Description
Thornaby TMD had a habit of making its mark on its fleet and many of the locomotives based at the north east depot received liveries or markings which diverged from BR’s corporate schemes. During the 1980s, Class 20 No. 20172 was one of four locomotives painted by Thornaby into BR Blue livery with red solebars and white cab roofs. With its unofficial name of ‘Redmire’ painted on the solebars, the large bodyside numbers and Thornaby’s kingfisher motif completed the look, and these embellishments are all present on the Graham Farish model, which sports headcode boxes and includes features like directional lighting and a 6 pin DCC decoder socket.
MODEL FEATURES:
- Graham Farish N Scale
- Era 8
- Pristine BR Blue (Red Solebar) Livery
- Running No. 20172
- Named ‘Redmire’
- Accessory Pack
- NEM Coupling Pockets
- Powerful 3 Pole Motor
- Directional Lighting
- Equipped with a 6 Pin DCC Decoder Socket
- Length 97mm
CLASS 20/0 HISTORY
The British Railways Board’s (BRB) 1955 modernisation plan called for a change to alternative forms of traction and manufacturers were asked to produce trial or initial designs for evaluation. English Electric adapted an existing design based on an export model for a 1,000bhp diesel and 20 were built as a pilot scheme for assessment.
The first batch was built in 1957 and the diesels were assigned to work from Devon’s Road depot, East London. The design was a success from the start and by 1962 a total of 127 had been built. Following assessment of all the Type 1 diesels, BRB placed a further order increasing the total to 228 by 1968 and the design became the BR standard for 1,000bhp diesel locomotives. With the introduction of TOPS the locomotives were designated Class 20 and renumbered 20001 to 20228. The locomotives were principally designed for freight work but also saw service on summer passenger trains where train heating was not required. The Class 20s worked over the Eastern, London Midland and Scottish regions as well as into Wales and were commonly associated with coal traffic. The only drawback the Class had was its single end cab, unlike modern designs that have a cab at each end. BR resolved this problem by regularly operating the Class 20s as pairs, nose to nose, and with the combined power of 2,000bhp they were able to haul the heavier block freight trains.
BR’s decision to switch to Type 5 and in particular Class 60 diesels in the late 1980s started a gradual withdrawal of the fleet, with just 28 left by 1994. A tribute to the design is that after 45 years the Class is still in service with DRS on mainline duties following refurbishment, the resulting locomotives being designated Class 20/3s. At least 28 of the class are now preserved.
