Steve Johnson Modelmaker
|
BREL Class
58 Co-Co Diesel-Electric
The Heljan Class 58 The Class 58 was designed for heavy freight trains by British Rail, entering service in 1983. It differs from the usual British designs by adopting a modular approach with full width cabs and narrow equipment bonnet. There was also a hope that it would do well as an export locomotive. A total of 50 were built at Doncaster Works. With the downturn in coal and other traffic, other work was found for them abroad in 2000, with examples working in Spain, France and The Netherlands. Although the class was expected to have a long service life, the introduction of the Class 66 by EWS saw all the class withdrawn by 2002. Five locomotives were preserved. Thirty-six ended up being exported to France and Spain, where most of them are now n store. The remainder were scrapped. The first model of a Class 58 was released by Hornby in 1982. I had one of these models and for the time, I thought it was quite good. If anything, it was only let down by the Ringfield motor. Heljan released a model in 2008 and it is this model that I now run. In some ways it wasn't a great improvement on the Hornby version bodywise. The drive mechanism and running qualities are much better though. I just feel some of the bodyside grilles and vents could have been better rendered.
The first Class 58 was released by Hornby in 1982. Heljan released their model in 2008.
|