Class 24

[jamespetts]

Having learnt last year that Class 24s worked transfer freights from the Midland Region to the dock branches in the early 1960s before the Class 25s took over, and having discovered this too late to acquire a Sutton's Locomotive Workshop model of one of the class, I purchased a Bachmann example at Warley 2023. It was available for a very good price, especially considering that it had been custom weathered by Grimy Times.

I ordered some EM gauge wheels for it from Ultrascale last year, but they have still not arrived, so I took to moving the existing wheels out on the axles. After I had used a knife to trim away some plastic from the inside of the brake rigging, invisible in ordinary positions, I was able to use the existing 00 wheels without difficulty. The model has now also been fitted with a DCC decoder and stay-alive as well as Sprat & Winkle compatible coupling bars. It is suitable for our early 1960s era, as it was transferred out of Willesden in 1964 and acquired yellow panels in 1963.

The locomotive has evidently been renumbered from the Bachmann original as I can see the carrier film for the transfers if I look closely. However, whoever renumbered it forgot about the shed plates. This locomotive is D5144, which was a Willesden locomotive from 1960 to 1964 (by which time it had acquired yellow ends). However, the shed plate reads 9A, which is for Longsight in Manchester. I do not think that the real D5144 had any shed plates at all at this time:

but I cannot feasibly paint over or scrub away the already weathered shed plate now, so I have ordered some correct Willesden 1A etched shed plates.

I have also replaced the numbers displayed in the headcode boxes with ones potentially suitable for the kinds of freight services that would have been run by these locomotives on dockside branches, being 8L15 and 7H33.

 

Unfortunately, neither the etched builder's plates nor the front detail parts were fitted at the time of weathering. I have since fitted them, but these parts will need weathering to match the body. Some of the weathering on the roof also rubbed off while I was DCC fitting the locomotive, so I have had to supplement this, too.

It should be usable and able to run on the layout now, but, once the etched shed plates have arrived, I should be able to complete touching up the weathering.

[BenWeiner]

A useful addition to the available roster, many thanks. And I suspect the shed plate will be hard for exhibition visitors to read

[jamespetts]

3 minutes ago, BenWeiner said:

A useful addition to the available roster, many thanks. And I suspect the shed plate will be hard for exhibition visitors to read

Maybe - but I have bought the 1A plates now, ready to be attached. I am a details person.

[BenWeiner]

20 minutes ago, jamespetts said:

Maybe - but I have bought the 1A plates now, ready to be attached. I am a details person.

This is good. And perhaps '1A' is not too complex for the long distance reader?

[jamespetts]

2 hours ago, BenWeiner said:

This is good. And perhaps '1A' is not too complex for the long distance reader?

Perhaps indeed!

[jamespetts]

A little more progress on the class 24

I have replaced the 9A Longsight shed plate with the correct 1A Willesden shed plate and weathered the buffer beam details. I have also weathered the windscreen wipers and wiped an arc where they would operate on the front windows. Subject to testing, this should now be ready for the layout.