Steve Johnson Modelmaker
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Brush Class
60 Co-Co Diesel-Electric The Class 60 was ordered by British Rail in 1987 in response to the poor reliability of the Class 56. Designed for use on heavy freight trains, the contract for 100 locomotives was given to Brush Traction. The first locomotive was delivered in 1989, but would not go into service until late 1990 after numerous technical issues had been dealt with. The Class 60 is powered by a Mirrlees Blackstone 8MB275T eight cylinder engine developing 3,100bhp. The output of the Brush alternator is rectified and drives the six separately excited (SEPEX) DC traction motors. All 100 locomotives were named and were delivered in Railfreight Sector triple grey livery with yellow cabs. The class was divided between the various sectors and carried the appropriate markings. With privatisation in 1994, the class was split between Mainline Freight, LoadHaul and Transrail. These companies were bought up by English, Welsh and Scottish Railways (EWS) along with most other British freight operators in 1996. EWS repainted most of them into their red and gold livery over a long period. EWS were not particularly impressed with the class and they saw little work after the delivery of the Class 66. The first locomotive was scrapped in 2020 and others have found work with other operators, including EWS's successor DB Schenker. The first model I had was the Lima version of 1990. Although it had Lima's pancake motor, the body was actually quite good for the time. A number of detailing kits were available from the likes of A1 Models and Shawplan. I opted to fit some of the Shawplan detailing, which included etched grilles and moulded detail which is quite visible through the side grilles on the real locomotives. This was all fitted without having to repaint the locomotive. It certainly improved the looks and I kept the model until the release if the Hornby version. The model I now use is the Hornby release of 2006. This is from the period when Hornby markedly improved their models and their Class 60 is one of their best attempts. It has a central can motor driving gear towers on both bogies via flywheels to all wheels. This improves the performance considerably over the Lima version. It also has working lights and finely etched grilles that also reveal the internal detail. I like all my models to be in their original livery, this one being in the original Railfreight triple grey livery. I'm very pleased with it and ranks as one of Hornby's better efforts. The Lima model was released in 1990. In 2006, Hornby released their version of the Class 60. An upgraded version of the Hornby model was released in 2022 featuring a 21 pin DCC socket.
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