Class 40

The popular Class 40 locomotives were a direct development of earlier types of EE powered locomotives such as the LMS Twins 10000/10001 and particularly the Southern Railway's 10203. In fact, the power train of the first ten locomotives was virtually unchanged from that of 10203. With delivery in 1958 of ten pilot scheme loco's, the remaining 190 were ordered, being built until 1962. Weighing in at 135 tons with only 2,000bhp, they were a little underpowered. Initially they were used on express passenger services, particularly on the West Coast Main Line until later, more powerful types and electrification replaced them. The Class 40 moved over to predominantly working freight. Withdrawals started in 1976 with the last going in 1985.

Within the class, there are three distinct styles. D200-D324 had disc indicators, D325-D344 had 'split' four character headcode whereas D345-D399 had a central four character headcode and no communicating door. Later, in 1965, D260-D266 were converted to the central headcode style.

D210-D235 carried names of ships operated by Cunard, Elder Dempster and Canadian Pacific companies.

There have been a number of ready to run models available over the years. The French company Jouef produced a passable model in 1977. The proportions were not quite right and it looked a bit fat and squat. The drive mechanism was poor, a problem with all Champagnole Jouef models.

Lima was next into the fray with their version in 1988. Arguably a better runner, the proportions were wrong again, this time a bit tall and thin. The window area was also a concern and replacement etched frames are still available.

Bachmann had a go next in 2003 and as usual with most of their diesel models, got it wrong first time as well. These first versions do not have any working lights. They have since had another go in 2014 and the re-tooled result is better and has working lights. This model was upgraded in 2022 featuring a PluX22 DCC socket.

Finally, Hornby, having acquired Lima and its tooling, have re-introduced the Lima version in 2010 in their 'Railroad' range. It is still the same old Lima body with all its faults, but sports a better paint finish and a much better drive system using a 5 pole motor. More recently, these have been offered with DCC and Hornby's TTS sound decoder. With one North-Western dealer selling them at £75 a throw, it's got to be good value despite the faults.

I have had the first three versions and am sticking with the first Bachmann offering. As usual, it is in BR Green livery, but with a full yellow end. Numbered D325, it is a split headcode version. I have had a desire to fit working lights and a sound decoder to this locomotive for some time and an opportunity came up whilst looking for a chassis for the Class 70 electric locomotive. A 'Railroad' Class 40 chassis, with the bogies cut down to a Co-Co was suggested. So, killing two birds with one stone, I bought the Hornby 'Railroad' Class 40 with TTS Sound. I fancied trying one these decoders for myself having heard mixed reports.

Fitting lights involved drilling out the red marker lights and inserting a short length of 1mm red fibre optic. DCC Concepts pre-wired red nano LED's are glued to the inside of the body directly behind the fibre optic. I use epoxy resin for this and smother the LED. When dry, the glue mound can be painted black to prevent light bleed. These are then wired up with the appropriate resistor in series to the relevant 'lights' wires.

The split headcode panels are carefully drilled and filed out to produce a rectangular aperture neatly within the frames. A clear piece of acetate sheet is cut to size to exactly fit within this aperture. This 'glass' is the secured by Glue'n'Glaze. Suitable characters are printed out from my computer onto thickish paper. These are then cut to size and fitted behind the 'glass' from the inside. Shining a torch through these reveals any light bleed around the edges that can be blacked out with a dab of black paint. White LED's are then positioned behind each box and wired up appropriately.

The Hornby TTS decoder was placed in the body and the existing speaker removed. It has been replaced with a DCC Supplies Bass Enhanced rectangular speaker in an enclosure. The TTS chips use 8 Ohm speakers.

Finally, as there was a spare Function wire on the decoder, I wired up some cab lights.

The result is very pleasing and the TTS Sound chip surprisingly good for the price, especially heard through a better speaker with the volume turned down (CV182) a bit. There are 25 functions on this chip, including lights with possibly more sounds than you need.

Hornby sell the TTS chips separately and I have seen them advertised quite reasonably priced. This is very good value to add sound to your fleet. There are drawbacks though. The sound isn't quite as good and as functional as say a ESU Loksound V4.0 with Legomanbiffo sound, but it is a third of the cost. You cannot 're-blow' the sound files on these chips and there is no 'function re-mapping'. You do get a four function NMRA compatible decoder with short or long addressing (1-9999). You can also adjust the overall sound level, as well as certain individual sound effects. The instruction leaflet explains all.

So, I can now enjoy a reasonable model of a Class 40 'whistling' around the layout with lights blazing for a very reasonable outlay.

So just to re-cap, the Jouef model was released in 1977. The Lima model was released in 1988. The first Bachmann model was released in 2003. The Hornby Railroad model was released in 2010. The re-tooled Bachmann model was released in 2014 with an upgrade appearing in 2022. Various kits have been offered along the way including versions from MTK and Q Kits.

Interestingly KR Models made an announcement in November 2022 that they intended to produce a model of the Class 40. Judging by their previous efforts with GT3 and particularly the Fell 10100, it will be interesting to see how they can better the already acceptable Bachmann version.