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The ONLY monthly entirely devoted to classic diesels & electrics past and present

The ONLY monthly entirely devoted to classic diesels & electrics past and present ONLY monthly entirely devoted to classic diesels & electrics past and present ONLY

IN THIS ISSUE

Type three Anniversary

.95

•£3

.195

•No

2011

Jan/Feb

CHRISTMAS RAILTOURS Seasonal Class 40 outings

Celebrating in style on the Mid-Norfolk Railway

SNOW AT VICTORIA

Makes a change from the rain

MORE MIXING The double-headed delight continues

16 pages of Plus

REVIEW

THREE OF A KIND

The first variations of Bachmann’s impressive new OO gauge BR Class 03 diesel shunters have arrived in the shops and David Brown gives them the thumbs up!

British Railw ays’ standard 0-6-0 diesel mechanical shunting locomotives were introduced from 1958, being built at their Swindon and Doncaster works over the following four years; they were to be allocated Class 03 under TOPS .They were fitted with a 204 hp Gardner 8L3 engine , a five-speed mechanical gearbox and 3’ 7”driving wheels .With a light axle load they had a wide Route Availability and their top speed of 28.5 mph was relatively speedy for diesel shunters . Because the BR standard diesel-electric 0-6-0 shunting locomotives featured 400 hp English Electric engines the dieselmechanical locomotives could not compete in terms of power for hauling heavier trains and so it was that the Class 08s generally outlived the Class 03s on the national network, though there were a few places where they still came in useful.

They did some trip workings, for example

Laira-based examples were tried out on the Wenfordbridge branch in Cornwall, but soon ga ve way to the ‘Gronks’. Howeve r, the usual working environment for a Class 03 was in the sidings , along freight lines or on station pilot duties . From the South West to the North East they became a common sight and as such,will find a fitting place on many BR model railway layouts based on locations south of the border and representing the period from the late 1950s to the late 1980s.

Therefor e, the Class 03s are a wise choice for the latest model diesel shunting locomotive type to appear from Bachmann in OO gauge – and a splendid job they ha ve made of it too, impressing the minute you take it out of the box for closer ex amination.

The class totalled 230 locomotives and there are enough minor detail and livery dif ferences to keep Bachmann busy for years to come with variations galore and some‘celebrity’ engines – indeed they ha ve already star ted!

The first production models to appear in the shops now are: D2011 BR plain green, late cr est with conical chimney (31-360); D2388 BR green with wasp stripes and ‘flowerpot’ chimney (31-361) and 03 066 BR blue with double arrows logo ,wasp stripes, air tanks and‘flowerpot’ chimne y. (31-362). The recommended retail price is £54.95. Our review sample is D2011.

Special edition v ersions alr eady announced ar e a Bachmann Collect ors’ Club No .03 179 Clive in West Anglia & Great

Northern Railways (WAGN) liv er y (31-360K) av ailable only to club members at £54.95 each.This is a limit ed edition of 504 models each with a cer tificat e signed by Clive Allison, the fo rmer Hornsey Traincar e Depot Maintenance Super visor aft er whom the locomotiv e was named. No.03 179 is also the subject of a 750-piece Mo delzone exc lusiv e, this time in Netw ork SouthEast livery as carried by the locomotiv e while wo rking on the Isle of W ight (wher e the pr ototype was giv en a cut-do wn cab r oof to enable it wo rk through the r estrict ed height tunnel at Ryde), these will ret ail at £59.99 each (31-360Z).

The prototype As with other BR diesel classes , these diesel-mechanical diesel shunting locomotives arrived a little late on the scene as soon some of the roles for which they were introduced were being cut out in the sear ch for econom y.Their BR days over, some were to find new life serving private industry (at home and abroad), with many surviving to prove useful at heritage lines ,while other class members had short working lives and succumbed to to the cutter’s torch.

What became the Class 03s were similar similar in many aspects to the earlier Dr ewry 0-6-0s (which became TOPS Class 04), though they are easy to di fferentiate as the e as the

04s had a level top ov er the engine

MODELLING MOMENT

MODELLING MOMENT

OH,THREES! A pictorial tribute to these diminutive shunters, text by J Crosse with photographs from Colour-Rail.com and Alan Baylis.

The 03 shunters were part of the railw ay scene for over 30 years and yet were hardly noticed by the average enthusiasts , that is until the time came to try to complete the collection of ‘all BR locos’.Then might come the shout of 03 as one of their hideouts was passed by train or car.

0-6-0 variants were built by Drewry (starting as early as 1952), Barclay , Hudswell Clarke and Hunslet. Strangely the last builder to come on the scene was British Railways itself , introducing its variant in 1957.This became the Class 03 under the classifying and renumbering scheme of the 1970s .Weighing in at just over 30 imperial tons, the axle loading was some 60% of that of a Class 08.

Hardly had the building of the various types been completed before the realisation dawned on British Railways management that they had too many locomotives for the work available and withdr awal of some classes started and the decision was taken to standardise on the BR variety.

proportion on the Western and North Eastern. It was this region that used the class in a more high profile position, allocating them as station pilots at York and Ne wcastle.

Away fr om these few high profile locations , tracking down 03s could be a time consuming and frustrating experience .The organised shed visits in the diesel era tended to be to the ‘main’ locomotiv e depots and nearby stabling points . However the 03s were to be found lurking in docks and the less frequently visited depots such as Brighton and Lincoln. Indeed enthusiasts ha ve had to undertake long trecks to see some of the

03s in their ‘natural habitat’. Typical of the ‘scatt er’of locomotiv es were those allocat ed to the nor theast of England. W hilst some of the class co uld indeed be f ound atYo rk and Ne wcastle st ations , machines we re also locat ed at Goole docks , Scarbor ough, Hartlepool, Sunderland and Alnmouth to name but a fe w. Such is the changed wo rld in whic h we live that by the end of the 1980s just six 200 hp sh unters we re on the books wher e twenty y ears earlier some 600 were needed. The redundancy of many nearly new machines led to many finding their way into industrial service across the countr y, the National Coal Boar d being a major

Landore had a number of 03s on its books but most were outstationed as was the case on 4th June 1983 when three of its allocation, including 03 144 and 03 151 were at Llanelli. Colour-Rail.com 62782

By the nature of their work the 03s tended to end up in the more remote parts of the system.That said they did not cover the countr y.As already mentioned the Scottish Region had an allocation of North British shunters later supplemented by those built by Barclay.

The Hunslet variety tended to be found at Midland Region depots with Dr ewry shunters being on the Southern and Eastern. Despite this the 03s also found employment eventually on all regions except the Scottish, but with a high

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A sunny summer’s day to the north of Ipswich station at Ipswich Docks (referred to as Ipswich Lower Yard in the Rail Atlas). 03 158 was withdrawn in July 1987. It is now preserved at Ecclesbourne Valley Railw ay, Wirkswirth having spent some time at Peak Rail, Matlock.Alan Baylis

No. 38

No. XX

61

Images of long

Images of long-lost Images of long

• Images of long-lost everyday scenes from the eighties • Class 31 review - the current workings of the class

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