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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

DRS ordered fifteen Class 68's in January 2012. Based on the Vossloh Eurolight locomotives, the British version is known as a UKLight. Powered by a 3,800hp Caterpillar diesel, transmission is electric. The first locomotive arrived in January 2014. A further ten locomotives were ordered in September 2014 followed by another order in July 2015 for another seven. This makes a total of thirty two Class 68's.

Notably, Chiltern Railways have sub-leased six locomotives for its Chiltern Mainline service. Unlike the DRS loco's, these are painted in Chiltern's silver/grey livery.

The locomotives are all named, mostly after Naval Warships.

Dapol were fairly quick off the mark at announcing a model of this class in October 2013. The model will be produced in DRS 'Compass' livery and Chiltern silver/grey. The models were finally delivered in February 2017.

My version is the DRS liveried 68 005 'Defiant'. The first thing you notice is the weight of the model, it is very heavy. Detailing and decoration are very good and an improvement on some of the previous Dapol offerings. I think my nameplate is a bit wonky though! Etched grilles are used and give the model a more 3D look. The buffers however, although sprung, do not want to sit straight. However, it is an extremely good looking model, perhaps one of the best diesels produced to date!

Performance is nice and smooth. The model is fitted with the air dam/obstacle deflector at one end and coupling at the other. A bag of bits contains the other air dam/obstacle deflector. Working lights are also provided and light up nicely at slow speed on dc with a number of switches under the removable silencer to control various setups. One novel feature is the working Halo Lights. These are additional light lights on the bottom two markers that form a ring around the main marker light.

DCC

A 21 pin MTC DCC socket is provided and Dapol recommend several different types. I chose to go with the TCS EU621X six function decoder. The use of a six function decoder allows a number of different lighting effects.

The DCC Guide sheet provided shows how to set up the AUX feeds to get the different effects along with switch positions. I configured mine the following way:

F0 controls the Number 1 end white head and red tail lights

F1 controls the Number 2 end white head and red tail lights

F2 controls the Halo Lights directionally.

To do this, the switches on top of the circuit board have to be put into specific positions. These are:

Switch 1 - Position 1

Switch 2 - Position 1

Switch 3 - Position 2

The AUX outputs of the EU621X also have to be configured. I use JMRI Decoder Pro, which makes setup very easy on an intuitive user interface. So, I have done this the following way using the Function Remapping screen and the Lights screen to alter the 'Wire Timing' function:

AUX 1 (White) set to F0(f) to function on running forward

AUX 2 (Yellow) set to F0(r) to function on running reverse

AUX 3 (Green) remapped to F1 to function on running forward

AUX 4 (Purple) remapped to F1 to function on running reverse

AUX 5 (Brown) remapped to F2 to function on running forward

AUX 6 (Pink) remapped to F2 to function on running reverse

This now gives the following lighting effects.

F0 will switch the head and tail lights on and off. The will swap around when the direction is changed. The cab light is lit in the forward direction cab. F1 is not used as such. F2 will switch the Halo lights on and off on the forward cab. If the head and tail lights are switched off (F0), then just the Halo Lights are on and an illuminated ring can be seen surrounding the main light. I configured and labelled the JMRI Throttle to just show Main Lights and Halo Lights.

There are other ways of setting the lights up, with some involving rewiring. I have just kept it simple for now, although it would be nice to turn the cab lights off by DCC. They can of course be turned off by changing SW1 and SW2 to the centre position 2.