Dapol Class 22

['CHARD]

Time plays tricks with memories: summers were always hotter, policemen older, chart music more tuneful etc etc ...

 

I think it would be interesting to see pictures of prototype vehicles or models taken today with film to 1967 specifications, with negs and prints developed using the techniques of that era too, and comparing these to the images we take for granted today and pics from the sixties. IMHO some pictures from back then have an iridescent, almost enhanced, quality (Photoshop for the Summer of Love) which lends credibility to some of the chromatic urban myths.

[The Stationmaster]

It might be dangerous to say this - because it means I'll have to try to find it - but somewhere I just happen to have a little piece of a D63XX. An NBL worksplate to be precise with some damage because of the way the Old Oak fitters removed them but the useful feature of having remained on the loco while it received at least two repaints (or touch-up efforts), and I know that because it has traces of both green and blue paint on it.

 

What I also know is that the blue is not at all like Swindon's early efforts (e.g D1030) and I think there is only one shade of blue on it. No - I can't give you the loco's running number and I certainly can't recall the works number although that is (obviously) on the plate.

[Rugd1022]

It might be dangerous to say this - because it means I'll have to try to find it - but somewhere I just happen to have a little piece of a D63XX. An NBL worksplate to be precise with some damage because of the way the Old Oak fitters removed them but the useful feature of having remained on the loco while it received at least two repaints (or touch-up efforts), and I know that because it has traces of both green and blue paint on it.

 

What I also know is that the blue is not at all like Swindon's early efforts (e.g D1030) and I think there is only one shade of blue on it. No - I can't give you the loco's running number and I certainly can't recall the works number although that is (obviously) on the plate.

 

What a lucky chap you are then Mike! If it's got green and blue paint on it, then it's bound to be one of the following.... D6300 / 6302 / 6303 / 6308 / 6314 / 6318 / 6319 / 6322 / 6325 / 6326 / 6327 / 6328 / 6330 / 6332 / 6333 / 6334 / 6336 / 6337 / 6338 / 6339 / 6340 / 6343 / 6348 / 6352 / 6354 / 6356, all the others were withdrawn in green. I do believe another member of our little parish has a piece of a D63xx tucked away somewhere, but I'll let him expand on that himself if he feels like doing so .

 

Nidge

[Rugd1022]

Thanks for the response Nidge. It seems that retailers are listing the Dapol Class 22s purely by livery which makes placing an order a bit risky at this stage. Any details you can give on the prototype condition / spec of these locos will be appreciated. Hopefully Dapol Dave will be able to confirm what condition (doors, discs, headcode boxes etc) the various models will be produced in. Should be easy then to match prototype to model!

 

Hi again Chris,

 

When the model itself breaks cover I'll do my best to give a run down on which locos can be modelled from what Dapol make available. When the project was announced I sent Dave all the info and photos I could muster...... there are so many variations within the class (and all carried out in a relatively short space of time) that it will no doubt be a 'sit down job' to go through them all properly. The difficulty comes in knowing exactly when individual members from the D6300 - D6333 batch went into Swindon Works to have headcode boxes fitted, not all of them did and the placement of these boxes varies on some locos anyway. Some had them 'flush fitted' in the same style as D6334 onwards had when new, while others had the more protruding type fitted higher up on the cab fronts, eg D6307 and D6324, in the same manor as the D6xx's did. In fact, I only noticed the higher boxes on D6307 this morning when looking at the colour pic of it at Laira in the Strathwood Hydraulic book!

 

I think those of us who are sweet on 22s are going to have some fun when it hits the shelves....

 

Nidge

['CHARD]

I personally can't wait to indulge this particular flight of fancy, I'm now thinking possibly of a fictional Gloucestershire harbour freight only branch based around the mouth of the River Aster.

 

I wonder what they sounded like, presumably there are several on here who have recollections of them, only the idea of one of these and a 14 with sound (hence Gloucestershire rather than Somerset) is very tantalising indeed.

[D605Eagle]

Heres an interesting thought...Did D6333 go straight from all over green with no yellow pannels or route boxes to blue with full yellows + boxes in one go? It was deffo still working in all over green without yellow pannels or route boxes in July 1966. Must have been quite a reliable machine as it seemed to have avoided Swindon in its early years.

[Rugd1022]

Heres an interesting thought...Did D6333 go straight from all over green with no yellow pannels or route boxes to blue with full yellows + boxes in one go? It was deffo still working in all over green without yellow pannels or route boxes in July 1966. Must have been quite a reliable machine as it seemed to have avoided Swindon in its early years.

 

There's a good chance it may have done D605, and I have a colour slide of D6334 in the same all over green condition at Bath Road in 1965 so it wasn't the only one.

 

The plot thickens

 

Nidge

 

EDIT : It's worth mentioning here one thing about the liveries applied to the class - those members which did receive blue livery only ever carried one version of it, and kept that particular style until withdrawn, ie: never going through the whole cycle, unlike many of the D8xx Warships which went through the whole green / maroon / blue phase. Hope that makes sense! I've now dug out all of my D63xx prints, slides and notes and will try to do a run down of the class history, cross referencing published photos etc. It won't be 100% foolproof though as there are gaps here and there, but will give an overall picture of the 22's short lives ;O)

[Captain Kernow]

the Teddy Bear was really a luxury too far, it nearly caused a Forest of Dean layout to appear in the kitchen

That's the trouble with W.R. diesel hydraulics - they're always causing trouble in the space-time continuum...

[D605Eagle]

That's the trouble with W.R. diesel hydraulics - they're always causing trouble in the space-time continuum...

Must be caused by all that sloshing hahaha

[Pixie]

I do believe another member of our little parish has a piece of a D63xx tucked away somewhere, but I'll let him expand on that himself if he feels like doing so .

 

Not sure if Nidge is referring to me, but I've got a 'Maximum Speed' plate that came out of the cab of D6346. Nice little item I bought for a whole pound when I was about 10. I can remember bolting to my 6' by 4' next to the controller and feeling quite smug with myself. Unlike the 6' by 4' which met it's end shortly after, the little plate is still in work shop sitting next to my replica Falcon 'plates. It was one of the factors that first got me into hydraulics and D6346 was the second loco I did for Waltham at the prime age of 14. Sadly the locos now sat in the junk box awaiting some kind of reprieve as Roath doesn't really need a 22. I could *just* about get away D6327 which Mr Rolley of these parts spotted on it's way to Radyr in '71, however D6346 had bitten the dust some 2 years before hand.

 

I'll dig it out and scan it when I'm at home later in the week - it'd make a nice little etch or transfer to go into the cab of the Dapol model when it arrives.

 

Pix

[The Stationmaster]

Talking of D6346 here it is - at Laira in 1964

 

[woodenhead]

With all these bits of D63xx turning up, maybe in a year we'll have enough to commission an RMWeb first, a full scale replica.

 

Anyone got a cab they can give us?

[Pixie]

Talking of D6346 here it is - at Laira in 1964

 

Nice snap Brian - I only had one to work with when doing my model, when it was brand new outside Swindon. Here's my model: http://www.railexpress.co.uk/images/waltham01.jpg. Scary how dated and basic the modelling looks now!

 

Pix

[The Stationmaster]

Nice snap Brian - I only had one to work with when doing my model, when it was brand new outside Swindon. Here's my model: http://www.railexpress.co.uk/images/waltham01.jpg. Scary how dated and basic the modelling looks now!

Pix

 

Brian???? - I'll forgive you Pix as your little green loco looks rather nice, albeit an amazingly 'fresh' looking green and remarkably clean despite the dirtying . I can't really remember them being anything other than 'faded and jaded' unless they happened to have been repainted in the preceding couple of weeks, even in their early years they always looked grubby.

[Pixie]

Opps - Sorry Mike! I was getting confused you with Fat Controller!

 

The model has a slight spattering from the airbrush as that was the only weathering I was comfortable with at that age, I think REx's flash photography makes it looks a lot more 'glossy' that it really was too. Maybe I'll dig it out over Easter and see how the old girl's doing, I don't think I've got the heart to sell it...

 

Pix

[D605Eagle]

With all these bits of D63xx turning up, maybe in a year we'll have enough to commission an RMWeb first, a full scale replica.Anyone got a cab they can give us?

I know of a chap who has a full set of glass for a 22, got it from Swindon in 1985. I also know a chap with a power handle off one, and I own a Horn from one. Anybody got any metal bits we can attach these bits to? LOL

[2ManySpams]

Hi again Chris,

 

When the model itself breaks cover I'll do my best to give a run down on which locos can be modelled from what Dapol make available. When the project was announced I sent Dave all the info and photos I could muster...... there are so many variations within the class (and all carried out in a relatively short space of time) that it will no doubt be a 'sit down job' to go through them all properly. The difficulty comes in knowing exactly when individual members from the D6300 - D6333 batch went into Swindon Works to have headcode boxes fitted, not all of them did and the placement of these boxes varies on some locos anyway. Some had them 'flush fitted' in the same style as D6334 onwards had when new, while others had the more protruding type fitted higher up on the cab fronts, eg D6307 and D6324, in the same manor as the D6xx's did. In fact, I only noticed the higher boxes on D6307 this morning when looking at the colour pic of it at Laira in the Strathwood Hydraulic book!

 

I think those of us who are sweet on 22s are going to have some fun when it hits the shelves....

 

Nidge

 

Thanks again for the help Nidge - think I'll hold fire on the pre-order and wait to see what appears on these pages.

[Pinewood Halt]

I think I mentioned this before in the old forum, anyway...

 

 

Speaking of Class 22's, when I was growing up in the small village of Hermitage (on the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway) in the late '60s, I had an opportunity to ride on a class 22 on the demolition train. It took the workers a few months to rip up the tracks, and luckily, the workers were very friendly to us kids at the time. The reason I'm reposting this, is that I've just found a picture of the class 22 I had a ride on: "6335".

 

 

http://billreid678.fotopic.net/c1430431.html

 

 

I don't know the person who took these pictures, but these were taken at Hampstead Norris station, just a few miles north of my village. The photographer is wrong about the date being 1966 (it's probably 1968). The line closed for goods traffic in that year (1966), and the rails, signals, etc., were left in situ for at least 2 years after abandonment (I should know, we had the run of the abandoned line for a couple of years).

 

 

Anyway, as others have noted, there's something very evocative about the "sad-eyed" 22's. In this case just about as sad as it gets... a railway literally in its last few weeks of existence

[The Stationmaster]

I regret I have to report a small problem. When I was (officially) given my NBL worksplate at Old Oak I was told that it had come off a D63XX. Having finally dug it out yesterday I have duly had a wander round the 'net and found that it is not a D63XX works number but is in fact off one of those grotty NBL built 'Warships' (no, not a D6XX before you all get excited).

 

But it still has blue paint on it B) .

[Pixie]

One for DapolDave, although I've put it in the public domain rather than a PM or email to help clear things up a little. I've heard from three separate sources that there has been some 'issues' at the China end of production which may effect the 22 - is there any truth in the matter or has the rumour mill been jump started again?

 

Pix

[Gwiwer]

I've heard from three separate sources that there has been some 'issues' at the China end of production which may effect the 22

 

Every truth. It's been on Dapol's own website for months now. http://www.Dapol.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=558&Itemid=64

[DapolDave]

Hi there,

 

Glad to put this one to rest.

 

i think i menationed earlier in this thread that our original cad/cam design factory in China had had a fire, subsequently losing ALL the cad/cam files and variations for the class 22.

 

Now this isnt as bad as it seems because they were still a long way from finishing the cad/cam.

 

However as the Chinese like the idea of 'saving face' we only found out about the fire by accident 5 months after the event, when a slipped up word in an e-mail let us know something was wrong. This plus the revisions were taking longer.

 

So, we took the job back to our normal cad/cam designer and factory and since then progress has been great.

 

In fact i have a request out for more detail for the bits and pieces behind the valances (we have a picture for the detail directly behind the valance above the fuel tank) to allow us to model this area, sucessfully,and have removable / customer fit valances. So if anyone can help or point the way quickly i'd be obliged.

 

Otherwise we are literally an e-mail away from cutting metal, which will probably happen next week (when if we get not further information we will keep the cad/cam with the detail missing so that at least people can model their own, or attach the valances at an angle as per prototype.

 

Our new motor for the class 22 is under test at the moment, and looks / performs well.

 

We hope to have first shots of the 22 within about 8 or so weeks of this e-mail if all goes well, with release for Warley at the very latest, but i hope maybe late summer or early autumn.

 

Hope this helps.

 

cheers

Dave

Dapol Ltd

[Pixie]

Thanks for clearing that up Dave - I think that's this years birthday present sorted.

 

Pix

['CHARD]

What's that I can see on the horizon?

Oh yes, it's a Forest of Dean layout hoving into view

 

 

Nice work there Dave.

[Ian J.]

I wonder if this is an example of why it's better to get the design/development work done in the UK rather than trust it with a remote overseas company? It could be any other country mind you, not just China. It just seems to me that the trend to outsource such things so far away only invites additional problems (which appears to have affected all four of the major manufacturers at one time or another).

 

I'm looking forward to this Class 22. I hope it comes out well, and the D6XX follows soon