the uniqueness and small number of the class, it was eventually decided to scrap them with all being withdrawn between 1967 and 1968.

Happily a sole member of the class did manage to avoid the cutter's torch, namely D5705, and is currently being restored on the East Lancashire Railway.

Below is a short video of our model, fitted with an excellent Digitrains DCC sound decoder, at the head of a short rake of ventilated vans, the type of work that it will no doubt be called upon to do quite regularly on the railway.