Just Plain Loco

Here is another batch of locos that have recently been added to the fleet and they are, in order of size:

A Bachmann Wickham Trolley which has had a DCC decoder and stay-alive capacitor fitted by Digitrains of Lincoln.

She is currently to be found at Anchwood, the terminus on the branch line, but that does not mean to say that she won't find herself elsewhere on the layout from time to time.

The Catalogue Nº is 32-992 and she dates from 2016.

Also at Anchwood, on a short goods train, is this Heljan Class 17, Nº D8500, which joins our other two Claytons, namely: D8529, in BR blue livery, and D8568, in Ribble Cement grey livery.

Like her sister locos, she has a sound decoder fitted and, again, this is a Zimo with a Digitrains sound file. 

D8529, on the other hand, has a YouChoos sound file on a Zimo decoder while D8568 has a Howes sound file on an old ESU V3.5 decoder. However, despite its age, I still think this is the best sound.

The Catalogue Nº for D8500 is 17091.

From a Type 1 to a Type 2 in the form of this Heljan Class 27, Nº 27030, seen here at Carswater on a stopping service for Gunnmere.

I love all of the Heljan BRCW diesel locomotives and have a Class 26 and two Class 33s.

This loco, as with most here, has a Zimo decoder with a Digitrains sound file and she sounds great and is a terrific performer too.

The Catalogue Nº is 2716 and she dates from 2020.

Still with Heljan, we move to a Type 3 now, with this Class 35 Hymek, Nº D7009 who joins the blue one we already have in the fleet.

She is photographed here on a local freight working, near Manxton, on the main line.

I have always thought that the green livery suited these locos very well and I believe Heljan have done a very good job of replicating it on this model. 

Once again she has a Zimo decoder and Digitrains sound file whereas the blue Hymek has a V4 ESU decoder with a Howes sound file.

The Catalogue Nº is 3505 and I believe she dates from 2004.

Moving up to a Class 41, now, with this blue liveried D602 'Bulldog', which was produced by Dapol for Kernow Model Railways.

She is seen here, light engine, at High bridge station, on the branch line between Gunnmere Junction and Anchwood.

We already have a green liveried D603 'Conquest', fitted with a Roads & Rails sound file, and I had not intended acquiring a second one, especially as I don't particularly like the 'add-on' route indicator boxes.

However, this one was being offered at a very reasonable price, due to the fact it was missing some packaging as well as the instruction leaflet, so I really could not resist it.

She does run very well, in analogue, so will doubtless have a decoder fitted at some point.

The Catalogue Nº is K2605 and she dates from 2019.

So to the final diesel here and it is this Heljan Class 52 Western, Nº D1015 'Western Champion' in Golden Ochre livery, seen here on a semi fast passenger service at Petersfield. 

We now have four Westerns, with the other three being Heljan's D1037 'Western Empress', in green livery, and D1067 'Western Druid', in blue livery, plus Dapol's D1058 'Western Nobleman' also in blue.

Those three all have sound decoders fitted so Western Champion will obviously follow suit at some point.

The Catalogue Nº is 5203 and she dates from around 2004.

Here we have 'Western Champion' again, in the company of sister loco, 'Western Empress', at Petersfield station.

Finally, we must include a steam locomotive amongst all of these boring old diesels and this is in the shape of this Bachmann Midland Compound 4P, 4-4-0, Nº 1000, in maroon livery and I think she looks very handsome indeed!

She is photographed at Davemoor, the Northern terminus of the railway, and, although she has no sound decoder at the moment, she will have in the fullness of time and I cannot wait to see and hear her in operation on the layout, probably on passenger trains, for the most part.

The Catalogue Nº is 31-930NRM and she dates from 2011.

Heljan Metropolitan Bo-Bo

With the railway continuing to display a penchant for the unusual, here we see yet another motive power curiosity recently spotted standing in the Middle Road at Sueston station and, clearly, attracting the attention of those standing on the platform.

This rather attractive loco is a Heljan Metropolitan Railway Electric Bo-Bo Nº 9, named 'John Milton' (Catalogue Nº: 9001) and she joins the two Class 20s that we have, by Bachmann, which are also in this London Transport livery.

Twenty of these locos were manufactured and 19 of them were named after people, both real and fictitious, who had connections with the area that was served by the Metropolitan Railway. 

The one exception was Nº 15, which was exhibited on the Metropolitan Railway's stand at The British Empire Exhibition in 1925. Because of this it was named Wembley 1924.

Fortunately two of them have been preserved, namely Nº 5 'John Hampden', which is now a static display at the London Transport Museum, and Nº  12 'Sarah Siddons, which is, happily, in working order.

These locos were, of course, electric and operated from the fourth rail with the London Underground being one of only a few networks to use this.

With the Lakeland Railway not having a fourth or even a third rail, this loco should not, strictly speaking, be able to run on our railway. However, it is our railway so we should be able to run what we like and it would be rather nice to use it on the Niggly Bottom branch line which does, in fact, disappear into a tunnel from Sueston station.

One thing I have not decided on, as yet, is whether to fit a sound or non-sound DCC decoder. That decision is for another day.

RTC Liveried Locomotives

Four RTC liveried locomotives have recently joined the railway and these now complement an extensive rake of similarly liveried rolling stock.

However, more of that later.

As far as the locos are concerned, all of them were commissioned by ModelZone, with three being produced by Bachmann and one by Heljan.

They are as follows:

Bachmann Class 08 97800 'Ivor'

'Ivor' becomes the second 'Gronk' in our fleet, joining Hornby's D3105, which we have had since 2010.

The Catalogue Nº is 32-102W and only 500 of these models were produced in 2004.

Bachmann Class 24 97201 

This is now our third Class 24, with the other two being 24081, in BR blue livery, and D5040, in BR green livery. Both of these are by Sutton Loco Works and excellent models they are too!

The Catalogue Nº for 97201 is 32-425X and 504 were produced in 2011 although Bachmann have now added a version to their current range, named 'Experiment', with the Catalogue Nº 32-444.

 Bachmann Class 46 97403 'Ixion'

 

The third and largest of the Bachmann models is this 'Peak,' which means we now have a Class 44, 45 and 46 in the fleet.

The Catalogue Nº is 32-700Z and 750 of these models were produced in, I believe, 2002.

 Heljan W&M Railbus 999507

The last loco in this RTC quartet is a Waggon and Maschinenbau Railbus and Heljan produced 500 of these models in 2013, with the Catalogue Nº 8710.

We already have a green liveried version that primarily operates the branch line to Niggly Bottom, which therefore means we have two fifths of the prototype fleet, with four of the five fortunately being preserved.

Locos Old & Blue

Two unusual steam engines visited the railway at the weekend.

The first was this Tri-ang  Class 23 Transcontinental (TC) 4-6-2 'Pacific' Nº 2335 and later named 'Hiawatha'.

The Catalogue Nº for the loco is R54 and, for the tender, which, strangely, had to be purchased separately, it is R32.

This model dates from between 1954 and 1961 and, for an old girl, she runs very well and, as can be seen from the above photos, still has a working headlight.

The second visitor was this Bachmann Fairburn Class 4P 2-6-4T Tank Locomotive in the attractive light blue and red livery of the Caledonian Railway.

Only 504 of this loco were produced exclusively for the Bachmann Collectors Club in 2006, the Catalogue Nº for which is 32-875K.

Like the Tri-ang Class 23, above, she currently operates in DC only but, unlike the Tri-ang, she may well, one day, have a sound decoder fitted and, then, join the growing ranks of our steam locomotive fleet.

Tri-ang Class EM2

Following my recent entry on the Tri-ang TC Electrics, we have here three of their other electric locomotives, namely their ever-popular Class EM2 Co-Cos, aka Class 77.

In the photograph, above, we see the first two of them at Davemoor behind Class 53 Nº 1200 'Falcon' as they are about to be led away for storage.

Immediately behind 'Falcon' is 27000 'Electra' in BR Green livery and she has clearly been fitted with replacement pantographs since, doubtless, the original ones had been damaged,; something that is not uncommon with these locos, given their age.

The Catalogue Nº is R351 and she dates from between 1961 and 1965.

Behind 'Electra', we see the other two EM2's, both in BR Blue livery, with the first of these being 26006 'Pandora'.

The Catalogue Nº is R388 and she dates from between 1969 and 1970. Actually this loco came with a choice of three names & numbers: 27000 'Electra', 27002 'Aurora' and 27006 'Pandora.

Bringing up the rear is, indeed, 'Aurora' albeit she is incorrectly numbered as 27006 rather than 27002. Presumably this will be corrected in due course.

These 1.5kV DC electric locomotives, like the Class 28, were built by Metropolitan Vickers between 1953 and 1954 specifically for use on the Woodhead Route between Manchester and Sheffield.

Originally the plan was to build 27 of these locomotives, however, once the benefits of using the 25kV AC system was realized, the order was reduced to just seven with all seven being given names from Greek Mythology.

The entire class was withdrawn in September 1968 with Class 76 electrics continuing to operate passenger services until this ended in January 1970 with the Woodhead route itself closing as a through route in July 1981.

Happily three members of the class have survived into preservation:

27000 'Electra' at the Midland Railway in Butterley.
27001 'Ariadne' at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
27003 'Diana' at the Utrecht Railway Museum in the Netherleands..

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.

Weedkiller Train

With spring, hopefully, just around the corner, it was decided to make sure that the weedkiller train was in good order and in a state of readiness to deal with any unwanted weeds that we might find growing on the railway.

The train is topped and tailed by a couple of our Class 20 locomotives and consists of the following items of rolling stock:

Immediately behind the first loco are these two Bachmann Mk1 coaches in the Nomix-Chipman Weedkiller Grey livery.

These were produced as a coach pack by Bachmann for Kernow Models and have the Catalogue Nº 39-000P. 

Their Running Nºs are: CC99016 and CC99017.

Next come two TTA Water Tanks, again by Bachmann with Running Nºs 56963 and 56964. I believe there should also be a third tank, numbered 56365, but it is missing from our rake, for the moment.

The three tanks were issued as a set with the Catalogue Nº 37-576T.

The final items in the train are these three green Chipman Weed Control Tanks and black Water Tank, all by Heljan and issued as a set with the Catalogue Nº 1170.

The Running Nºs are: 115, 117, 120 and 48116, respectively.