Loco Fleet

                                                         
When I was a regular visitor to West Blyth the mainstay of locomotives were Class 37s and a Class 08 shunter, sometimes at weekends when the depot was closed there were sometimes as many as ten Class 37s stabled there along with the Class 08.

I have purchased seven Bachmann Class 37s and one Hornby Class 08.



The Class 37s are all DCC sound fitted and purchased new, they are all of the BR Blue variety (typical for the era being modelled) some with round buffers and some with oval buffers as well as some with split headcode boxes and others with centre headcode boxes.
All my locos are weathered using an airbrush and Humbrol Matt paints.

37 048 still needs handbrake chains and brackets fitting

Above is 37 048, this loco was renumbered from 37 049. the loco is weathered, sound fitted and ready for use. All my Class 37s are fitted with bass reflex speakers in the fuel tanks which really improves the sound of the loco when used with the chassis speaker.



Bass reflex speaker in fuel tanks

Above, a bass reflex speaker fitted to 37 048, the speaker is simply held in place with blu-tak and uses soldered connections to the pcb within the loco body, some people choose to glue the speaker in place which is fine but it might make removal difficult if the speaker ever had to come back out!

The fitment of the speaker itself is not too difficult but the loco does require a fair amount of dismantling and unsoldering of wires before the speaker can be fitted.

Another Bachmann Class 37, this time 37 195 renumbered from 37 251, as you can see this loco has yet to be weathered and buffer beam detail fitted.

Bachmann 37 195

I have removed all of the tension lock couplings from my locos as I think that the locos look far better without them, the couplings are simply made from brass wire bent to shape and glued in place.

Buffer beam detail

                                     

Another view of  37 195, as you can see the buffer beam detail has now been added, this includes 'Smith's' screw link couplings, brake pipes and the MU jumper cables.

Apart from the jumper cable the other parts are glued in place, because the jumper cable fits onto the body and the buffer beam it needs to be removeable to be able to remove the body from the chassis.
The loco is now ready for weathering.

Below is the depot pilot, a renumbered Hornby Class 08 08 886. This loco came DCC ready and had the sound fitted at a later date. I sent this loco to Howes to have a sound decoder and speaker fitted, having this done made a big difference to the loco in terms of control and obviously sound.

The Class 08 was weathered using my Iwata airbrush and two Humbrol Matt paint colours, I had to make a slight adjustment to the livery but nothing to drastic.

Below is my Class 08 before any weathering was done, apart from the renumbering and coupling removal this is how it comes out of the box, too new looking!



08 886 before weathering

 

08 886 after weathering, note, driver and shunters pole on step



 



37 195 completed

 37 195 now fitted with full buffer beam detail as well as 'Shawplan' handbrake brackets and chains, the loco has been  weathered using 'Humbrol' Enamel Matt paints.