National Collection in Miniature - Accurascale Class 31/0 No.31018 D5500

[AY Mod]

Class 31/0 No.31018 D5500

 

 

In 1955, the British Transport Commission published the 'Modernisation Plan'. This plan intended to revolutionise the railway system, increasing speed, reliability, safety and line capacity of British Rail. To achieve this meant replacing steam locomotives with diesel and electric traction, and the Class 31 were the first engines built by Brush Electrical Engineering Company under the new plan.

The locomotives were built in Loughborough in 1957, but their original 1250 HP Mirrlees engines soon proved to be unreliable, so were replaced by 1470 HP engines produced by English Electric in the 1960s. The Class 31/0s were later withdrawn in 1976, but D5500 was restored in Doncaster and has since operated on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

 

 

The Models

We are thrilled to be releasing both DCC Ready and Sound Fitted 00 gauge Class 31 locomotives depicting 31018 in its current, preserved, condition, wearing BR blue livery (as pictured above).  

Model Features:
One truck (bogie) styles with separate footsteps, brake cylinders, speed recorder and end brake rigging
Brake blocks on bogies in line with wheels 
Scale width wire handrails 
Etched metal roof grille
Accurate high-fidelity miniature snowploughs, chassis fitted
Full underbody battery box/air tank detail with pipework
Full sprung buffers, multiple pipework variations and screw couplings
A fully working, scale speed roof fan, that will run on both DC and DCC
High quality 5-pole motor with two large flywheels
Lighting clusters with appropriate day and night-time settings
Switchable red and white marker lights 
Separately switched cab lighting and illuminated driver's desk with auto/off on movement 

 

£169.99 - DCC Ready 
£269.99 - Sound Fitted 

[Titan]

Just one thing I thought I would put in here - the original class 30 was not unreliable - indeed quite the opposite, hence why large numbers were subsequently ordered.  What happened was that when the engines became due their first overhaul and were inspected, severe cracking was found in the engine blocks, especially those running at the higher power outputs.  The cost of fixing this was high, and of course on top of the expected cost of overhaul. Not only that, but it was not guaranteed to be a permanent fix, so was likely to be an additional maintenance cost through the life of the engine.  What BR did was what we would now call "whole life cost", and they worked out that doing a conversion to a new EE engine was only going to cost slightly more than the overhaul and repair of the Mirlees unit, and thereafter be considerably cheaper to maintain, gaining back the investment quite quickly. The locomotive also gained from standardisation of parts as well as a boost in power.  So when the Mirlees engines got to high hours and needed overhaul, they were instead replaced by the EE units. Some Mirlees units that were viable to overhaul were refurbished and found use in large trawlers, where the duty cycle was more engine friendly. 

 

I don't know if the cracking caused any in service failures, although like all diesel locomotives they were not perfect - I understand one broke down whilst hauling the Royal Train due to a fuel pump failure, which did not go down well!

 

TLDR:  It was high maintenance cost rather than unreliability.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Titan

[HExpressD]

I don't know if I'm being dense, but does the image of the loco (and other images of the loco) not match the product art shown with the blue area underneath the cabs being black on the product art?

[AY Mod]

29 minutes ago, HExpressD said:

I don't know if I'm being dense, but does the image of the loco (and other images of the loco) not match the product art shown with the blue area underneath the cabs being black on the product art?

 

1 hour ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi everyone,

The NRM limited edition is in “as service” condition.

 

 

Grahame Wareham

31018 Stratford February 77

[HExpressD]

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

The Models

We are thrilled to be releasing both DCC Ready and Sound Fitted 00 gauge Class 31 locomotives depicting 31018 in its current, preserved, condition, wearing BR blue livery (as pictured above).  

Fair enough I suppose, but maybe this should be edited from the announcement?  

[PieGuyRob]

Well, turns out I paid a deposit on this model, I wasn't aware of it until I went through my e- mithers. Glad I paid a deposit on it though.