GB RAILFREIGHT CLASS 60 MARKS 50 YEARS OF GRAHAM FARISH

[AY Mod]

GB RAILFREIGHT CLASS 60 MARKS 50 YEARS OF GRAHAM FARISH

 

 

On Monday 1st March 2021, GB Railfreight Class 60 No. 60002 emerged from Toton Works carrying the name ‘Graham Farish – 50th Anniversary 1970 - 2020’. Freshly repainted into the company’s striking Blue and Orange livery, the locomotive was named in recognition of the contribution made by Graham Farish to British outline N gauge model railways over the last 50 years.

David Haarhaus, Managing Director of Bachmann Europe Plc said: “GB Railfreight are responsible for many of the colourful liveries seen on today’s railway network and we are delighted to see another unique locomotive join their fleet. Our two companies enjoy a thriving relationship, and it is a delight to work with the enthusiastic GBRf team who, like us, take great pride in everything they do. We are honoured that GBRf have agreed to bestow one of their locomotives with the Graham Farish name and we are indebted to them for their help in marking this important milestone, particularly in light of the ongoing pandemic. Graham
Farish has been at the forefront of British N gauge since the first models were produced more than 50 years ago, and we at Bachmann Europe have been the proud custodians of this iconic brand since 2000.“Bob Tiller, Engineering Strategy Director for GB Railfreight said: “GBRf acknowledge the exciting railway modelling culture in the UK and importance of getting it right especially with the variety of liveries GBRf use on the fleet. We are pleased to work with and indeed honour Bachmann Europe in naming 60002 and look forward to seeing the model in due course.”

Whilst it was not possible to hold an official naming ceremony prior to the locomotive entering traffic due to the current lockdown restrictions, a formal event will be scheduled for later in the year. A Graham Farish N scale model of the locomotive will also follow in due course, once engineering works have been completed to update the existing Graham Farish Class 60 model.

 

 

[AY Mod]

In conversation with Richard Proudman yesterday we will be launching a 'Snap 60002' competition once Covid restrictions permit - more details in due course.

[woodenhead]

I know it's an extreme close up and it's 2mm - but those horns look extremely overscale and that orange is all wrong.

 

But kudos, the plaque under the nameplate has legible writing, even SLW haven't done that on the bulkhead of the class 25, and they've hidden the ugly N gauge coupling well.

Edited March 10, 2021 by woodenhead
spelling

[johnlambert]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

I know it's an extreme close up and it's 2mm - but those horns look extremely overscale and that orange is all wrong.

 

But kudos, the plaque under the nameplate has legible writing, even SLW haven't done that on the bulkhead of the class 25, and they've hidden the ugly N gauge coupling well.

Pity they glued one of the windscreen wipers on wonky

 

But seriously; that's a nice gesture from Bachmann and GBRf, and should be a lovely model when it arrives.

[bmthtrains - David]

Interesting that the current class 60 model is being updated. Wonder in what way?

 

David

[woodenhead]

Just now, bmthtrains - David said:

Interesting that the current class 60 model is being updated. Wonder in what way?

 

David

Next18 I would hope plus the speaker - what they should have done to the latest class 47s but haven't.

[4630]

2 hours ago, woodenhead said:

I know it's an extreme close up and it's 2mm - but those horns look extremely overscale and that orange is all wrong.

 

But kudos, the plaque under the nameplate has legible writing, even SLW haven't done that on the bulkhead of the class 25, and they've hidden the ugly N gauge coupling well.

 

8 minutes ago, johnlambert said:

Pity they glued one of the windscreen wipers on wonky

 

But seriously; that's a nice gesture from Bachmann and GBRf, and should be a lovely model when it arrives.

 

Looks like they've also gone in for the gimmick of having opening cab doors too.  

 

It did look rather good when I saw it working through Brighouse on 6th March working 6E10 from Liverpool Biomass Terminal to Drax Power Station - photos in the Fall & Rise of the 60s (was The End of the Tugs?) thread.

 

The model will look really good hauling a rake of Revolution Trains forthcoming IIA-D biomass hoppers.

[grahame]

Nice that the loco plate says 'British outline N gauge model railways' rather than 'N scale'.

 

 

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hi all,

 

Looks fantastic - and after the various Hornby vinyls etc carried over the years it's good to see N gauge get a look in!  Props to GBRf for working with Farish on this!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[davebem]

Nice nod to Graham Farish that.  Id like to know more about the re-engineering of the n gauge 60, so far we know they are offering a sound version so the chassis and interface is being tweaked, will there be any lighting/body tooling and coupling improvements too?

[njee20]

9 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Next18 I would hope plus the speaker - what they should have done to the latest class 47s but haven't.

Yep, they announced several sound fitted models in the 2019 releases. No changes to the body I don’t believe (and none needed IMO).
 

I think this is great, surely GF have to change which model they’re offering (or this will be a club special). 

[John M Upton]

Got to be a club special I reckon.

[Mike Harvey]

I like the G cramp and caliper vernier GF logo. 

[Steven B]

22 hours ago, Ben A said:

Looks fantastic - and after the various Hornby vinyls etc carried over the years it's good to see N gauge get a look in!  Props to GBRf for working with Farish on this!

They've put more effort into designing it than Virgin Trains did with 47747 in 2000.

 

I wonder if we'll ever see "Dapol" or "Revolution Trains"?

 

Steven B.

[Ed-farms]

36 minutes ago, Steven B said:

I wonder if we'll ever see "Dapol" or "Revolution Trains"?

 

Dapol is planned but no one is saying when it will arrive, Revolution is about to open the order book on the plates as we speak 

 

Apparently this 47 is going to be named Heljan in honour of the mazak rot models

 

[woodenhead]

14 hours ago, njee20 said:

Yep, they announced several sound fitted models in the 2019 releases. No changes to the body I don’t believe (and none needed IMO).
 

I think this is great, surely GF have to change which model they’re offering (or this will be a club special). 

No body changes, but the usual now is a change to Next 18 in the chassis plus speaker - as per the 14, 40, 31, N class, Castle, Standard 5 etc.

 

But I read that Bachmann couldn't get the change done in time so they dropped it in favour of  re-running the 6 pin DCC chassis again - own goal as people were expecting an upgrade and there were sound models listed with Gaugemaster but they are probably not going to happen now.

 

It will happen but probably some time away now if they've shipped the last batch as 6 pin.

 

Never mind, I'd much rather a Peak or 25/2 with sound at the moment.

[JR_P]

20 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I read that Bachmann couldn't get the change done in time so they dropped it in favour of  re-running the 6 pin DCC chassis again - own goal as people were expecting an upgrade

Very disappointing if that is the case - I was planning to upgrade all of my existing cl60 chassis to the Next18 (less bothered about the sound aspect).

 

The Bachmann website still shows 371-358ASF as ‘on the cards’.... of course that doesn’t mean to say that it won’t follow along several years later  !

 

back on topic - very nice to see a GBRf loco named for Graham Farish 

[woodenhead]

17 minutes ago, JR_P said:

Very disappointing if that is the case - I was planning to upgrade all of my existing cl60 chassis to the Next18 (less bothered about the sound aspect).

 

The Bachmann website still shows 371-358ASF as ‘on the cards’.... of course that doesn’t mean to say that it won’t follow along several years later  !

 

back on topic - very nice to see a GBRf loco named for Graham Farish 

Should point out I was talking about the 47 there, the 60 according to Farish is still being re-engineered which I take as being altered for Next 18.

[njee20]

Ahh, yes, I was talking about the 60 too, no idea about the 47, I was going to say it would be odd if they'd dropped the sound fitted 60s.

 

The pace of updating models is glacial. I know Dapol aren't adding speakers (or explicit space for them), but they're managing to update most of their range to Next 18 far quicker.

[Davexoc]

5 hours ago, njee20 said:

The pace of updating models is glacial. I know Dapol aren't adding speakers (or explicit space for them), but they're managing to update most of their range to Next 18 far quicker.

 

Just changing to a new pcb with a Next18 socket would be far quicker than revisiting the chassis, body and various other bits of tooling to fit in a speaker etc. so its sort of expected really.

 

I reckon the 47 upgrade got dropped for the 60 when the naming opportunity became apparent...

[TomE]

17 hours ago, Davexoc said:

I reckon the 47 upgrade got dropped for the 60 when the naming opportunity became apparent...

 

Bachmann stated sometime ago in the club magazine that there was no capacity in the design department for the changes needed to the Class 47 to accommodate a Next18 socket and speaker so rather than delay it indefinitely they opted to revert back to the current 6pin setup.

 

Tom.  

[bmthtrains - David]

This appears to be imminent, along with the other new 60 liveries, as Kernow have them on their ‘recent arrivals’ list but out of stock - meaning they’ve had the delivery note and are awaiting stock in a couple of days.

 

Looks like an expensive autumn/winter for me with lots from Farish and Revolution due.

 

David