More Steam

As well as a couple of new diesel locomotives, there has also been the recent addition of two new tank engines to the railway and, as with the majority of the other steam locos that I have, these two have associations with the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway.

The first loco is actually the second Bachmann 3F 0-6-0 'Jinty' to join the fleet (Catalogue Nº 32-233) and, like her sister, she is fitted with a digital decoder but no sound at the moment.

Here both locos are seen at Anchwood with one of them at the head of a passenger train for Gunnmere Junction while the other one is in charge of a local goods train.

The second steam newcomer is this Bachmann Ivatt 2-6-2 Nº 41221, Catalogue Nº 31-450.

These locos were regular performers on the Evercreech Junction to Highbridge branch during the S&D's final years and, indeed, a brace of them (41307 and 41269) hauled one of the last excursions along the branch on Saturday 5th March 1966.

It would be good to run a similarly double-headed train on our branch line one day.

More Diesel

 Introducing two more additions to the railway's fleet of diesel locomotives.

Firstly we have this Hornby, Class 31 D5512 in BR green livery, Catalogue Nº R2420.

She is seen here emerging from our Service Depot prior to taking up her duties, which will be anything from freight to local passenger services.

This now makes two of these versatile Type 2 locomotives working on the railway, as we already have 31268 in BR blue.

The second diesel loco is this Hornby Class 50 - 50037 'Illustrious' in BR blue. 

I have always wanted a blue Class 50 and, following my disappointment with the two GBRf-liveried locos (see a previous post) I snatched this one up as a replacement when she became available at a good price.

This is now the fifth Class 50 to join the fleet and, like her sisters, she will be used on a variety of services from express passenger (as seen above) through to the occasional freight train., 

Both of these locos have yet to be fitted with sound decoders although this should happen fairly soon.

S&D 1532 Class

I recently acquired this little beauty through the Bachmann Collectors Club website and, I think you will agree, she is quite stunning.

She is a Midland Region 1532 Class 0-4-4T, Nº 54, in S&DJR lined Prussian Blue, Catalogue Nº 31-740K and she only became available at the end of last year but has already sold out completely.

This loco also comes with factory-fitted sound, although Bachmann also produced non-DCC versions.

She does sound as good as she looks, too, and is a great addition to our fleet of S&D locos, most of which are in this gorgeous Prussian blue livery.
 

Only 65 of these smart little locos were built at Derby Works, between 1881 and 1886 to a design by Samuel W Johnson and they were given the power classification 1P.

All except three of the class were handed to the London Midland and Scottish Railway in the 1923 Grouping. Two of the three exceptions had already been withdrawn by then while the third, the big sister of our model here, had been transferred to the S&D in January 1921. 

It subsequently passed to the LMS when the S&DJR rolling stock was absorbed in January 1930.

Hornby Class 60 - The Hundred of Who?

This Christmas I received a fantastic surprise gift, in the form of this superb Hornby Class 60, from a very good Australian friend who I thank most sincerely.

This is the first Class 60 to join the fleet and she really is a handsome and powerful beast. She is fitted with a Hornby TTS sound decoder so, not only does she look good, but she sounds great too!

The Catalogue Nº is R2899XS, her Running Nº is 60042 and she is named 'The Hundred of Hoo'. 

Now, for those of you who, like me, have no idea why this loco is so named, the Hundred of Hoo Academy is a 4–18 mixed, all-through school and sixth form with academy status in Hoo St Werburgh, Kent, England and it is part of the Leigh Academies Trust.

As for the model, the Class 60, to my mind, is one of Hornby's best locos and it is great to have one in our fleet, thanks again Michael.

Their larger sisters were introduced in late 1990 after BR had decided that they needed a more capable Type 5 locomotive and, from the three tenders submitted, Brush Traction was awarded the contract.. 

Our model is in the EWS livery and it was EWS who took over the entire fleet of Class 60s with the privatization of British Rail and who, themselves, were acquired by DB Schenker in 2007.

In 2004 the first and, so far, only member of the class was withdrawn, namely 60006 'Great Gable', later 'Scunthorpe Ironmaster'. However, the loco was only scrapped in January of last year.

All of the class were given names by Railfreight in 1989, with their names being dependent upon the sectors to which they were assigned. As such, those locomotives attached to the construction and metals sectors (of which 60042 was one) were named after British mountains, as were some Class 60s attached to the coal sector.

To that end, our loco was originally named 'Dunkery Beacon' but, in July 1999, it was given the name that our model carries.

As of now, however, I believe this loco has been unnamed and, indeed, has been withdrawn from service.

The Ugly - Heljan's Class 128

I recently acquired this 'lovely' Heljan Class 128, Running Nº: M55995, Catalogue Nº 89421. 

She is in weathered condition and, I think, she actually looks great, despite the title of this post. and is as very nice addition to the railway. We do already have a rake of Royal Mail RES coaches, augmented with a couple of TPOs, however, this will make a nice alternative for parcels-only services.

Only ten of these units were built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company and they were introduced in 1959.

Each unit had two 230 hp, British Unit Traction, Albion engines and they were specifically built for parcels with no passenger accommodation installed and were, instead, fitted with parcel racks plus space for bicycle storage at each end of the unit.

The last members of the class were withdrawn in 1990 and, sadly, all were cut up the following year with none making it into preservation.

In the first two photographs, above, we see our Class 128 departing Davemoor while, in the third photo, she is seen about to pass under the girder bridge that carries the branch line to Anchwood.

The Bad - Hornby's GBRf Class 50s

As well as the two Bachmann LMS 'Twins', I had planned to add the new twin Hornby, GBRf liveried, Class 50 to our fleet of English Electric Type 4s and, indeed, had managed to acquire them from Jadlam Models, in nearby Glastonbury.

Having seen the two full-sized locos in this livery, I was quite excited when Hornby announced that they would introduce models of the pair this year.

However, upon arrival, 50007/50014 first and 50049 two days later, I was extremely disappointed to see that, in both instances, buffers had come away and were loose in the boxes!

50007 / 50014 had two broken buffers plus another small piece of detailing that had also come away although, from where, I did not bother to find out!

500149, meanwhile, had three (yes, three) buffers that had come away from the buffer beam!

Furthermore, 50007 / 50014 had a piece of tape stuck to the cabside of the Nº 1 end and the flap of the inner tray was also split:

Notwithstanding the damage to both locos I was also very disappointed (to put it mildly) in the colour of the GBRf livery which, to me, is much too light and the edges, between the blue and the yellow are not crisp.

The yellow on the front of each cab is okay but, on the sides, this should be more orange, and the blue should be much darker - as can be seen on 50049's bigger sister below:

The picture on the sleeve of the box does have the correct colours, which makes it even more of a shock when you slide this back and are confronted by the paler colours of the actual model.

This picture, as used on the box sleeve, is much nearer the mark than the actual model.

So, what happened? 

Were Hornby in such a rush to get these models to market this year that Quality Control simply flew out the window?

Did GBRf not give permission for Hornby to use the correct pantone colours?

As for the damage, the potential is always there whilst these delicate models are in transit but the locos were well packed by Jadlam and to have two buffers damaged (plus some other detailing and the plastic tray) on the first loco to arrive and then three buffers damaged on the second one seems, to me, to be symptomatic of a lack of quality control which is merely compounded by the inaccurate livery and its sloppy application.

Besides, I have purchased quite a few models online this year, by both Hornby and Bachmann and from various sellers, including Jadlam, and these are the only ones to have arrived damaged.

I have contacted Hornby, together with these photos, and told them of my disappointment at the damage and the inaccurate colours and I now await a reply from their Quality department.

I have also returned both locos to Jadlam who have been excellent throughout, sending me a pre-paid label to print and stick to the parcel and offering me either replacements or a refund.

Sadly I have decided to ask for a refund since I honestly do not want to add these two locos to our fleet. The livery is all wrong and who knows what else might drop off, over time.

This is a great shame since the four older (much older) Class 50s that I have look and sound great and are extremely reliable and robust, making the comparison between them and these two new ones even more stark.

The Good - Bachmann's LMS Twins

I recently added these two beautiful Bachmann LMS diesel locomotives to our fleet of locos and, I think you will agree, they look magnificent.

For obvious reasons they became known as the LMS Twins and were introduced between 1947 and 1948.

They were fitted with an English Electric 16SVT diesel engine at 1600 hp., giving them a maximum speed of around 93 mph.

They were initially given this striking black and silver livery although were later repainted into BR green livery.

I believe they were to be designated as Class 34 under BR TOPs but were withdrawn and cut-up before this could be allocated, with 10000 being withdrawn in December 1963 and 10001 in March 1966 after each loco had clocked up over 1,000,000 miles.

This all taking place long before preservation societies were around, both locos were sadly cut-up but not after supplying valuable information to both builders and maintenance staff for future diesel construction and, in particular, those locomotives powered by the 16SVT range of engine.

Only one of our locos (10000) has been fitted with sound with 10001 soon to follow and the Catalogue Numbers are as follows: 31-998 (10001) and 31-999 (10000).

In the photos below we see the pair at Sueston, about to couple up to a northbound express and, in the following photos, they are seen passing Petersfield and, finally, standing outside Gunnmere. Junction.