Covkid

20 minutes ago, Ruston said:

The IRS records officer concerned says he actually meant Keele. 😄

Haha.  Nice one !!!

Is this a Judith Edge kit Dave ?

Thought Charlie might have got it from Round Oak !!!

Very nice

Point of order

When did the Stafford services on the M6 open for business

I think we am being led up the garden path a little Charlie Strong !!!!!

Great stories.  Love em

Echoing what has already been said.  I have always enjoyed the BR/Sulzer type twos in England and Wales so as soon as I was old enough and armed with a little blue card, I made my way to Scotland in 1979 to seek out these beasties.  Very grateful to the poster for dashing those myths, and even though I knew there were differences between the  /0s and /1s, I didn't know how many. 

The one thing I could never understand is why those 26s which were dual braked had to lose their boilers and boiler water tanks, whereas the 1250hp "sister class 27s" kept them. Presumably the boilers were no longer needed so the drawing office saw the potential of the redundant space.

Keep up the great work   

As always, fantastic work on this loco - clearly a labour of love.

It is great to see that you are unbodging many bodges of old and 5343 will look absolutely corking when you put the battery switch in and press the magic button.

Huge congratulations  

Many thanks indeed for sharing this blog and the fascinating yet time consuming work you do to bring us pleasure.

I always thought the LDA series engines had interchangeable components and those pistons prove it admirably.

As a matter of interest Tim, are you able to say how much the extra weight has tipped the scales by ?

Great work as always 

Tricky one.  The green on your D6xx could look similar to the Bachmann green on newish warships etc ON ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHS. I am currently working on a OO Kernow special D845 which I believe is fairly standard Bachmann BR green. If you do image searches for it online the reproduction of the green is far lighter than in reality. Obviously that doesn't apply in your D6xx case.  

Another vote to retain the steel bridge

I wouldn't totally rule one out but I think you need to consider their history. Built as express passenger diesels initially they enjoyed a very very brief life on the WCML two or three years maximum before shifting to heavy freight.  

D1-D9 were delivered between August and December 1959 with D10 appearing in February 1960. The class had moved to the Midland by 1962, passenger duties over.

It is worth considering though that as these locos worked some of the WCML expresses they may well have turned up at Preston or Carlisle, and been replaced by another loco. Wouldn't rule it out.  .   

Moving to the Midlands it was a life of freight then on. Some people speculate that you would never have a subfleet of loco working from a depot that drivers "did not sign", but that is not actually true. I can certainly recall drivers taking locos they weren't technically competent on and after all a class 44 looks very much like a 45 or a 46 to anyone whose work life was not a hobby. There were class 45s shedded at Holbeck and several depots of drivers signed the S&C including Saltley in the West Midlands. It is plausible that a Saltley driver who signed to Carlisle via Leeds could have a ropey loco at say Rotherham and "pinch" one of a lower classified freight to work forward to Carlisle.  The chances of it however are very very slim.