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Class 20 EE Type 1

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Class 23 'Baby Deltic'

Class 24 Derby Type 2

Class 25 Derby Type 2

Class 26

Class 27

Class 28

Class 29

Class 30 Brush Type 2

Class 31 Brush Type 2

Class 33 BRCW Type 3

Class 35 'Hymek'

Class 37 EE Type 3

Class 40 EE Type 4

Class 41 'Warship'

Class 42 'Warship'

Class 43 'Warship'

Class 44 'Peak'

Class 45

Class 46

Class 47 Brush Type 4

Class 48 Brush Type 4

Class 50 EE Type 5

Class 52 'Western'

Class 53 'Falcon'

Class 55 'Deltic'

Class 56

Class 57

Class 58

Class 59

Class 60

Class 66

Class 67

Class 68

Class 70

The Dapol Class 21

As part of the Pilot Scheme, ten diesel-electric Type 2 locomotives were ordered from North British for evaluation. A similar batch of locomotives was also ordered but employing hydraulic transmission later becoming Class 22. They were powered by a MAN engine driving a GEC generator and traction motors. With the rush for dieselisation, follow on orders were made before the type was properly evaluated. The first thirty-eight locomotives were originally allocated to the Eastern Region with the last twenty going to the Scottish Region. Many problems were found with the design and they were all moved to Eastfield Depot in the Scottish Region, were warranty work could be carried out by the nearby North British Locomotive Company.

In an effort to solve the problems with the class, twenty were rebuilt with Paxman engines becoming Class 29.

Dapol announced that they would produce a model of this class back in October 2010 at the Warley Show. The model finally arrived in late December 2019!

On receiving my model, D6116 in green with small yellow panels, I couldn't help but notice the prominent writing on the box announcing it as a Diesel-Hydraulic locomotive! Oops! Fortunately, that seems to be the only mistake.

The model out of the box appears to look the part. Always a difficult one for a manufacturer who doesn't have an existing prototype to measure up. It has a good weight and feel to it and runs quietly and smoothly. There are a number of separate parts to fit, but unfortunately no instructions to guide you. The buffer beam detail is fairly obvious, remembering the longer pair of black hoses are the air control pipes fitting just below the buffers. The drawhook seemed overly large and does foul the bottom of the body. It is also painted red, whereas I would have thought it should have been black. As a Class 21, it has disc headcodes and a sprue containing seven open and three closed is supplied. These are all painted white. Not so much a problem with the open ones, but the closed ones should be a mix of both green (top) and yellow (bottom). Three closed is not really enough either and I had to end up cutting some open ones in half. There is no easy way to fix the discs, I resorted to superglue. One important note is that the discs fold sideways, not vertically as on most other classes.

The other issues I had were a lack of a scavenger fan in the roof and the lensing effect of the glazing. Although the roof has a nice finely etched grille, there is no fan. Is this to allow for a speaker? In any event, I will duly fitted an old A1 Models fan I had in my bits box. The lensing effect of the glazing is noticeable, especially on the side windows. Surely a candidate for some of Shawplan's Laser Glaze in due course? The windscreen wipers also look a bit chunky and this can't really be solved apart from fitting etched ones.

With an A1 Models fan added

When built, all the class had the Red Circle Electro-Magnetic MU connection code. This was carried on the front of the locomotive and on the small yellow warning panel versions, this was either side of the panel behind the lamp brackets and below the headcode discs. This is missing from the model. I added some waterslide ones from the Fox Transfers range.

A neat feature is the array of switches on the bottom of the fuel tank. This is easily operated and saves fiddling about with removable roof boxes etc. Of course, if you have a DCC fitted version, these switches don't need to be touched.

Now onto DCC. Dapol, for some reason, use a strange wiring system in this locomotive meaning that a standard 21MTC 6 function decoder will not enable all the lighting functions. I found this out to my cost, by ordering the advertised suggested Hatton's decoder. This decoder does not enable all functions. Although Hatton's after sales service was it's usual excellent self in offering to replace it with a Dapol Imperium, I opted to retain the Hatton's decoder, fit it to something else and order an Imperium. This duly arrived and full functionality restored. For those with JMRI Decoder Pro, I found using the TCS MC6 settings worked quite well. Not surprising perhaps as it is thought the Imperium is a LaisDCC decoder, which is a sort of a copy of the TCS MC6.

All in all, it's quite a good effort.

As an aside, D6116 entered service in July 1959 at Stratford Shed. It was rebuilt as a Class 29 in May 1966 and survived at Eastfield Shed until December 1971.

Dapol also offer other numbers in the range. For instance D6120, new in July 1959 and withdrawn in December 1967, a working life of just eight and a half years, or six months less than we having been waiting for the model! D6121 is an odd one to pick too, although Dapol can probably get away with it in Class 21 guise. It was rebuilt as a Class 29 in 1967, but seemed to swap identities with D6122.

Previous models of the class include the Playcraft/Jouef HO gauge model of the late 1960's and 70's. Q Kits and MTK have both made kits of this class.