Steve Johnson Modelmaker
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British
Railways Class 44 1Co-Co1 Diesel Electric
Derby's attempt at a mainline Type 4 diesel emerged as the Class 44. A heavyweight locomotive on 1Co-Co1 bogies, ten were built all being named after famous English and Welsh mountains, hence the name 'Peaks'. Revised follow on versions were built as Class 45 and 46. No RTR model was offered of a Class 44 for many years. Modellers having to resort to converting the old Mainline Class 45 with various detail kits from the likes of Craftsman Models. The poor motor and gearing of the Mainline model still let down the conversions performance. Bachmann offered a Class 44, 45 and 46 following their acquisition of the Mainline business. Unfortunately, and as usual with Bachmann diesel models, they got it wrong. The Class 44 suffered from major detail issues! Most notable was the missing seam around the nose and nose bonnet top. Very obvious on a Class 44 with the centre doors. Curiously they forgot to put the large rectangular exhaust vent on the roof. Air tanks were also fitted between the bogies, but Class 44's remained vacuum braked to the end. It is the first version I have in green as D1 'Scafell Pike'. Bachmann later re-tooled the Class 44 to correct the silly mistakes, they only had to look at a real one! I will upgrade to this version, but as yet, it has not been offered in original green livery. Bachmann made a further mistake in numbering one of their models as D10, which along with D9 has different style side grilles to the other eight. These issues apart, it is an otherwise good model with Bachmann's usual smooth, powerful performance from a central can motor driving both bogies via flywheels.
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