Back to BR Locomotives

Class 14

Class 15 BTH

Class 16

Class 17 Clayton

Class 20 EE Type 1

Class 21

Class 22

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

Bachmann's revised tooling of a split headcode Class 45

The Class 45 was a development of the Class 44 'Peak' locomotives and originally numbered D11 to D137, built at Derby and Crewe between 1960-1962. There were numerous changes to the body, most notably the fitting of four digit headcode panels. The first batch retained the centre nose end connecting doors and as a result had split headcodes. The later batch did not have the connecting doors and had a centre positioned headcode panel. The Class 45's were fitted with a slightly more powerful engine of 2,500bhp being achieved by the fitting of an intercooler. Some of the locomotives carried names of a military theme. Under TOPS, they were renumbered as Class 45/0 and Class 45/1. The Class 45/0's had steam heating boilers whereas the Class 45/1's were fitted with electric train heating.

My model is the Bachmann version. In fact, it is the retooled second version Bachmann released. Like the Class 44, Bachmann had omitted the the prominent seam line around the nose and the exhaust port on the roof. The second version corrected these faults. My particular version is of the earlier batch 'split headcode' type in BR Green. It certainly looks better than the original version, but I'm not convinced by the rendition of the headcode panels. However, like most Bachmann products, it runs well.

The first RTR model of a Class 45 was released by Mainline Railways in 1980. Both the 'split' and 'centre' headcode versions were produced. The body moulding was good for its time and did feature the correct nose seam lines and exhaust port! Unfortunately the drive mechanism wasn't very robust and were usually poor runners until they finally gave up. Another problem was that the buffer beam was attached to the body rather than the bogies. MTK made kits of the Class 45. Heljan announced their intention to produce a Class 45 in May 2019. This duly appeared in October 2022 and does look a bit better than the Bachmann version.  Unfortunately this model also has some flaws and is not the hoped for definitive model.