Class 06 - what to pull

[IronWall]

Hi,

 

Getting back into the hobby after 20 year break. I have purchased a Hornby virgin class 06 (R2375). im creating a shelf shunting layout. What would be a typical load for this to pull?

[DK123GWR]

Anything you like. All class 06s were withdrawn by 1981, long before privatisation (and therfore Virgin Trains). Virgin did have a few loco hauled trains, so if the 06 did survive long enough it could perhaps be used to shunt the coaches (air con mk2 or mk3) although I'm not sure whether this would fit your space. Perhaps you could imagine a Virgin-owned FOC, in which case modern freight wagons might be used. However, as most modern freights are fixed-formation they don't usually require shunting, so working out why it is necessary at your location might be another part of the challenge. That said, if the 06 is still in use post-privatisation, that suggests that the need for shunters has not declined as much as it did in real life. Perhaps the survival and growth of Speedlink style traffic could be the reason for this.

['CHARD]

Whatever takes your fancy, as the loco is a work of fiction! 

 

Basically, just have fun with your re-entry to this great hobby, and try stuff out to see what you enjoy about it!

[Foden]

1 hour ago, 'CHARD said:

Whatever takes your fancy, as the loco is a work of fiction! 

 

Basically, just have fun with your re-entry to this great hobby, and try stuff out to see what you enjoy about it!

The all too often forgotten number one rule.

I've recently been having great fun with spare half hours (all I can afford lately) shunting around any mixture of locos and stock, from any era I please, based entirely on which one(s) I like the look of most in any given moment. It's actually incredibly liberating!

[Halvarras]

What? Are you saying that it would be OK to run my Heljan Clayton Class 17 alongside my Bachmann Warships Matt? There's no way these would have been seen side by.............oh, hang on.........8598 visited Swindon Works on 16/8/72 to collect Test Car Hermes and there were still a few Warships about, so !

[The Johnster]

I’d repaint it in a BR livery (black with unicycling lion, green with ferret and dartboard rail blue with arrows of indecision), and acquire a few period 4 or 5 short wheelbase wagons for it to play with.  

[HonestTom]

If you want the loco to specifically haul trains, as opposed to shunt coaches at a Virgin depot, one possibility that springs to mind is that the loco has been repainted by a preservation group (perhaps the restoration was sponsored by Virgin?). Then you could have it on engineering trains.

 

Or here's a mad idea for a what-if scenario. Richard Branson gave a hefty donation to ensure that Flying Scotsman would go to the National Collection. Suppose instead that he bought the loco outright and used it to run luxury trains? Having come up with this, you could imagine it getting a small depot, with the 06 servicing the loco and its rolling stock. In which case, Mk 1 or Pullman coaches, maybe some wagons carrying coal, water and any bits and pieces the Scotsman might need. You could use a Great British Locomotives Flying Scotsman for a cheap static version of the A3. Obviously this is just a flight of fancy, but it would be something different.

[Steamport Southport]

Beware of using GBL static models near you layout.

 

They have a metal chassis and will destroy your other models and controller if you put them on the track and apply electricity....

 

 

[The Johnster]

Most controllers will detect the short circuit and the overload protection will cut the power before any damage is done, but it won't work...

 

These little Barclays were powerful for their size, same prime mover as the 03 and 04 0-6-0 locos, and the main problems with the Hornby model are the use of the generic 0-4-0 chassis, older versions of which are not good in terms of the slow control necessary for shunting duties, and the lack of the jackshaft drive at the rear behind the cab steps.  The short wheelbase made them suitable for very sharp curves, and the duties tended to be such as dock and harbour shunting, a possible scenario for your layout.  It doesn't have to be specifically quayside, as such areas were the home of general industries by the post war period, so small engineering works, maybe a hydraulic pumping station to work the cranes and lock gates, a wagon repairer, oil depot (tanks in, vans and opens with product in drums out), cold store for fish, all sorts of things for vans and wagons to be delivered to and collected from, grist to the mill of shunting layouts that are not Inglenooks.  

 

Your rolling stock might be bauxite liveried vans and opens, maybe one or two in unfitted grey up to about 1965, a few conflats, insulated vans if there is a cold store, minerals to deliver coal for the pumping station and the small industries.  A brake van is probably overkill.  Some of the stock can carry the later type of lettering/numbering in a box grid for the blue period.  I'd avoid long wheelbase stuff in order to keep the curvature to a minimum radius to use space efficiently and leave room to allow for building modelling and even the open wasteland that such areas usually featured to avoid what is going to be a small layout looking cramped, 

 

The fictitious Virgin livery is I think prompting suggestions of passenger stock shunting, but I would avoid that and go for the freight scenario as it offers more variety in operation.  But that livery'd have to go if it was mine!  An eventual companion could be a Smokey Joe, heavily weathered and clearly on it's last legs, the loco the 06 is to replace.

[Steamport Southport]

But isn't it better to avoid such a situation beforehand though?

 

 

Virgin did have shunters. Just not that type and not that livery. This was a station pilot at Lime Street. I think it later received the Virgin logo.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/buses7675/7380701576/in/photostream/

[IronWall]

Thanks for all the advice guys, would a shunting yard have signals?